Question: Is UC Riverside a good school?

[HamSupLo]

University of Civics and Integras

 

[bUnMaNGo]

Originally posted by: BuckleDownBen
Depends on what you want to study. I mean, if you want to study forestry, Humboldt State is probably the best school for in the nation. Overall, I'd have to say that UC Santa Cruz is the worst UC school. From a social perspective, it depends on what you like to do.

I don't see why you guys say that UCSC is the worst UC school... I transferred from UCR to UCSC and have attended UCI and UCLA through the inter-campus visitor program... from what I've found, both the difficulty level and the curve are about the same for most of the classes I've taken (mostly CS)... every school has its geniuses (sp?) and dumbasses... UCLA/UCI/UCR were all flooded with aZn thug wannabes who haven't grown up and still belong in high school. Here at UCSC I actually feel like a minority for once in my life. Not to mention at UCLA/UCI/UCR the majority of my professors were fobs who couldn't even speak english correctly. Same thing goes for the TAs... as far as the faculty here goes, the majority of them got their PhD's from Stanford which is just over the hill, and, from my experience, care a lot more about their students than the faculty that I've dealt with at those other UC's. Now as for UCR being the only UC offering "business" or whatever, I think they're talking about a B.S. in Business Administration, NOT the business schools there. Also, FYI, UCR's AGSM is in the process of "accreditation" or whatever you call it... anyways, back to the "SC is the worst UC" comment... sure, there are hippies around here, bums downtown, and not much to do besides the Boardwalk/beach and the bars downtown, but have any of you seen the campus? It's like going to school in the forest. Buildings surrounded by redwood trees and wildlife all over(deers, rabbits, raccoons, mountain lions, etc). The weather's really nice too- there's nothing like living 5 miles away from the Pacific ocean. There are some really nice views of the Pacific from certain points of campus. It's really a nice place to live- I'm dreading moving back home to the Inland Empire after I graduate next week. Which brings me to my next point-

UCR
The area surrounding Riverside absolutely BLOWS It's deep in the Inland Empire which is a good 50 miles away from the coast, in the valley, so you get a lot of dry desert air... when I went there my allergies totally acted up and the weather was horrible. Easily 100+ in the spring/summer/fall... very smoggy. Everything around there is ghetto... the people, the buildings, the businesses, etc... the only exception being the UV, where they just went through a huge renovation since I left (my g/f goes to UCR so I visit there occasionally... key word being occasionally here- I have her fly up here most of the time ) the UV area is pretty nice... good places to eat/chill. I suppose the school is okay... it's just that the location blows... well if you like dry air, funky water, and living in the ghetto, I suppose UCR is good for you. Not to start any racial conflicts or anything, but I noticed that UCR had the largest population of latino/african-american students. That's just from me walking around on campus and stuff, nothing scientific or anything... also, the surroundings seem to be populated by mostly Latino/African-Americans (in addition to the total student body), which, statistically speaking, would account for the "ghettoness" of Riverside. From my Latin-American Latino Studies class that I'm taking this quarter, I learned that communities populated by Hispanics or African Americans tend to be less developed. I'm sure you guys can find economic studies on that online. Now, onto the actual student body... I've found UCR to be populated by either aZn, vato, or 'awesome dude' punks... they all think they're all that even though they arent... all obnoxious and stuff. Anyways, enough about UCR. On to UCI Oh wait, I forgot one thing- UCR has no hot chicks Except for my gf of course, but that's a biased opinion Another thing I forgot- the library scene in Boys and Girls was filmed at the science library at UCR my sophomore year Oh yet another thing- UCR's men's basketball team is Division I and got owned by UCLA (well, I'm not sure about getting owned, but they lost ) at the beginning of the school year. First year as Div I.

UCI
UCI's a good 15 minute drive from Newport Beach, so it gets a lot of that nice ocean breeze... driving around, its more of an upper-middle class community... it's also flooded by rice rockets from the majority of the student body there. Campus is really nice (except for the older CS and Engineering buildings... the newer engr buildings like the Rockwell one rule) UCI supposedly has one of the best CS programs in the nation (which is why I'm going there for grad school in the fall ) As for the student body, it's like 99.999999999% aZn (well, that might be a little exaggerating) and there are A LOT of HOT aZn chicks around omg... especially around the humanities and social science buildings... but then again, UCI is full of all those aZn thug wannabes who haven't grown out of high school yet, so if you're aZn and fit in to the 'clique' deal, it might be right for you Overall UCI is a really nice school... there's lots to do around there (well, not really, but it's only about < 1hr drive away from LA) plus there's South Coast Plaza, the beach, Irvine Spectrum, Newport Fashion Island, the Block and PCH all within driving range... you can just drive up and down PCH gawking at all the Ferraris and Lamborghinis and all these other exotic cars driving next to you That's what I always do when I go down there. Summer/Fall is gonna be fun

