astrina

Picasa Web Albums - chris

Six years ago, I was in the same position as many of you -- trying to make sense of the handfuls of college acceptance letters while trying to survive (and enjoy!) the last semester of high school. I had my choice of all the UCs to pick from, but in the end I decided I thought that San Diego offered the most for what I wanted in my college adventure: academics (new, yet strong, research in the life sciences) and adventure (c'mon, the city's a vacation destination).

I put together a photo album from some of my UCSD experiences. It's by no means complete, but I had to edit out a few parts for concerns of privacy and legal matters. Feel free to browse and leave comments and/or requests, I'll try to update it with whatever else I can dig out of my computer folders.

I'm also happy to answer whatever questions you have about the school, my major, my college, and other things I can address (but do your research! The archives are there for a reason.) My hope is that you'll find UCSD as great a place as I think it is!


My stats in a nutshell
- Revelle College and proud ditcher of the Hum sequence (only H1-3 @ UCSD)
- Chemistry/Biochemistry major, graduated in 3 1/2 years (2006)
- Chemistry MS, graduated 2007
- Lived on campus two years: first in Blake Hall, second in Pepper Canyon Apt
- Learned to surf, skateboard, and scuba-dive at UCSD
- Was carless freshman year only. It's much nicer having a car around. Not mandatory, but REALLY nice.
- TAed undergrad chem and biochem labs and lectures for 12 quarters (if you're a chem major, I can answer pretty much anything you throw at me.)
- researched on-campus junior & senior year
- worked at a huge biotech company senior & master's year. (my company made viagra, but i didn't)
- best SunGod approach: malibu rum in Jamba Juice
- worst SunGod experience: junior year, writing a lab report due at midnight.
- best memories: crowding 10 people onto a pair of bunk beds for weekly "24" episodes, krispy kreme runs for the floor of 40 freshmen who were up writing hum papers due in 6 hours, meteor showers at the cliffs and pier, flip flops all year round, throwing snowball fights from lab ice machines, getting taught to surf (and, uh, 420) by my research advisors, grabbing beers with professors at porter's pub, countless trips to vegas, and many more.
- currently: in new york, at columbia pursuing a PhD in biochemistry

eric_123456

wow...I live in northern california and have visited berkeley and davis many times. After seeing lots of the UCSD campus pictures theres no comparison. UCSD looks really great.
Thank you astrina for the great pictures!

astrina

yeah, i'm originally from sacramento. i'll have to agree with you

koolaznpygmy

are you serious the ucsd campus pales in comparison to berkeley and davis...

superlazer

Thank you for the great pictures!

IlikeDice

davis was crap. never seen berkeley. i'd much prefer to attend UCSD over davis any day.

east coaster

astrina..hoping you might help us..we live in NY (where you mention you now are)..my D was accepted to UCSD as a theatre major..she visited the campus last year and fell in love with it..she's also been accepted to NYU/Tisch..among some other schools..from what you've heard..does UCSD have a good theatre dept?..also what you you think about ERC (where she's been placed).. thanks so much..

astrina

I haven't dealt much with the theatre department, minus the few dance classes that I've taken in their space. I'd encourage your D to go check out the school again for herself -- this time, maybe arranging to talk with professors, find some current students, observe some classes, etc. But at first glance, I would pick Tisch; the wealth of opportunities for theatre and acting are SO much more plentiful in the city!
As for ERC, they have some awesome dorms (albeit a little far compared to the other colleges). If she's a theatre major, then that would definitely be the best college ... at least in terms of general college philosophy and GE requirements.

jmilton90

is this sarcasm? I couldn't figure it out.

east coaster

astrina..thank you so much for the information!!..I, too would think Tisch would be the best bet for her..but talking to people on campus at SD would certainly be helpful for her..she's still waiting to hear from UCLA..do you know anyone who studied theatre/acting there?? Are you a Californian? hope you're enjoying NYC...

astrina

All the theatre people I knew were from high school, and they eagerly escaped to New York for places like Tisch and Barnard. I attended a few shows from the Theatre Dept at UCSD, and they seemed like a lively group (wouldn't be able to give any critiques on performances though).

Yup, I'm a native Californian -- raised in Sacramento and San Diego for college. Save for the weather, NYC is a pretty neat place to be!

collegemom16

I agree Astrina I LOVE NYC. I could live there in a heartbeat.

MoreThanWords

Those pictures gave me a brief summary of UCSD life. Thanks!

i_lose

Haha, nice mortorboard (sp?) for graduation. Looks like it's DDT (am I right? I wrote a fantastic 10 page paper on it), except why is there an extra H bonded to the C? I thought C can only bond 4 times. :P

astrina

yeah, that's my friend sam's mortarboard -- she was, appropriately, an environmental chem major. i pointed out that pentavalent carbon to her before taking the picture, and she said that it was on the wrong carbon -- it's supposed to be on the carbon with the duck.

nice noticing though! i'm impressed!!

(and while we're at it, can you identify the molecule on mine? it's the next picture)