University of California-San Diego Top Questions

Just because UCSD is a large school absolutely doesn't mean that you can't get to know your professors. Some classes are super small, and some are huge. Most if not all of the social science professors are friendly and helpful to students. We have some really fun classes, like psychology of human sexuality and history of piracy and I loved my class on sociology of globalization and developing nations.

Professors do not know your name unless you visit them in office hours or talk to them outside of class or consistently doing VERY well on tests/projects/essays. My favorite classes have been my Spanish Literature classes taught by Jorge Mariscal (Chicano Culture in the 1980s) and Sara Johnson(Literature of Cuba, History of the Spanish-speaking countries of the Carribean, Spanish Literature of the Caribbean) -- both professors are musts if you want to take any type of Spanish class. If you are a Cognitive Science student, you must take at least one class from Jaime Pineda, because that will be the most you will ever learn EVER. I am a Revelle student and our academic requirements are ridiculous, but it has proven to put me above other candidates for jobs. An education from Revelle is really geared toward creating a well-rounded individual who will contribute to society.

Professors will take the time to know you. If you go into their office hours, they will go out of their way to help you. I have had some really cool TA's. Studying outside of class is a must!!! Read your texts! I love that General Ed revolves around your major. So you don't need a bunch of senseless classes. I have had some really awesome classes like Poli Sci 13: Power & Justice with professor Houston. There was a lot of room for discussion in and out of class. I highly recommend you take advantage of all the help that is offered. People are there to help. DON'T PROCRASTINATE. because procrastination is like masturbation... haha you do the math.

-while i really like the bigger lectures because if i miss a class, no one notices, smaller classes are really nice getting to know professors. - my favorite class was ukelele class. that was amazing and fun! take it!! :D - i hate having smart conversations outside class. i don't like talking about school, and it's kinda annoying when people bring up subjects that you learned in class and want to discuss. - there's two wayy different opposite sides of the spectrum. there's those kids who all they do is study and then there's the kids who only study when necessary.. like right before a test. - students are so competitive, it's ridiculous.

The Vis Arts program at UCSD is incredibly focused on the intellectual aspect of art, which is fine, but it can be overly suffocating at times. My favorite professors thus far are Hock and JP Gorin- both share a passion for their craft and for teaching (actual teaching) the students. I would like to see more VIS classes offered in the daytime, as having class nearly every weeknight is a huge pain.

You can tell that some of the professors here are here to teach because they show that they care for their students. They make an effort to try to help the students understand the course material. However, I do hear a lot of complaints about professors that are just here to do research, not to teach (so this screws a lot of people over). I think UCSD has really pushed me academically, though. It's a tough school. I really enjoy psychology and ethnic studies courses. I really did not like VIS3, it was way too demanding of a class for a GE.. and ART class too. I got my lowest grade here in VIS3... all over an ART class. come on. I also don't like PHIL/POLI 27 as a GE. Some of my friends really tried hard in that class and ended up with C's... for another GE class... which really hurts the GPA... which brings me to my next point: the GPA system. I HATE IT. it sucks that minuses can bring your grade down so much. It's really tough...

They are what you make of them. Study something you are interested in and you are likely to enjoy. Professors are available if you make an effort. General Ed's are pretty ridiculous: how does a student from Roosevelt get the same degree as a Muir student?

GE's depend on your college and they vary in strictness and difficulty. Lowed division classes are usually fairly large but there are many smaller seminars that you can take as well (they are only 1 unit and graded on a pass/fail scale). In the seminars you can meet a lot of people easily who are interested in the same things you're interested in. As far as professors go if you go to office hours they will know you. Also we have a dine with a professor program where you can have a meal with the professor of our choice.

Syudents are competitive. But everything is pretty good. In the time I've been here, and the 12 classes or so I have taken, I have only had one professor who didn't care and was being forced to teach my class. And if you express an interest in the class - the professors will notice. For istance, I was taking linguistics with Professor Kluender and it was the third or so class, and I answered a review question from a previous lecture and the professor asked my name. The next class a week later I went to answer another question, and the professor remmebrer who I was, and even though I was averaging a B- on the tests, I got a B+ in the class (probably because of that particiaption - the professor knew my name and bumped my grade up). In the large classes people have to study to do well. For instance, in my gen chem classes, there are 600 people (in 2 different classes) taking the same final. Someone is going to get a 100{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c}, and in order to be competitive, and get a decent grade in teh calss, you have to study, but even then just because you study doesn't mean you are going to do well. My first quarter I relied on what I learned in high school. I got a C (and I took AP - got a 3 on teh test - and Honrs chem) but college is hard, and competitive, so you have to study. The next quarter I studied my ass off, and I still got a C, probably because evryone else was doing the same thing. My biggest suggestion. Take a foreign lanugage your first year of college. Save the rest of your GE for later, when you need easy classes amidst your intense workload of major classes, but take a foreign lanugage because they are small calsses of (I've had one as few as 6 to as many as 35). And you get to know people. I'm partial to ASL if you want to know an interesting "foregin" language where you don't have to conjuagte verbs. But HELL YEAH ITS HARD!

Classes are large, no doubt. I am only a second year, but it is seldom that I enroll in classes of fewer than 100 or 150. There are opportunities to enroll in smaller classes, such as freshmen/undergraduate seminars of 15-20 people, but these opportunities are sparse. Luckily professors and T.A.'s are very approachable and have office hours through the week. The academic rigor here at UCSD nis intense, and easily comparable to any top university in the nation. Some come to UCSD expecting to skate by like they did in High School, and these people do often get shot down by the competition in many classes. Competition does not take the form of antagonism in the classroom (surprizing), even though most classes have some sort of a curve instuted. What I have found is that the difficulties students face bring them together, normally intheir angst against specific classes or professors (who tend to by unusually difficult). If you want to be in the top 5{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of your graduating class here, you better get a 3.85 or higher, and that is not due to any grade inflation, as I have spoken to many outside grad schools who mention that UCSD students grades tend to recieve inflation from admission committees when being compared to students from other universities (such as USC or NYU).