University of California-San Diego Top Questions

I did manage to establish some solid relationship with some professors, who actually wrote me recommendations for my transfer application. The students are too many for you to obtain personal professors, especially those teaching popular majors and engaged with personal research projects.

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UCSD has perfect academic programs. Although under the budget cut, our school ensures everyone gets the classes he or she wants. I personally have had no problems getting the classes i need, which saves me time and money. The school also offers studying abroad programs that the financial aid covers. I can choose to study at any country i want while paying the same tuition as i do it here. What can be more awesome than that? The professors here are extremely experienced and grade fair. They offer quality office hours and are willing to work out an alternative schedule if the office hour doesn't work for you. The environment is somewhat competitive, with the breaks to relax and catch on social life. Each of the six colleges has its own academic advising group, and they are really helpful. You can schedule a walk, or a lunch with them and they will answer any questions you have and help you to plan out each quarter's schedules to make sure you can graduate on time.

I won't try to dodge this one. Academics at UCSD are difficult. I am a Nanoengineering major with a focus in Biomedical Engineering and a minor in Creative Writing and Literature so I will restrict my response to those areas. In Engineering classes the professors will most likely not know your name. I have had classes from around 200 hundred students to lectures that numbered over a thousand. I've even had a lecture course where I was taught by a video screen, rather than a professor. Students spend a good amount of studying and during finals weeks we don't expect to get much sleep if any. Competition in this field is fierce. Some of the brightest minds in the entire university gather into these majors and fight against a curve to achieve the highest grades. The professors are all prominent in their field and we even have nobel laureates on staff. Literature classes are much more laid back. There is much less competition and class sizes can range from 400 down to 20. I have had workshops with Pulitzer Prize winners and professors will definitely know your name. Education at this school is geared towards getting a job afterwards. The school offers many job fairs and internship opportunities. We even have a website called Port Triton that helps students land jobs while an undergraduate and afterwards.

I think that it really depends on your major on how to rate the difficulty of your classes. The science classes are definitely tough. A lot of the science professors are also researchers at the school. Most of the time, science classes are held in lecture halls of about 300 students, which makes it hard for professors to get to know you. However, if you make the effort to go to office hours, then you can definitely get to know the professor. Personally, I'd prefer the smaller classes with 30-40 students so that you can get to know your peers and the professors (note: upper division classes are usually smaller). However, they do offer many fun classes! There are a variety of dance classes such as contemporary dance or ballet. There are also music classes, such as a class dedicated to The Beatles!

The academics are at a very high level and are challenging. The classes require a fair amount of studying but they are never impossible. What I really enjoy as a student of UCSD is the quarter system and the professors. Both of those factors are encouraging students to try harder and harder to reach their goals.

Personal relationships with professors are uncommon due to the size of UCSD. Fellow students are highly competitive and very studious. In my major, nanoengineering, there are only three hundred. This increases the chances of undergraduate research and student-faculty relations. Students who are in my major often have intellectual conversations outside of class as a result of the interesting material we are learning in pursuit of our degree.

The academics are incredibly good here. If you go to office hours, professors make an effort to get to know you and to personally help you out with whatever you need. My favorite class has probably been a writing class based in film and media analysis in relation to identity construction and development. My least favorite class has been my Gen Ed. basic writing class. Students study typically every day for at least a few hours, more when midterms and finals come around. Class participation is not that common in the large lectures, except in the form of iClicker questions. In smaller classes, however, people are very willing to participate. I have had many intellectual conversations outside of class, whether it has been with people I live with or someone I had just met that day; people are very willing to talk and passionate. Students are competitive to the point that it pushes you to do well but not to the point that you do not trust other students. Students have the opportunity to spend time with professors outside of class with the Dine with a Prof program, allowing students to take their professors out to dinner. I think UCSD prepares students for careers in whatever field they are pursuing by offering lab work and internship opportunities, but still retaining the importance of learning solely for the sake of gaining more knowledge. I think UCSD's academic requirements are very rigorous, but they make you into a stronger person and teach time management.

The academics here are great. The professors are very knowledgable and highly approachable. Last quarter, in my math class, because I spoke with my professor so often, this quarter he now recognizes me when he sees me around campus and waves.

The climate here is usually stated as one of a research university, with the added bonus that, unlike many others, this includes graduates as well as undergraduates. Most classes, especially lower division classes, are very large, but every professor and TA is required to have office hours. If a student goes through the effort, he or she is easily able to get on a first name basis with a professor, but this is not an inevitability for every student that just sits there during lectures. In addition, there are programs such as "dinner with/coffee with the prof" where a student and professor can meet one on one for coffee or dinner, completely free of charge (thanks to the university) at one of about 4 locations on campus (there are more than 5 for coffee). Both are once-a-quarter opportunities.

