First Impressions of UCM from a UCM Student

fusionall · September 8, 2008, 6:42pm

Many people on these forums (myself included at one point) try to give negative arguments and project negative ideas about UCM without actually having set one step on campus. So, in an effort to try to deliver UCM in actuality, I’ll try to give my first impression of the school after the first couple weeks of instruction.

If you go to UCM, feel free to comment with your own first impression since I may have missed a lot of things in this thread and since this is from my point of view, I may not be able to encompass everything in the state that it really is . Here goes…

THE FACILITIES:
What really impressed me was the newness and quality of all the facilities. This is sort of a “duh” statement since the school is relatively new and that would surely mean its facilities are new as well but having nice things doesn’t hurt in the least.

The cafeteria is spacious and is hardly ever crowded (although the lines can get pretty long during meal rush hour). I’ve never had trouble finding a place to sit during a meal.

The gym has most, if not all, popular work out machines (new machines I might add) and is just the right size for UCM’s current population.

Classrooms are all new, nothing really I can say about that.

The dorms, from what I’ve encountered, are absolutely amazing (but maybe my standards for college life are low. ). Anyways, I live in the Valley Terraces and my suite comfortably fits 6 people. It’s equipped with a spacious bathroom and a living room.

Not to leave the “floor” dorms out, the doubles I’ve seen in Tuolumne are quite big but I’ll let someone else pass judgement on those rooms since I don’t live there. I invite someone else who lives in Tuolumne or Mariposa to post their opinion about their dorm room.

THE STAFF:
This is where I believe many people underestimate UCM. Because of UCM’s infancy, I used to think that many of the professors here would be the outcasts who couldn’t become tenured somewhere else. However, I was totally wrong in this assumption.

For the most part, all the professors I have had the privilege of meeting are world-class in every respect of the word, barring the usual exceptions of course (being the crazy teachers that inhabit every campus). Just to give those who do not know a little taste, my Political Science teacher is an award winning dissertation writer who beat out scholars from Harvard, Princeton and the like and chose to come to UCM, one of my CORE lecturers comes from Cambridge University and never has made a dull lecture, and my writing teacher has quoted Demetri Martin (a comedian) and incorporates pop culture into every class. Now of course there is the probability that I have only seen the good side of the professors at Merced so again, I invite other UCM students to give their input on this matter.

Not to leave the student staff members out, most of them on work study look depressed. I would be too if I was forced to work but that’s just my input on that.

THE STUDENTS:
From what I perceive, half the students want to be here and are willing to learn while the other half are either angry about not getting into another school or are happy they got in but party anyway.

As most of you already know who go to UCM, the ambulance has been on campus 3 times in 3 weeks, 2 of which before instruction actually started. There’s no need to go into the incidents since rumors taint what actually happened but let’s just say I was surprised at the amount of drama that has already happened here.

There is nothing wrong with partying and I think it is actually a good way to relieve stress after a long week in school but some of the kids here don’t know how to control themselves and end up at the hospital. I’m disappointed that the school did little more than a slap on the wrist to those in trouble (I would have honestly expelled since it sends a message to the other students acting stupidly) as passiveness almost amounts to advocacy of such ■■■■■■■■ behavior.

The other half of the students, from what I saw, enjoy learning here and are fun to talk to. If you like having engaging conversations, there will be at least one person in your discussion that would probably have one with you (speaking from my experiences).

In terms of friendliness, most people are friendly and approachable.

THE FOOD:
Yes, the food gets its own section. Believe what you’ve heard, it’s pretty terrible, but not all the time. There is enough choice to the point where you can have something different to eat everyday for 3 days without overlapping meals but eating the same hamburgers each time is just terrible.

If you want to eat fresh tasting food, I’d recommend going at around 11AM for lunch and 3PM-4PM for dinner since most of the food stalls close at around 7PM. I’m not too sure but I’m pretty confident they reuse the fries from lunch for dinner.

Additionally, the food is damn expensive. I recommend bringing your own drink, which would probably save about $2, and getting only what you can eat. I’ve already had my meals run up about $10 each time. Going at that rate, I don’t know if I would have enough for the rest of the semester.

Also, don’t eat there if you absolutely do not have to. You save a lot more money with Cup-O-Noodles or Mac N’ Cheese than you would eating every meal at the Cafeteria.

BOREDOM:
Yes, it gets boring here, probably a lot faster than most campuses. Boredom can actually be a good thing as since there are no activities to distract us, studying would be our only other option to pass the time.

Yes, there a lot of ping pong nerds and gamecube freaks that like to show people up in the Den.

Yes, the main town is only a couple miles away. The main activity in the town being spending money.

Yes, there are parties and as long as you don’t act stupid, you should be fine.

OVERALL GRADE:
I would give UCM a B+ in terms of serving my needs.

I like the small campus since lectures are about 200 people large and discussions tend to be no more than 20 students. The professors know what they are talking about and give me assurance that I did not choose a “bad” college. However, some of the students here need to grow up and realize this isn’t high school anymore.

Now, I open the floor to other UCM Bobcats. What were your first impressions about our school?

aznguy417 · September 8, 2008, 11:12pm

I agree with pretty much everything you just said.
As you have said, the facilities are fairly new, which is rarely a negative. I like the general cleanliness of the campus, makes it seem so fresh and clean. Also, I live in the Valley Terraces as well and they are quite spacious. I tell my friends about my room and they are shocked about how big our dorms are.

For the most part, I like my professors. Most of them are great teachers. If you are talking about Prof. Viney, I really like him too. He’s a really good speaker and makes his lectures pretty interesting.

I agree that the the students are, for the most part, friendly. The parties do tend to get a little out of hand. On multiple occasions, a couple intoxicated students came into our dorms, thinking it was theirs. Needless to say, i wont forget to lock my doors.

The food isnt too bad, however i haven’t experience other college food so I wouldn’t know. The food is fairly expensive as you have said, a full meal would be anymore from 6-10 dollars.

Also, it does get pretty boring up here, there really all that much to do. They do have events though during the weekends, which i rarely attend. and there isnt much else to do either in town.

overall, i would give it a b, because of the heat

Detox · October 29, 2008, 12:38pm

What up fusion! Remember me? Just decided to pop in after stumbling on this site through a google search lol

Glad to see you are liking UCM for the most part. I absolutely agree that the facilities are impressive. In regards to the professors, there are some incredible professors there - Jennifer Manilay, Henry Forman, Stephen Nicholson, the list goes on. I don’t know if you’re taking many sciences but the science professors there are the worst. You’ll find this over time. And UCM’s professors aren’t like rejects that no other University would accept, it’s just that they are all mostly young and have yet to prove their worth as researchers so it becomes a mutual relationship between the professors and the UCM administration. Professors focusing on research and publishing papers = making a name for themselves and adding reputation to UCM. Of course it just so happens that this is done at the expense of screwing over the students (more often than not), which I can’t really blame them for…they’re hungry and they have enormous pressure to produce results. But again, that’s really only with sciences, especially upper division courses.

And boredom is your best friend! Use it to your advantage while others waste time doing nothing.

First Impressions of UCM from a UCM Student

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