pixeljig

Have you seen the impacts due to budget cuts? I am a parent will be paying OOS, son interested in Comp Engr. Is it going to be worth the fees.

sndebrosse

Honestly, the only major 'impact' i've seen from the budget cuts are all the news story about it.

It feels about the same to me this year, although I can't speak for others.

flemmyd

i use to look at prior class websites to see things like old midterms and what the professors expected out of the students.
in particular to upper div classes, the class sizes have gone up. in particular to lower division classes, its easier to shove more kids into a lecture hall. most people wont notice 300 vs. 350 students.

another note: i was in orgo chem last year. normally, you have to take a lab class at the same time (so chem 51la at the same time as chem 51a. same with b, but not as much c) due to budget cuts they didnt offer enough classes of chem 51lb, so they planned on putting it off until spring quarter. (most people in orgo are bio majors and wouldnt have to take 51lc, so they could take 51lb at that point). luckily, i guess, enough kids dropped out of ochem after first quarter that it wasnt actually a problem for people in second quarter.

additionally, those large 300+ kid lecture halls may have had 3 or so TAs at a given time. now they have 2. that means about 50 more kids per TA.

in the sciences, the likelyhood of canceling classes are not as realistic. for the most part, the main classes are predetermined, as opposed to the social science/humanities which are more open ended. what may happen is the classes that were offered twice in a year may only be offered once, meaning failing and repeating a class can be VERY detrimental towards your degree progress. additionally, major electives are mostly likely to be cut... you may even see more lectures instead of full time profs, but that is more longterm, likely not to influence anyone over 4 years. as it stands (i believe), all upper division classes are taught by full time or professors (not necessarily tenured ones). i dont know, but that may change.

lastly, lab classes may suffer. i dont know about comp sci, but labs in chemistry can only be offered at certain times. if you look, inorganic chem (typically offered in the spring) had to roll over to the fall in addition to spring.

winter 08 chem 107 enrollment: 77+75
spring 08 107l enrollment: 98
spring 09 107l enrollment: 40

while this may not pertain to you (directly) i hope it will it least give you an idea of whats going on with the budget cuts.

EDIT: it totally slipped my mind, but 107l can only be offered in one lab (RH 581). ie, only one classroom. part of the problem was the large number of kids who switched to chem majors i guess.

tatertots

Only thing that has affected me is lower TA support in Bio classes ='s 1 less writing assignment and some more multiple choice questions on exams.
No notice in chem classes or chem labs or any other GE I am taking.

My Bio professor mentioned there will be little effect on classes for majors, its the non-major obscure GE-ish classes that are going to vanish if anything.

junshik

http://www.reg.uci.edu/fees/yudof-fee-letter.pdf

pixeljig

Thanks all!

Can you tell me how big are the upper division classes?