UCLA
Again I'll start out with location- heart of Westwood, right next door to Beverly Hills and Santa Monica, about 15 minutes/half hr away from Santa Monica Beach, so there's that nice ocean breeze again. Really nice campus... lots of movies are filmed on campus. I guess I don't need to talk about the academic programs available at UCLA... reputation should speak for itself. Lots to do around there... walk down to Westwood, go to Santa Monica, BH, etc... self explanatory. Now onto the women- UCLA has the hottest chicks I've ever seen on a UC campus. That speaks for both aZn and white chicks... omg so hot. A lot of them seem kind stuck up though so I don't know about that. Greek life is pretty big at LA too. I guess that's all I can say about UCLA... not much to say about it since you guys should already know about it.

now to conclude, I really don't appreciate that comment about "UCSC being the worst UC"... I actually like it up here a lot better than I did UCR. Additionally, all those SoCal schools were flooded with aZns, and it was nice to get a change of pace around here. Different people like different schools. Also, the ranking of the school depends on the field of study, as buckleben already mentioned. hrmm... I guess I could add a few more comments of other UC's I've visited...

Berkeley
Up in the gay bay... a train ride away from San Francisco... basic city life, where parking is a pain in the ass and you walk wherever you want to go. Lots of places to walk around, but I'm sure it gets old quick. Academics I don't think I need to talk about again, just like UCLA. As for the girls, I heard they're all booty The majority of them at least. Greek life's also pretty big, or so I hear. I guess that's about it.

Davis
Really quiet town, as mentioned before probably the closest to a college town that you can get here in CA. The weather is similar to Riverside, but the surroundings are NICE. Middle class, mostly students living in apartments. Really newly developed stuff, especially around the new Safeway... really good mexican restaurant called Dos Coyotes The new Safeway there owns... it even has a Starbucks inside. Campus is really really flat, just like the rest of the town... you can practically see one end of the town to the other. As mentioned before, close to Sactown (*insert lame cowbell/Kings suck comment here*) and isn't too far away from San Francisco. Spring/summer/fall can get 100+ easily too, winters are really cold. Overall, a pretty nice place to go to school, just not much to do there... downtown has some stuff... I would've gone there if the weather were better.

now to talk about the rent at all these places... ranked in order of cheapness:
UCR- my gf pays ~$900/mo for a 2br/2bath apartment... they hover around that price too
UCD- my friends and cousin pay $1600/mo for a 3br/2ba apartment and a 3story 3br/2ba townhouse respectively. HUGE, and nice places.
UCI- had friends pay anywhere from $1200/mo to $1600/mo for 2br places
UCSC- I pay $1600 for a 2br house that's 3 blocks away from Harbor Beach, fully furnished, utilities included. My other friends pay around $1200 for a 1br... $1400 for a 2br... just expensive stuff around here
UCLA- $1600 for a 2br/2ba easily... I have friends paying >$2k for a place down at Veteran/Santa Monica near the Porsche/Audi service center
Berkeley- expensive. that's all I hear

hope this all helps for all you UC bound Anandtechers. Any more questions? Feel free to PM or post here... also feel free to direct all comments/flames/cheers/etc to me here too

Oh yea, just FYI, I have student ID's from UCR, UCI, UCLA, UCSC, and a junior college (Mt. Sac)

 

[Dragnov]

Originally posted by: SirDante
Isn't Irvine the rice rocket capital of the world?

Nah, just around the school. God, they piss me off.

 

[iotone]

dude, i'm asian and they piss me off too...

btw, fact about UCI's ICS dept: it's one of the few schools that actually have a CS dept. separate from the school of engineering, which makes it quite distinguished...

hehe... just a plug... sorry...

oh, and as for the asian population stat... i believe last i heard it, 70% of the students are asian?? something like that...

 

[SirDante]

70%? Man I should set up a tuner shop there. I'd make cash money!

 

[AkumaX]

hahaha.... raverside

 

[brtspears2]

Originally posted by: AkumaX
hahaha.... raverside

Riverstock too perhaps, too many tree hugging hippies trying to make a point sometimes.


But anyways, UCR isnt that bad. Granted, small campus, middle of nowhere. If you dont have a car, you are basically screwed on access to food. Smallest Engineering school ever, good for me, as I can usually find lab workspace for my EE degree. Seems like everyone is a Humanities major anyways.

Not to stereotype, but the majority of business majors on campus seem to be female, recent immigrants from Asia. You basically have 3 groups on campus... Immigrants, asians, or white.

Basically smaller campus, LA an hour away, Vegas 3 hours away, and casinos 1 hour away. Closest Fast Food = Starbucks, Del Taco, Carls Jr, Quizznos. Food after hours requires a car for the drive-thru.

There are 3 dorms, Pentland Hills, Aberdeen Inverness, Lothian. Pick Pentland if you have ALOT of money to spend, pick A&I if you like to be social, and pick Lothian if you just like to have a bigger room.