University of California-San Diego Top Questions

they study hard and they party hard

Some of them are true. Many students do spent a significant amount of time in the library, but that's because we are serious about our studies. We don't have a frat row and we don't have a lot of parties, but people knew that when they came to this school, so they have to figure out a way to deal with it.

yes

They are. Without hitting up the greek life, its hard to find a good party.

There are fun things to do if you look for them, but parties won't find you if you stay at your house.

There's a lot of cramming in the library no doubt, and campus can be dead on weekends, but if you make the effort to look and get involved- there's plenty to do.

No, not in the least bit. Every UC has these types of people but UCSD students do not fit any one stereotype. While this is not like UCSB, UCSD offers a great social scene to those who wish to participate. It's all about how much of an effort you as an individual want to make in order to have a good time -- no one is going to come grab you out of your dorm and drag you to parties. The past four years have been the best four years of my life. I have made friends that will last a lifetime. UCSD is full of every type of personality.

It is not much of a party school. However it does tend to be hard to make friends when you do not live on campus.

hmm.. it's true that there's alot of asian. but totally not true that no one parties. there's always parties going on, you just gotta find the right people to hang out with. obviously if you hang out in your room all day playing wow or doing your homework (::COUGHHLOSERSCOUGH::), you're not going to find any parties or know about them.

Of course they have kernels of truth, but shouldn't be applied to every student you meet.

some yes, some not at all. i don't think the majority of the students are socially awkward at all. i think that these students probably aren't too different from any other students at other universities. the majority of the student body are white and asian, and lots of them are nerdy, but hey, that's how they got here! the campus is pretty socially dead although there are events that try to prevent that from happening, and the weather isn't always beachy weather all the time as some might misconstrue

To some degree.

People here are smart but they are not all nerdy. Sure some are both nerdy and socially awkward but not all. If you want a good social life just find people who want one too and you will find one. And most people don't major in engineering or the sciences (well not more than in other colleges) It's just that this school has a good reputation in those areas.

There are no good looking people on campus (true to the students, but not visitors - it's called triton-eye.) Nerds of the nerds - probably true, our libraries are always full, but it's probablt true for any UC campus Political campus (False.) most people don't care.

Absolutely not. Just like any university or any setting, if you surround yourself with nerds, than clearly you will have a difficult time having fun. However if you take the initiative to go out and meet people, you will quickly realize that a lot of students here just want to have fun and enjoy being in college. Most of the people I know just skip class to hang out with friends or go to the beach, which I'm not advising, but it says something about the fact that UCSD students definitely enjoy life outside of the classroom. With regards to major distribution, there is such a wide variety of majors here that no one or two can be said to be dominant. I believe (though I'm not positive) that ECON is the most prevalent, yet the media's focus on UCSD's amazing achievements in science and engineering places the public focus on those majors.

unfortunately, yes.

From my experience, yes.

I think that it is true if you don't find the right outlet for yourself. You can't expect things from UCSD without putting effort into it yourself. Basically, social life isn't handed to you, you need to earn it. So yes, they would be accurate if you didn't do anything.

For the most part yes, they are correct. The college system at UCSD doesn't promote a sense of UCSD unity - it only segregates the students into their prospective colleges. UCSD has absolutely no school spirit even though the sports teams do fairly well. There is a huge science focus at UCSD which draws a certain type of people - put all of them together and you get the very anti-social atmosphere. HOWEVER - I LOVE UCSD, I found my niche in my sorority and was able to get the fantastic education which was balanced with the extracirricular activities provided by the sorority.

The all Asian one is