Not to revive a super old thread, but I feel exactly the same as the OP as a new UCI transfer. The UC system really is a joke.
I’m being forced into retaking lower division classes I have already taken. My classes are 400+ students and the lectures cover material I’ve already been taught. I’m bored to death in class because of this and I feel like I just flushed $5K down the toilet for Fall quarter. I can also confirm that the TA’s that lead discussions are complete trash.
I mean, what the hell? Do UC students really like their school? Or do they just not know any different?
I regret not going to Santa Clara University instead, extra $10k per year be damned.
And you would not believe the redundancy of classes offered across different departments, the ridiculous amount of bureaucracy on campus and the borderline stupid amount of pre-requisites for almost any upper division class. I can see already that administration is super inefficient in that they force kids to take a long series of classes for nearly all majors, which makes a double major nearly impossible, and a large portion of that long list of prereqs probably overlaps significantly with another class in another department teaching the exact same shit except that we are paying for it in tuition because multiple faculty across multiple departments are being paid to teach redundant material. And, we are stuck in school longer completing a BS list of prereqs, while at the same time, we are limited in that taking classes outside of our major in nearly impossible.
And perhaps the worst of it all, the faculty, in my experience, do not give a damn. Our grades are curved, artificially, in such a way to ensure that 45% of the class get’s a final grade of a “C” and that 15% gets a final grade of a “D” and that, no matter what, a sad group of 5% (out of 400+ mind you) will be walking out of class with an artificial “F” as a final grade. Completely fucking over that student and their future. That’s just wrong and I am completely upset that the school allows this practice to go on.
In fact, I dislike my experience so much that I might consider not returning after Fall quarter.