<p>A bit about me:
- Got accepted to all UCs (except LA)
- Junior in the Nanoengineering program
- Was a Physiology/Neuroscience student first year and switched to Econ/Maths then to Nano beginning of soph
- Lived on campus 2 years (1st year - dorms, 2nd year - apts) and now off-campus
- Taken most of the EE courses for undergrads (required), a couple Nano courses, and finished my GEs
- Off to a nanotech internship this summer
- roommates a Mech Engineer if you have any questions about that area
- another roommate is going onto Dental school next year if you have questions about that, he graduated in 3 years</p>
<p>Some common things to know (Wall of Text alert):
1) No UCSD is not socially dead
- Hardly partied freshman year since I chose the Honors housing program, but did not regret it since I met some really cool and smart people (First year is always a good time, join clubs, go to events, meet people)
- Partied every weekend 2nd year since I lived with people who were like that (And yes engineers can party and still pull off good GPAs)
2) UCSD seems socially dead if you're not proactive since a lot of people leave for the weekends, during the weekdays everyone is inside (studying a bit, playing around/video games/computer games more often), and weekends people usually only throw kickbacks on campus (low key to avoid campus RSO's busting in)
3) Med school is HARD! You may have been the top of your school, but your not going to be the top here. One lackluster quarter full of Bs, one C really hurts your chances. Not to mention Biology degrees don't apply themselves as well in today's workplace. Let's just say that half the students will be getting a B or less in class. And this is in an impacted major that only the best that UCSD applicants get into.
- Though I can say from personal experience, you can still get A's in those classes studying the night before (sometimes a few hours before).
- Just go to every class, take good notes as the professor lectures and PAY ATTENTION (some profs will put random stuff from lecture on midterms), and keep yourself paced on the test (never lose focus and always keep pushing ahead so you have time to double check answers).
- Also, podcasts are pretty useless to study; never used them
- You have to know which class lectures will be more important than studying the book and vice versa (If you study too much, you may not remember everything which really hurts unless you can study each one over the course of a week repeatedly, called spaced learning) - I'm a student of massed learning personally (cramming)
- Also, for CHEM 6A generally studying the book is important (usually only missed a few questions after studying from that)
- For CHEM 6B lectures and actually doing the problems (without looking at the answers helps)
-> one time I had a few hours to study before the first midterm and all I did was chug through the problems (took some time to do some since it required a lot of thinking and remembering from lecture on how to solve just one problem, but once you crack it you'll remember how to do it again for the test), but it paid in dividends on the test getting one of the top 10 scores (of course remembering stuff from lecture helped and skimming textbook)
- For CHEM 6C, study lecture slides and textbook, do the problems and it should be pretty easy (I took Bridges and got 100%s on her tests and so did my friend)
- The textbook practice guide was pretty helpful as were past midterms
4) Warren Writing courses are the worst warren GEs you will take; I recommend asking your TA to critique your essay during OH every time (the critique is not essential, but showing your face to the TA generally leads to a better grade)
5) Physics will be painful, its painful for everyone; If they let you take cheat sheets, then write down all the past quiz qs and solutions (Pretty much all you needed for quizzes); for the finals, I recommend actually knowing how to do the problems (Taking Physics 2d/2b over the summer is better, especially in community colleges, just make sure if you take it in cc that you transfer it ASAP)
6) MATH is generally hard conceptually, but just do problems problems problems and hope you beat the curve; study rigorously for the finals though (unless you get profs that just reuse questions from old midterms/finals)
- Don't rely on the cheat sheets to the point where you don't really do the problems; and by do the problems I mean solving them without looking at the solutions to help you solve them (sure you can do that for some, but if you see yourself doing it most of the time you're doing it wrong)
7) Try and take a CC course over the summer before college to get out of some classes like a math or physics or chem class (anything to avoid classes that can hurt your GPA)
- No one really cares where your classes come from, but most jobs require you to have 3.0+ in engineering, and even more so in research, let alone med/dental/technical/grad schools
8) If you're planning to do research in school, email as many professors as you can when you start school to when you finally get into a research lab (The more emails you send to the same professor the better if they don't reply, but don't spam them!)
- Don't get disheartened if you don't get a reply. Don't expect ANYTHING. 50-100 emails might be necessary.
9) Do as many internships every summer as you can. It helps A TON when applying to jobs, technical schools, grad schools, etc. Especially letters of recs from these places and from professors in your research lab.
10) If you are struggling with a class, try to attend TA OH/professor OH/OASIS workshops. If none of that helps, drop it unless this pushes you back from graduating on time. Getting a W is not a bad thing though if you can drop it in the first four weeks, the better. This is why I recommend taking 4-5 classes a quarter and dropping the one you think will be the hardest before 4th week ends. I did this for a math class, got an easy professor the next time around and got an A instead of a possible B-/C.
- Not recommending this for lower div. courses that are per-requisites for other essential courses for the four-year plan. Stay on track!</p>
I’m currently deciding between UCI and UCSD so absolutely anything that you have to say would help. Thank you!</p>