Academics are taken very seriously at my school. Professors are very experienced, knowledgeable and professional but many like to make class fun as well. i took a psychology course one summer where the professor ordered pizza every day in class--he just asked for donations! All are passionate about their area of study and seem to want to pass their knowledge on to us students, though obviously some are more successful than others. Students very study often, although I personally did not study excessively as a double major in psychology and visual arts. Class participation is typical, one or two students contribute frequently while most others are content to sit back and listen to the professor. Students aren't usually forced to compete with each other for grades, but all push themselves very hard and it is not as easy to keep up those 4.0s that were so breezy in high school. I believe that education at the school is geared toward learning for its own sake, so much so that many students I have spoken with feel the knowledge they learn is overly theoretical with less technical and practical applications that would be useful for getting a job after college. However we agree that this knowledge base is extremely practical in and of itself, as technical knowledge can be gained outside of class. There could be a better balance nonetheless. My Visual Arts major follows the theoretical emphases; for instance my focus on photography teaches very very few computer/editing programs, while focusing instead on how to expand our fine art concepts which are not necessarily commercially viable. The visarts program also is very limited with only one full-time photography professor and a few photo courses only. Our budget has simply not allowed for more professors to be hired and I have taken many courses with great "lecturers" and part-time faculty. I wish however that our particular program could be expanded and supported in the way that many science programs are at UCSD. I have spent time with several psychology professors out of class which has been very enjoyable and expanding experiences, but I had to search these professors out personally.

UCSD is an intense school, to say the least. Due to a large student population and drastic budget cuts, lectures are generally large and thus it is up to the students to get known by the professors if they want to (whether is be inside or outside of class). Also, class participation is challenged in a similar manner, as it is generally the few students who are truly passionate that ever chime in. Students here are not too cut-throat in their studies, though they are fiercely competitive in the sense that more or less everyone is out to get A's, and as such students are known to put in disgusting amounts of hours in the library. Such academic drive and passion is beneficial though, as the (largely) intellectual student body provides a rich intellectual environment for one to immerse themselves in (if you can find the students that are social enough to even have conversations that is). I am currently double-majoring in the Political Science and Urban Studies and Planning departments (both incredibly well ranked at the undergraduate level), and as such I have had a relatively lax time at UCSD in comparison to those studying sciences, engineering, etc. However, my course work has nonetheless proven to be both challenging and highly intellectually stimulating, and I can say with certainty that UCSD's academic requirements have made me a much smarter and more well rounded individual. Overall, the education here seems to be geared at what you make of it; there seems to be a fairly equal share of kids here out to score well-paying jobs upon graduating as well as those here to learn for the sake of learning (though the former population is certainly more abundant).

UCSD definitely has a wide variety of classes, with particularly good science departments (especially biology). Class sizes tend to be big, especially with biology or introductory courses like Calculus and General Chemistry, but there are a few that have smaller class sizes and some that are seminar-style. It takes some effort to get to know professors because of the large class sizes, but in general, this usually just entails going to office hours. Most professors are also open to having individual appointments with students, and discussion sessions offer smaller class sizes to supplement the large lectures. There are also other opportunities to get to know professors or to enrich the academic experience, such as research or independent study opportunities, honors programs, or dine-with-a-prof or brown bag lunches with professors, among others. My professors, at least, have been very open about getting to know the students as best they can given the large size of the school, but it usually takes some effort on the part of the student as well. General education requirements vary based on the college, from fairly flexible and simple to thorough and all-encompassing. In my college (Muir), for instance, I was able to take a Beatles class for my GE requirements, and students aren't required to take classes in every field. For instance, if you really hate science, you don't have to take any science courses for your GE, or if you don't want to learn a foreign language, you don't have to. Other colleges vary in their requirements, and it's definitely worth taking a look at what the different colleges require if you plan on applying. I've found the opportunities to be tremendous, from teaching opportunities to research experiences to study abroad opportunities, and advisers really try to give you the opportunities you want as long as you're willing to put work into it as well. My classes, at least, have been challenging and interesting, and the professors have been helpful and intelligent. Keep in mind that I am a biology/psychology double major and I took great care in choosing professors with good reputations, so your experience will probably vary in different departments.

The academics are ridiculously competitive, overly stressful, and unnecessarily intense. Some professors are great, some are terrible, and some are in the middle.

Education at this school is somewhat geared toward learning for its own sake, but some classes allow students to get a sense of what certain jobs related to the subject of instruction would be like. In science lab courses, students develop lab techniques, and if students want to apply what they're learning in a wider scale, they can acquire academic internships working alongside professors who are conducting research on their own. These are definitely competitive and chance comes very rarely due to high demand of students who want to have the same sort of opportunity. That is one faulty part about public schools: the large student to faculty scale. Everything is much more competitive in a bigger population pool, but there is always something for everyone. To get to know professors more personally, students can enroll in seminar courses, where there are about 10 students and one professor. As a science major, frankly I found non-science courses like Humanities more stimulating.

I like how students can choose when to miss class; for example, if you have a really important midterm in a certain class, you can choose to miss your other classes to study. It enables students to choose to manage their time on their own, rather than requiring them to attend class. Some classes do have mandatory homework or clickers, so it is important to attend those, but the majority of classes I have taken allow you to come and go as you wish. That being said, the professors are amazing, but it is generally difficult to get to know them especially if their office hours conflict with your schedule. There are generally 300-400 people in most classes, so it is very impersonal, but there are discussion sections held by teaching assistants that definitely are useful to go over the material again.