I do not understand. Everyone I tell I am going to UCR, claims it is ghetto, in downtown Riverside, and hot. And they say that the education is lower than all of the other UC’s besides Merced.
This kind of hurts my feelings, as logistically speaking, UCR would make the most sense for me, and now since they gave me a scholarship, I really am going to go here.
Why does UCR have this bad reputation to other people’s eyes?
Well, it’s just people being stereotypical lol. It’s not that bad at all. Well UCR used to be in the bottom but it’s catching up especially with new programs like UCR SOM and STEM researches. It’s a relative smaller school than other UCs but it doesn’t really matter. Yeah Riverside is a ghetto area but do give u a lot of opportunities that other UCs are not sufficient in. It’s a great choice tbh, plus ppl here r quite relaxing and friendly. UCR is definitely rapidly improving tbh
If this school were near the coast, it would be hammered with applications.
The inland location tends to discount all of its other positive attributes. It’s a good school in a weak location.
Don’t listen to others: you’ll get your classes and degrees in less time than some of the other UCs.
First, congratulations on your admission to UC Riverside and scholarship.
Adding to what the above posters said, there are about 3,000 Title IV-eligible, degree-granting four-year colleges and universities in the United States. UC Riverside is part of the University of California (since 1954) and during the past ten years has ranked between 89 and 124 on the US News list of National Universities, which is in the general range of the excellent flagship universities of many other states, including Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina and Utah, and other great schools like Arizona State, Iowa State and Colorado State.
I just looked up the admissions data from 2017. Riverside received almost 45,000 applications and only admitted 57.4%. The admits had an average UC GPA of around 3.8 and ACT of around 27. It was probably even more competitive this year.
You will be surrounded by a lot of very good students, so be prepared to work hard. Take advantage of all of the opportunities, resources and services and build a great college transcript, and your UC degree will take you anywhere you want to go in life.
It’s the whole “UC Rejects” thing; in light of the prestige of the other UCs, UCR is often viewed as a school people only apply to as a backup just in case their preferred UC rejects them. IMO if other UCs weren’t such well-regarded and sought-after schools people wouldn’t be making fun of UCR (I have no real evidence to support this, other than the fact that I haven’t seen people hate on any CSUs the way people hate on UCR, despite many of them being less successful in terms of things like graduation and retention rates).
That being said, people judging UCR by its reputation doesn’t change the fact that many great students go to UCR. It’s clearly a quality institution; just look around the UCR website: you’ll see that many of its students earn prestigious outside awards/scholarships or take advantage of opportunities like UCDC or University Honors. Just goes to show that college is whatever you make of it. Simply going to UCR will not define who you are as a student; it’s what you do that matters.
UC Riverside has top notch programs (many in Top 100 Nationally on US News Ranks) and great people! Is growing faster than ANY OTHER UC and moving up the ranks! The main reason why it, Merced, and Davis get made fun of is because of “crappier” inland locations for those wanting to be by the “big city” or beach. They stopped taking redirects about 10 years ago. Average GPA is now 3.8, 27 ACT, and 1190 SAT, with a 57% student acceptance rate and will be getting tougher next and each following year…definitely no walk in the park!! Graduating from UC Riverside was one of the best decisions of my life!!
That being said, you can also get a great education at any CSU (more affordable) if you apply yourself. Some majors at select locations better than UC’s. However, as a general rule ALL UC’s (lower, mid, and high tier) are on a higher level than Cal States with the University of California System holding national and worldwide recognition.
Don’t listen to others and enjoy your time at UCR! I love UCR as I liked how small the campus was and just how new/pretty the campus was. I ended up going to UCD because it was closer to home but UCR was actually my first choice of all the schools I applied to last fall.
I know how you feel when people try to put you down for going to UCR. I used to have that mentality too when I had friends telling me they picked UCR over a school like UCSD. I couldn’t help but wonder why when UCSD has a way better reputation than UCR. However, after visiting the campus and looking at the programs, I kind of realized that it didn’t matter which UC you went to because essentially, you’re still getting a good education as it’s still a UC after all. The school is slowly climbing up and getting a better reputation as time goes on. I actually had a friend (I don’t really talk to him anymore) but he’d always bag on me for loving UCR more than UCD and telling me I shouldn’t even belong at UCD. He even told me I should transfer to UCR and fail at life because I’d be transferring to a low tier UC and not get job offers because UCR is so bad. He told me this back in January. Obviously I’m not going to transfer out of UCD because of financial reasons and I don’t want to waste my time transferring back and forth (I spent three years at CC), I just wana graduate at this point. But it definitely hurts and I stopped talking to the guy. Again, just have fun at UCR and forgot what others say about the school. You’ll love it there! 