<p>I’ve often heard that each UC has different faults. I’m creating this thread to try and get some opinions on what are the CONS of each University of California Campus. Anything that people have heard or experiences that students have had are all welcome.</p>
<p>I don’t know much about all the UC’s, but I know that UC Berkeley and its community is very liberal. I have immediate family members that attend the school and they said that there “hippies” and other unusual groups and people there. People are always protesting and the atmosphere is very unique. Also while the academics are outstanding and the campus beautiful, the surrounding neighborhoods are very run down. I have heard that some students carry around pepper spray or pocket knives when they are on and off campus (mostly women but some men too) for safety concerns. </p>
<p>Also I have heard that UCSB has a very nice campus that is near the beach but the school also has a reputation of being a “party school”. The academics are decent and some people love the social scene at the school. Also this is unconfirmed, but supposedly 20-25% of the student body at UCSB is HIV positive, which is very concerning.</p>
<p>I personally think that UCSD’s campus is very ugly. It’s in a beautiful part of San Diego by the beach, but they’ve made it really rather sprawling and full of roads. I like a nice, compact, walkable campus. I’ve also heard it’s super cut-throat, and know a few people that dropped out for the local CSU just to be around nicer people, though you might get this at all the UC’s, as they’re all pretty rigorous.</p>
<p>When I visited Berkeley I wasn’t a fan of the weather. I went in the summer and it was cold and dreary, and students there said it was almost always like that. And as mentioned above, its in a sort of sketchy part of town.</p>
<p>Davis is kind of in the middle of nowhere. You’ll have to go pretty far to get any kind of city life. Case in point: the only reason I visited was because it was in the middle of a trip across the CA central valley and we needed to break up the monotonous hours of driving on both sides of the campus.</p>
<p>The reputations of UC Riverside and Merced don’t even approach that of the other campuses.</p>
<p>Irvine has a reputation as a commuter school.</p>
<p>Don’t know much about Santa Cruz, and I don’t know of anything particularly bad about UCLA: It’s like a warmer Berkeley that doesn’t have quite the prestige.</p>
<p>~90% of the students don’t know how to drive.</p>
<p>More on UCSB please…</p>
<p>california budget cuts are INSANE and are hurting california public schools like crazy. UC’s and CSU’s got hurt deeply and because of it, tuitions are going up for in state students. UC classes are PACKED with a hundred people to a class. your professor won’t even know your name by the end of the year.<br>
plus istead of 4 years to graduate it takes student 5 to 6 years to graduate now. this is an actual fact. so if you can… try NOT to go to a UC. I personally really don’t like UC’s because i want the small classes and i don’t want to be in a class with 100 other people. that’s just not be. but everyone has their own opinions. </p>
<p>UCB is a great college town, VERY liberal, lots of hippies, but people are very friendly 
UCSB… i’ve heard nothing but good things!
UCSC is known to be a joke in cali… big on drugs. not reputable.<br>
UC Davis like the other person said is in the middle of no where… like… it’s just bad. you’ll probably never do internships or get real job opportunities.<br>
UC merced and riverside… are just bad. riverside is actually getting better but merced is still bad. and it’s in the middle of no where too.
UCLA is… well i’ve heard nothing but good things about it either.</p>
<p>I’m worried about my future…so even if I go to a CC for 2 years and transfer I’ll still need another 3-4 years at a UC or CSU?
