I am going to attend UCSD this coming fall and I was wondering what life is going to be like there. From research, I got mixed opinions on what the social scene and academics are like. I’m especially interested to here what people do with their free time, how intense the classes are (I will be a Comp Eng major), and how accessible San Diego and La Jolla are. Also, I visited the campus recently on a weekend and I was surprised to find that it was almost deserted. Is this normal for weekends at UCSD? If so, then are people just out in the city/beach or are people just introverted and don’t want to come outside?
I can’t speak for the social scene at UCSD, but La Jolla is pretty much right in your backyard (couple miles away). San Diego is a short drive away on the 5 (having a car would be beneficial). Torrey pines and plenty of hiking trails nearby campus. Birch aquarium is right across the street.
Most of the action is in San Diego (touristy things/events), Mission Valley (shopping), and Mission Beach (beach). As I mentioned earlier, having a car would make your experience there much better.
UCSD is not your typical self-contained college… most of the fun stuff is off campus. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with that either, depending on what you are looking to get out of your experience. San Diego is an awesome place, so you shouldn’t run out of things to do!
You can’t really judge how social students are by visiting a campus on one weekend. For one thing, how recent is recent? If it was very recently, you may have been there at the height of midterms or right after Sun God. If you were there a month or so ago, you may have been there during spring break or finals. Were you there in the morning? Most students are probably sleeping.
And also, most students are just… living their lives. Think about what you might do on a weekend. Huge crowds of students aren’t going to be hanging out around the campus. Many will be off campus, perhaps eating out with friends or hiking or at the beach or in the city or seeing a movie or whatever. Some students work. Some students study. Some students sleep in late. Many upperclassmen live off campus and don’t normally come on campus during the weekends. Some students have a lazy weekend indoors. Some students visit home on weekends. UCSD is a big campus–you’re typically not going to find tons of students just sitting around outside doing nothing. They’re more likely to actually be doing something.
It’s one of the happiest campus according to Wikipedia. I think students there are chilled. Mine has time to do a few sports and she enjoys the outdoors. Computer Engineering is not as tough as people make it out to be because there is 23-25% of engineering students with GPA above 3.5. These information and statistics are from UCSD website. And it’s not commuter school either, more than 50% stay on campus, I just don’t have the specific percentage number. Most likely some students live within a few hours of home so they may go home for whatever reasons. So weekends are not a clear indication of anything. Most likely, the students don’t get up until noon or later, like most students trying to catch up on sleep.