USC or UCSD?

crimson92092
Mon, 28 May 2007 23:46:18 +0000

I know this is quite a dated response, but hopefully I can add to your discussion and have some questions answered myself.

I am freshman at UCSD this year and it has been a dissapointing first year of college.

I am in the bioengineering, and for as much hype as the school makes of the program, it is not that great. Of course it is going to be better a lot of schools, but it really is just above average. The faculty is NOT here to teach, teaching is a chore to them. If you are not going into engineering or some other biological science, you definetley should not head here.

The other thing that I would like to address is the community or lack of. Every time there is a three day weekend, students that live on campus, run home/away…there is nothing that keeps them on campus. The only time you ever hear or see someone drunk walking around campus is when they are in hand-cuffs being taken to detox for the night. Alcohol and drug policies are extremely strict for students on campus. It is like you are in high school, you have to hide in your room and drink with a small group of friends.

The biggest difference between USC and UCSD is that USC is private and UCSD is public USC does a much better job of choosing better, more well-rounded applicants. UCSD, as much as they say review differently than UCLA and Berkeley, use the index score, based mostly on your GPA and the rest on your SATs. With the number of applicaitons and money that UCs recieve, this system is the best suited. However, it does not mean that it is a good system. There are a lot of ■■■■■■■ here, that come in with 4.6 GPAs and 1600 SATs (that is 1600/2400 not 1600/1600). But, they still do well because they study 20 hours + for a midterm.

UCSD does have Sungod once a year, which I admit was incredible, but Sungod (minus the bands) happens every friday on any other college campus.

And like someone mentioned above, there is zero personality in the student body. I can see a large majority of the student body going straight from the library to a cubicle in some ****ty company crunching numbers. A lot, not all, of kids have no creativity and even more horrible social skills. But, if you are a very academically oriented person, meaning you live for grades, and are pre-professional, and dont like to drink alcohol or smoke weed, than UCSD is perfect for you. For me, and anyone who likes to work hard AND party hard, UCSD is definetely the wrong school. There is no balance of work and play. Furthermore, NEARLY every student here (including myself) is a Berkeley/UCLA reject. A lot of people here, never really wanted to come to SD, but it was the next best thing. From my personal experience, the kids that turned down UCLA/Berkeley tend to be the smartest people around campus and have come to UCSD because of the reputation of the engineering departments…I dont really believe in that logic though.

If I stay at UCSD, i will join a fraternity. What kept me from joining is that there is not a greek row or designated fraternity houses. So, you would basically be paying money to go to parties. My older brothers both joined fraternities, but their fees were mainly towards housing in a frat house. Also, when I rushed, some of the dumbest kids at this school are unfortunatley in the frats. Personally, it would be very hard for me to pledge a frat where I would have to listen to some dumbass **** telling me what to do. But, thats the price you pay for partying at UCSD.

Also, San Diego is a very nice area, you are not going to ever get mugged in La Jolla. The beach is also very nice…but who gives a **** where you live if the school sucks?

I applied and was admitted for transfer to USC for next year (fall 2007) and I am deciding whether I want to stick it out at UCSD or go to USC.

I was able to get a summer internship with a company off campus and I already have a research project lined up with a faculty member for next year. So…the oppurtunities are kind of here, but I had to look pretty hard to find them and you can expect that UCSD will do nothing to help you find those opprutunities. Also, I was much more qualified than 98% of my classmates, so I could rely on my high school resume to get me these oppurtunities. If you have never done research before high school, no professors will hire you, instead, they have thousands of juniors and seniors to choose from. You might be able to volunteer at some bioengineering event, but you are going to be taking out the trash and will never meet any professors. I probably contacted 50 faculty and 1 faculty member offered his assistance. From what I hear, USC is much more helpful in finding internships/jobs/careers. UCSD will not do that for you.

My problem is that I do have research available right now, as well as a internship and I am active in a committee on campus. So, I dont know if I want to drop of all of that to go to USC.

I am also an out-of-state student and did not get **** for financial aid. I believe the total bill at UCSD is $40,000, which is slightly lower than USC, so I am paying private school tuition for a public school anyway.