My main schools of interest are UCSB, USC, Cal Polytechnic Slo, and Stanford.</p>
<p>"Davis like the other person said is in the middle of no where… like… it’s just bad. you’ll probably never do internships or get real job opportunities. "</p>
<p>Not far from the state capitol and great medical center, important agriculture and oenology…stuff…should be SOME internships and jobs.</p>
<p>^ I agree with the above poster. Davis is a nice small city with a true college town feel, less than half an hour from Sacramento, the state’s Capitol, for goodness sakes. Then there’s also the ocean and Tahoe within a few hours.</p>
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<p>Through years of budget cuts since the early 1990s, UC 4-year graduation rates have been going up. Both the students and the universities have much stronger incentives now to have students graduate in 4 years instead of longer. On the other hand, getting desired popular out of major courses may be more difficult.</p>
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<p>The CCs work differently, since much of their student population is transient or part-time – they just offer the number of courses they can afford to offer, and if they are full, too bad. So there is an increasing risk of involuntarily taking more than 2 years of CC to become transfer-ready.</p>
<p>You may want to go to the school specific forums and ask current students about getting courses for their majors, etc…</p>
<p>Not sure why previous posters think Davis is in the middle of nowhere and UC Merced and UC Riverside are just bad. </p>
<p>Keep in mind that all of the UCs capture well-educated faculty. And all UCs are still considered some of the best schools nationwide.</p>
<p>Davis is a gorgeous college town, and close to Sacramento and the Bay Area. There is a med and vet school so it has a huge infrastructure.</p>
<p>UC Riverside is rising in the ranks very quickly. They will be opening a med school soon and their sciences are great. It is considered one of the most diverse campuses overall, which is a good thing.</p>
<p>UC Merced is still new. If you want to UC education with a private school atmosphere, it would be a good school. </p>
<p>All this goes without saying that UCB and UCLA are still the top UC schools.</p>
<p>UCB - Having taken 3 years of summer program there, I have started to love Berkeley. It has a character, and the campus feels like a college campus…The other side may have some characters laying around, but generally you can ignore them. Love the food and the campus vibe…
UCD - bunch of folks from my school go there…and they actually seem to like it. Especially engineering, sciences and not as cut throat as UCB.
UCSC - a second cousin of mine was there, xferred after a year…not him, but his parents did not like the culture.
UCSD - more or less good things
UCLA - more or less good
Dont know about the other campus. UCI is all right I believe.
I think key is to look at the programs. If you want Bio, look at the strong ones (UCB,UCD, UCSD). Again, you may get honors in UCD. Someone I know got regents in UCD engineering so he is attending that.</p>
<p>UC Merced is a fairly small city in the agricultural center
UCSC has a very highly regarded marine bio program/environmental studies
UC’s has a number of ag-related majors that are unique to Davis- plus a vet school</p>
<p>I can speak a little for UCR (since I live in Riverside and have taken classes there). Faculty is topnotch. Sciences are very strong. Good PoliSci Department. Soon to open a Med school. Business school is supposedly very good as well.</p>
<p>However, many members of the faculty and staff that I know personally have warned me to go to a different UC. Many of the students are careless and unmotivated (sciences excluded). I’ve had bad impressions of them in all the classes I’ve taken (with a few individual exceptions).</p>
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<p>UCSD is hardly any closer to “city life” than Davis when you really look at it.</p>
<p>@redscarlett11</p>
<p>Pretty much everything you said is completely ridiculous.</p>
<p>Hmmm…is looking for faults productive?</p>
<p>My cousin’s friend goes to UCSB. She complained that it was too full of partying people and that she was unhappy in general with the kind of people who went there.</p>
<p>And who said UCSD was ugly?? I went to grad school there and my subsidized apartment had an awesome partial ocean view and La Jolla is a great beach, good for both swimming and surfing. There is a a great boogie board cove by the area where the seals hang out. If you are a master of the short board, windansea is amazing, and angry locals can’t throw rocks at you like the do in Santa Cruz.</p>
<p>Here’s my brief list of faults and stereotypes for the UCs. (Disclaimer: I’m a proud UC Davis alum). </p>
<p>UC Berkeley: Derelicts wander the streets of the town, and getting good housing is difficult.
UCLA: in the middle of LA = everything is expensive and traffic is ridiculous.
UCSD: Dull social life.
UC Davis: Mooo!
UCSB: Partying surfers
UC Irvine: Suburban commuter school. There is no There there.
UC Riverside: Smog capital of of all SoCal.
UCSC: Stuck in the hippie era and focuses on concepts like Cosmic Consciousness and other “alternative” nonsense.
UC Merced: The UC penalty box. Shouldn’t have been built in the first place. Build It and They Will (not) Come.</p>
<p>Now for my brief list of superlatives for the UCs:</p>
<p>UC Berkeley: Pretty campus and outstanding academics.
UCLA: Hollywood. Plus it’s the school of sports champions.<br>
UCSD: Academics have gotten great amazingly quickly. A lot of innovation comes out of there. San Diego has perfect weather.
UC Davis: A great little true college town located halfway between the bright lights of the Bay Area and the ski slopes of Tahoe.
UCSB: Been producing a lot of Nobel prize winners lately.
UC Irvine: Nothing about it is great but everything about it is pretty good.
UC Riverside: Doggedly pulling itself up academically. E.g. medical school opening soon.
UCSC: Gorgeous location - best location of all the UCs.
UC Merced: Constantly improving.</p>