<li><p>I read that class sizes can be huge even for seniors. It would be very helpful to hear from current UCI students in various majors about your own experiences in various classes at different levels from freshman to seniors. For honors students, I understand class sizes are smaller. Are there honors classes at the upper division levels in the various majors, and how big are the class sizes?</p></li>
<li><p>Also, how competitive are the students? Is it a cut-throat kind of place, or do students help each other? From my readings of the postings, it sounds like premed students are worried about grad school a lot and so may be very competitive. </p></li>
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<p>I am looking for an academically challenging environment that is also nurturing – e.g. classmates who would take time to explore ideas together instead of being focused primarily on passing exams. Would UCI be a place for someone who will only be 15, is very very shy, and very excited about ideas in many areas such as math, chemistry, music, poetry, and computing. </p>
<p>I'm a freshman bio major right now. The core classes for the major you'll take freshman year, like for bio and chem are huge...400 students or so. and calc about 60 students. But many of the lectures require you to take a discussion class which have only 30 students. Writing classes are only about 30 students as well; reminds me of high school :D Here's a link to our Searchable Schedule of Classes.. <a href="http://websoc.reg.uci.edu/perl/WebSoc%5B/url%5D">http://websoc.reg.uci.edu/perl/WebSoc</a> </p>
<p>15?! wowza...well as for competitiveness at uci.. i don't really feel it. some may, but i don't. Maybe because I always study with my hallmates and we help each other out. There are academically themed housing available at uci. :D</p>
<p>Classes as a freshmen won't be as small. Lectures are gunna have a few hundred people in them. But as the previous poster said, discussions are smaller. There is the Campuswide Honors Program for approximately the top 3% of those admitted to UCI. Also, there are many opportunities for research and it is encouraged. You can do a senior thesis too and graduate with departmental honors. This isn't that unique to UCI though, as you can do this at most colleges.</p>
<p>Competitive is pretty relative. UCI (and even more so for the CHP students) has some super overachiever types but there are also some people who don't care as much. This happens at all colleges though.</p>
<p>BTW, I'm a second year UCI political science/spanish(minor) in the CHP and enjoying my time here. If you have any more questions about UCI or CHP I'll try to answer them the best I can.</p>
<p>Thanks so much! I am currently a junior and looking ahead to where I may go to college. My parents and I are also evaluating whether it is best to remain in high school a 5th year so I'll be older before going to college. If I do join UCI/CHP, I would let you know and sure would appreciate your help navigating the college.</p>
<p>What is the profile of the CHP student? Range of SATs, etc.. Just to get an idea.</p>
<p>I have never seen a 25-75% range of SAT scores or average GPA for CHP. But I do know many CHPers. People in the CHP tend to be very smart, driven people (although not everyone...some people peak in high school and then don't dominate college quite the same way). My honors hall last year had 5 valedictorians (thats just that I know of) in the hall of 51. And most everyone else was right up at the very top of their high school class. I know people who got into caltech..and ivies etc.</p>
<p>Basically CHP people tend to be about the same caliber as students at Cal, UCLA..etc. However, the community is much smaller. For instance, there are about 160 incoming freshmen CHPers and it has more of a community within it. There are of course some people who are CHP but don't really associate with it. But basically you have a built in community from the start if you're CHP and you want to take advantage of it. For instance, there are honors dorms etc and various social things that it puts on.</p>
<p>Typically a CHP student has about a 4.3 GPA with a SAT (the old version) of 1430-1440. I'm not sure how that translates to the new SAT, but I guess you can do a straight conversion and say it's roughly equivalent to a 2160.</p>
<p>Yackityack is right...just because you are in CHP doesn't necessarily mean you'll dominate in college. A lot of people who were smart in high school realize that they have poor study habits and it catches up with them in college. </p>
<p>I know that some people who were on the young end have been in the CHP before. When I was a senior at UCI there were two 14 year old freshmen in the program, both physics majors. One graduated in 3 years and went on to Princeton to do a Ph.D. He's in his fourth year there now. The other one took 4 years to graduate like everyone else and is now doing a Ph.D. at Stanford (and received the top score on his qualifying exams out of all of his cohort at Stanford at the end of the first year). The CHP gave them the support that they needed as young people to succeed in the fast environment of a university.</p>