<p>People (about 15-20) at my school have this to say about UCI:</p>
<ul>
<li>too many quiet boring asians</li>
<li>nothing to do</li>
<li>"unknown" school</li>
<li>"Where the hell is Irvine?"</li>
<li>only better than UCR/UCSC</li>
<li>And I quote, three girls going to UCSB/UCD: "who the hell would go to UCI?"</li>
</ul>
<p>I'm almost ashamed to tell them that I'm going there because of their negative comments. Also, I don't know anyone else going to UCI (which isn't surprising, I'm in the Bay Area).</p>
<p>Now I know what they are saying is ignorant and retarded teenage ****, but what exactly gave UCI such a bad rep? Isn't the purpose of college to learn? It seems everyone is obsessed with social lives.</p>
<p>Whoever said that is pretty dubm and stuck up: D UCI is a great school right by the beach. I dont know how you can say there is nothing to do there. Its close to everythign too.</p>
<p>ignorance is the correct word. i live in the south california, 20 minutes drive from uci. you have to put everything into perspective. you live in the bay area; of course the people around you have are entitled to their opinions, however the actual standing they have on those opinions , as to the reality of irvine, are very limited. of course they don't know what they can do down here; that's probably mostly because they've never been down here.</p>
<p>same goes for people at my school. kids talk about college all the time. most people at my school have a low opinion of ucd and ucsbl. no one is my school is going to ucd but 7ish are going to ucsb. students at my school bad mouth those two schools all the time. they say that 'ucd is out in the middle of absolutely no where,' '1/4 people at the ucsb has stds, it's the biggest uc party school.' yeah, students at my school are also entitled to their opinions, however again.. this is probably due to their bias because we live in the south.</p>
<p>I agree with all the bullet points that you wrote except for: UCI is an unknown school and that it is only better than UCR and UCSC. UCI is a great school academically speaking, but living in the City of Irvine for 12 years, the City and the Campus suck. Boring as hell. The campus is not very nice either. But it is still a good school for academics (at least from what i've heard from the 50 or so friends i have there)</p>
<p>I am not against UCI whatsoever (I even applied late to it), however, what I want to know is: why is it so highly ranked??</p>
<p>I mean, I like the top-40 ranking... but they don't place high on anything other than a paltry #49 for engineering. What's up? Why does USNews give them a #40 national ranking?</p>
<p>Pffft. When I told some people I was considering Davis they all said "WHY DO YOU WANT TO BE WITH THE COWS??" and then here on this message board it's like "Davis is so prestigious and wonderful blah blah" I dunno what to think. I chose Irvine because I knew it would be better for me. Also, the kids I know at UC Irvine have thriving social lives so I'm sure it isn't THAT dead. Trust me.</p>
<p>Like someone mentioned before, they don't know much about Irvine so they judge it. Same with me. I don't know what's so great about UCSC, UCD, UCM, so I form an opinion:</p>
<p>"D is farmland"
"SC is the Riverside of the north"
"M has more cows than students"</p>
<p>blah blah blah etc. You won't really know about a college and the city it's in until you've visited it. I live in LA and have only been to Irvine 3 times. I admit, the area isn't as lively as LA but it's still a decent city. It's half-dead, yes. But there's a mall nearby, the beach, and more. Keep your head up. It's not the deadest in the world.</p>
<p>Hey tacobell, I'm glad you brought this up. I want to voice my opinion here.</p>
<p>First off, I want to say I used to think UCI was a lower end school. Honestly, I thought those who got rejected to ucb, ucla, ucsd, and ucd ended up at uci (mostly asians too). I'm from north california and UCI seems to look less prestigious than UCD. Up here, many belittle UCI. After reseaching on my own, I figured UCI is not as bad as I thought. </p>
<p>There is, however, a high rate of Asian students at UCI. This turns off a lot of people. Some people up north also criticize UCD for being "in the middle of nowhere with cows," but it is still favored up here. After gathering some information, UCD and UCI seem to basically be fairly equal (in my eyes) in their own ways. The north favors UCD mostly because: we see more UCD students that are successful, it is closer which means more people from the north would attend UCD, and it is more "chill" and "comfortable." I'm pretty sure this would apply to UCI in different ways down south. </p>
<p>Because UCI is a generally new school (40+ years), and it didn't jump rankings like UCSD, it still partially holds the little bad reputation most new schools acquire. UCD and UCSB are much older (more than 2x) so I believe it's only natural UCI gets the bad rep. I'm also somewhat ashamed about telling people I'm going to UCI, but I still tell everyone. I definitely know how you feel tacobell. I think we need to try to let everything go as much as possible since we will most likely enjoy our stay at UCI. I'm sure it is difficult to develop a moderate hate for UCI after attending it.</p>
<p>UCI seems to hold a bunch of opportunities though. It has its strong points that are different from the other mid-tier schools. I've been reading about a lot of programs at UCI, and it seems to hold equal promises. I've finally found peace in going to UCI, and I'm looking forward to it since I really want to dive into my major. I know I've repeated some people in the thread, but I'm a little too lazy to go crazy editing myself. I'm going to voice some pride in UCI now and defend myself righteously to make me feel good about myself =].</p>
<p>A girl from my CC who moved from Sacramento asked me where I was transferring to. I told her I was going to UCI when she looked at me, "...Why UCI?" I said that UCI was convenient and fitting for me in so many ways, when she interrupted me again with a "--Yeah, but why UCI?" Talk about cocky...Then she started to proudly tell me about how she was accepted to Davis out of high school but didn't go because she decided to transfer to SD instead (and I should care because...?). I was pretty ****ed off by her but I didn't let it get to me too much. There's just so much bias between SoCal/UCI and NorCal/UCD.</p>
<p>Yea there is definitely bias. I think we should best let them all slide and just defend ourselves. I believe it's not worth being down about anymore. They will know the truth when the time comes, maybe when you come close to these people in terms of wellbeing after college =]! STUDY HARD. You can achieve anything at a UC.</p>
<p>I remember my friend asking me once on which school is better, UCI or UCD and I replied "Depends on which school you are biased towards to." It seems like public rankings dont seem to matter nowadays.</p>
<p>But what I want to say has already been said, the Asian population at Irvine turns off a lot of people.</p>
<p>gosh, all this talk makes me wonder if i made the right decision about davis. i think both schools are the same academically but i feel like so-cal has more to offer. don't u think the surrounding and uci campus is better?</p>