Ah...UCSD. I am a graduate of the class of 2000 from Warren college at UCSD. I have many fond memories of my four years there, but there were things that I would have changed.

To start, I will give you a small background of the school. I will then explain how the background plays a BIG part in life at the University. Many years ago the land where UCSD is, used to be Camp Matthews, a Marine corps base/rifle range. The marine corps donated the land to the state to build a university on. This land that UCSD is built on is in the middle of La Jolla CA, very close to the beach. A very rich town, filled with snobby elders. The university campus is split up into five colleges(soon to be six). The campus is extremely large and spread out. That is my brief on the School background...now on to the review.

As a freshman living on campus, life is not what one expects. UCSD, being split up into five different colleges, is supposed to promote closeness between the students of the individual colleges. The only thing that having five separate colleges does, is SPLIT up the university. All five colleges have different graduation requirements, hence some have harder classes, and many more to take. Where as others only have a few requirements.

The school keeps admitting more and more students each year. It is extremely difficult to even get into required courses. Most undergraduate classes are so big(300-400 students) that it is very hard to get to know anyone in the class. It is extremely difficult to get to know your professors or to even seek help. TA's are assigned to each class, but most of the time they are just upperclassmen that have taken the course before. They don't know HOW to teach it.

UCSD is known for its famous guest lecturers. The only problem with this, is that some of them hardly speak English. Do you know how hard it is to learn chemistry alone? But then you can hardly understand what your professor is saying? PLEASE! Or better yet, you get a professor who decides to completely change what the course is about once it starts. For example, I took a class that was supposed to be music of America. The general catalog said it was about music in the US from the 20's on. Once I got to class, the professor tells us she would much rather teach about music of the AMERICAS. Great! There was not one song in ENGLISH the whole quarter.

Living on campus for freshman might seem convenient, but some get stuck living in renovated old BARRACKS as a dorm room. These buildings are older than some of the professors! They need to be condemned. Just a small side note, the theatre dept used to use an old building left over from the marine base as their black box theatre for small productions and cabarets.

The UCSD campus has absolutely no social life, unlike other well known San Diego campuses. Due to the fact that UCSD lies in La Jolla, it is not allowed to have fraternity or sorority houses anywhere near the campus. The city of La Jolla outlaws it. Get this, La Jolla has a law that states that a house with more than 4 males living in it is considered a gang house. Better yet, they have another law that states that a house with more than 4 females living in it is considered a BROTHEL! The campus is very strict about parties in the dorms or the on campus apartments. They hire rent a cops and CSO's(campus security officers) to issue tickets to students who disobey.

The campus is large and very spread out. It takes almost 15 minutes to drive a complete loop around the entire campus. The bad thing about this is, depending on what college you live in, you may have a 15-20 min walk to your classes from your dorm. How would you like that for an 8 o'clock class?

One of the best parts of the university is their Shuttle system. I must say I am a little biased on this subject since I drove shuttles for three years there. They have FREE shuttles that drive around campus and go from campus to other UCSD affiliated venues such as the Scripps Institute or to the Medical Center near downtown San Diego. When holidays come, students can take a free shuttle to and from the airports! The service is awesome, and sure make life easier when you have a 30 pound back pack full of books and a class all the way across campus.

UCSD is a very good school for academics, but they have no sports that promote school spirit what so ever. First off, they are a division 3 school, so they don't play any well known schools. They have no football team, and the sports teams they do have, aren't very good(Except the women's soccer).

I wouldn't trade my 4 years at UCSD for anything, but I learned to make friends outside of school and live with the drawbacks presented previously. If you are looking for a party school, pack your bags and go home. If you are looking for an academically challenging school, this is your place!



Recommended: Yes