<p>Social life, academics, etc. I'm sure there's already posts about this but I don't feel like searching:))</p>
<p>Basically, are you loving it or what?</p>
<p>I’m a first year Biology major at Eleanor Roosevelt College and I feel like coming to UCSD is one of the best decisions I ever made.</p>
<p>Social Life-
If you put in the effort to make friends there is no reason you shouldn’t have a good time with them. I think people here are really friendly for the most part. Regardless, you can always find something to do on the weekends. The most social part of campus is probably I-House where the international students live. The balance of academics and social time here is optimal for me personally. I’m good partying about once a week just Friday and Saturday nights. Any more and I start feeling kind of unproductive. If you want more social opportunities, you should look into joining Greek life. From what I hear from my Greek friends, Greek life at UCSD is a lot more laid-back. There aren’t strict quotas for participation points and only a few mandatory events a year so you can participate in whatever capacity you feel you have the time for. If you don’t have a car on campus you might have a hard time getting around as La Jolla is sort of an insular community and out of the way of some of the more “fun” parts of San Diego. Within walking/university shuttling distance of school are two movie theaters, the UTC shopping center and ice rink, Blacks Beach, La Jolla Shores Beach, the Birch Aquarium, and the Cliffs<–highly recommend. </p>
<p>Academics-
The biology and chemistry departments and the engineering school are all very strong and have a good amount of recourses devoted to them. Other programs like Cognitive Science (first one of its kind in the nation, I believe), Economics and Psychology that UCSD isn’t necessarily well known for are also very good. The political science program here is nationally ranked as is the dance program. However, there is significantly less attention and funding devoted to the humanities and social sciences. Some department only have one faculty member on staff and keep getting their funds cut. In that sense, UCSD is not necessarily the most well rounded of schools. </p>
<p>General-
I like the college system. It really makes the university seem smaller in terms of people. I also really like the campus. Its so big (in terms of acreage) and contains so many random interesting things like underground tunnels and the eucalyptus grove. Also, the sheer size of the campus makes it really hard to gain the freshman 15.</p>
<p>Great, thanks so much for the info!</p>
<p>these are a little old, but check them out (first 6 videos)[UCSD</a> Videos - All Videos](<a href=“http://www.theu.com/college_videos_list/university_of_california_san_diego]UCSD”>http://www.theu.com/college_videos_list/university_of_california_san_diego)</p>
<p>^Dear god. The U is ridiculous. I hardly believe that some of those people are actually students. Please don’t believe what you hear from that.</p>
<p>Really? Damn it seems my info isnt reliable. What did you consider bull**** ? and also what is UCSD really like then?</p>
<p>^I mean, I guess it’s not THAT terrible, but some of the things on there are straight up lies. Such as “You don’t really meet people from other colleges because you’ll be taking GEs for your first two years and you only take GEs with people in your college”. That’s not even remotely true. THE ONLY CLASSES YOU TAKE WITH ONLY PEOPLE FROM YOUR COLLEGE IS YOUR WRITING CLASSES. Let me repeat that again just if anybody was unsure. THE ONLY CLASSES YOU TAKE WITH ONLY PEOPLE FROM YOUR COLLEGE IS YOUR COLLEGE’S WRITING CLASSES. So assuming you take more than one class per quarter, you will meet people from other colleges. I mean, why would she say that? It’s just not true at all and she knows it. Other things that stuck out. </p>
<p>“In Warren and Sixth you get your own bathroom with your room.”
That’s a lie. </p>
<p>“Muir doesn’t have any GE requirements”.
What the ****? </p>
<p>“Revelle is the oldest college on campus so we have a lot of prestige”
Prestige for what? Is HUM so superior to other writing classes?</p>
<p>“Professors aren’t really here to teach and they’re not that good”
I think the professors here are fantastic for the most part and put huge amounts of effort into teaching and being available for students.</p>
<p>“UCSD is 10 minutes from downtown San Diego”
More like 15-20, but that’s not that big of a deal.</p>
<p>“Housing guaranteed all four years: Yes”</p>
<p>Well, ERC kids take MMW only with other ERC kids.
But yeah, pretty much everything else is integrated.</p>
<p>Hahaha…$KingsElite$ just killed those quotes; nice!</p>
<p>I don’t know about that website either, but I have found the following website quite useful with the following caveats:</p>
<p>1) put less weight on 1st year student comments than on 2nd, 3rd year students
2) put ZERO weight on reviews by 1st yr. students still in their 1st quarter/semester, who haven’t even seen what a grading curve looks like and are still on their “honeymoon”.
3) put much weight on the well written, articulate, detailed reviews by upperclassmen (or at least sophomores)
4) put no weight on terse, poorly written reviews full of grammatical errors and illogic.</p>
<p>w w w. s t u d e n t s r e v i e w . c o m (of course take out all the spaces)</p>
<p>Im going to try to fill in the few details that operatic didnt provide in their excellent response. </p>
<p>Social Life – Don’t let the “UC Socially Dead” stereotype perturb you. Social life at ANY college or university is what you make of it. Honestly, with 16,000 + undergraduates, it’s very difficult to not find a niche. You have to keep your eyes open during Welcome Week, however, because after the Welcome Week bonanza like Week 3 or 4 things quiet down on Library Walk and you don’t hear about all the opportunities available on campus as often. That is of course why they let you go for a week without class (Week 0); to give you time to settle into the campus and find people of your wavelength. People will always be flyering though. There are always ways to branch out. </p>
<p>I personally got really bored after Welcome Week, so I joined a co-ed fraternity that really molded my first quarter as a college freshman…I wouldn’t recommend doing that unless you’re sure in your ability to reconnect with people the following quarter because pledging takes up a hell of a lot of time. I definitely do not regret it though; the frat gave me a good place to start networking, and as a freshmen it’s always nice to make connections with third and fourth years who know more about the university than you do. And there are always other orgs or activities that you can do or join that require less time commitment than a co-ed frat or Greek life. Of course, there will always be things going down in the dorms/on campus. You just have to know where to look, but keep in mind a lot of wild on-campus stuff gets rolled…if you like to party, overall it’s safer to party off-campus (but in that case, find trust-worthy people who are responsible about organizing DD’s). If you don’t like to party, there are also people for you. Religious? There are many, many religious fellowships you can join on campus. That’s one of the perks of being at a bigger school: people of varying interests. </p>
<p>Academics I wont go into detail in this aspect of UCSD because there are loads of statistics online as well as on CC and the strength of a UC in academics varies depending on your major. </p>
<p>General (on-campus vibe, in retrospect) There are two ways of looking at the UCSD 6 college system. One way is to see it as a Hogwarts type of organizing a school. College pride is always fun, and being in a college gives you a useful icebreaker. You take the same writing courses as the people in your college, so at the very least you can make friends with people in your college, who also live with you and most likely frequent the same dining hall as you do. On the other hand, the six colleges does make the campus wayyyy bigger than it needs to be because the housing is so spread apart, but I find that this makes the campus a lot more interesting to walk aroundgives you a unique way of figuring out where you are on campus: Oh, York Hall? Thats in Revelle. Oh, Pepper Canyon? Thats in Sixth. Yeah, yeah, lame dialogue, but you get my drift. Additionally, the six colleges make UCSD a lot more broken up than most colleges. I HEARD that this was because when UCSD was being built in the 60s, they wanted to avoid the possibility of a student uprising (thanks, Cal) so they purposely divided up their campus as to make it a lot more difficult for students to organize a revolt against administration. What the six colleges are touted as being at UCSD are smaller communities within the UC to make the university seem a lot smaller than it really is, and that is true to some extent. I mean, I do find Marshall to be more me than UCSD as a whole, which is gigantic and includes not only undergraduates but graduates and the extension as well. It also makes you feel a little less lost at first because you feel you belong somewhere already the first time you step on campus. </p>
<p>I DEFINITELY agree with operatic about the size of the campus. SO MUCH WALKING! NOT a bad thing though, and there are ways to get around walking everywhere, like biking or skateboarding/longboarding or taking the shuttle which goes around campus in a loop or befriending one of those people who get to ride around in a cart all around campus. But yeah, walking around really does help you ward off the freshmen 15, as well as the fact that the dining plan charges you per item at the dining halls rather than per every time you visit the dining hall. Its NOT a buffet style like a lot of UCs, so youre limited in what you can eat every time you go to the dining hall unless you ignore the fact that you only have 2,000 something dining points for the whole year and gorge yourself fall quarter but then youll starve the rest of the year. Some people hardly use their dining points, but they always start selling stuff in the markets at the end of the year that you can splurge your dining points on if you happen to have any leftover Spring Quarter. ALSO, RIMAC is such a nice gym and you already have to pay to use it in your fees, so why not exercise regularly? Main Gym in Revelle is decent, too. </p>
<p>Theres a lot more I can say, but I dont want to make this review too long. So if you have any more questions just message me. My perspective is that of a freshman winding down on the first year, so memories of stepping on campus for the first time are still fresh, as are initial impressions of the college and struggling to make friends and all that.</p>
<p>The minimal walking you do around campus will do hardly anything towards the freshman 15. Don’t kid yourselves.</p>
<p>Wow, people seem to have some deep hatred for UCSD on students review.</p>
<p>@ Kings Elite: Helped me =P I thought it was a lot of walking and I waitressed all throughout high school. And visiting other UC’s made me realize just how huge UCSD is compared to them. My first week of classes my iPhone was glued to my hand because I used the UCSD iPhone app to get around haha.</p>
<p>Depends on how much you eat, too. I found out coming back from Thanksgiving break that I had lost about ten pounds, without exercise at RIMAC…just from darting back and forth between classes and staying active and basically only using my dorm to sleep. Still haven’t gained back and probably still losing now that I work out regularly and my hatred for dining hall food builds as this year ends. That could just be me though. </p>
<p>@ Adamantoise: Yeah…never liked going there for a perspective on UCSD. CC offered me more hope after I turned in my SIR, haha. CC also ended up being more accurate for the most part so far.</p>
<p>^Fair enough. I’m not saying it’s not helpful, but it isn’t going to make up for crappy eating habits. I just want to avoid hearing things like “I walked over a mile today, time to go eat a pint of Ben & Jerry’s!” That’s definitely not the way to lost weight. I also hate hearing “I would go to RIMAC if it wasn’t at the top of that gigantic hill”. God forbid you exercise on your way to exercise.</p>
<p>^ I dont know how many times I’ve heard my friends say that about RIMAC. It drives me crazy!</p>
<p>@ $Kings: Oh, I definitely agree with you about that. I have friends who gained 15+ pounds due to “stress”. When I ask them why they don’t go to RIMAC, they say it’s because it’s too far. Oh, give me a break. Although I might have been more reluctant to go regularly had I gotten placed in a college farther away from the gym (I live in Marshall), that would not have stopped me from using the gym which I ALREADY PAY FOR. Plus, the rec classes are pretty cool and UCSD students get discounts. And exercise alleviates stress, so I don’t know about the legitimacy of that excuse…haha. </p>
<p>Food is just very accessible as a freshman…everyone hits up Goody’s at midnight or something to fulfill late night cravings. And there aren’t any parents berating you about your eating habits, so the freedom can be exhilarating :P.</p>
<p>Is there a lot of stuff for under21 students to do? I’ve heard that San Diego is super strict about IDs</p>
<p>^Legoland.</p>