Sandra Soto's Online Review Report Card

I graduated from UCI in one of the engineering majors. I think UCI is a fantastic school, with the caveat being that you are the right kind of student that is, highly selfmotivated, driven, and naturally curious with a bit of luck thrown in for good measure. I personally had some wonderful, inspiring faculty mentors who worked with me on research and design projects (one of which was later presented at an international professional conference in my field) and wrote me great letters of recommendation during my senior year, enabling me to gain admission to multiple top graduate programs. I also pursued an independent project through a student competition run by the university's Applied Innovation Center and won a grant for my proposal. Overall I feel extremely fortunate and grateful for these opportunities, and UCI certainly played an important role in getting me to where I am. However, I should note that my experience was not typical for most students in my major. I owe a large part of my success to my aggressive pursuit of additional enrichment opportunities outside the classroom. Within the classroom, it was a different story as professors varied widely in terms of quality, with the bad professors outnumbering the good. The quarter system could sometimes feel too fastpaced (especially for engineering classes where a large number of concepts had to be learned and mastered within a short period of time). I also found that the division into multiple separate schools for various majors often served as a hindrance to students wanting to explore other fields outside their areas of study. For example, I had considered taking some music classes to round out my education and further hone my musicianship skills, but was unable to sign up for any of them due to not being enrolled as a music major, and a music minor was not available.

One of my favorite parts about UCI was its safe environment, but this came at the price of having little to do immediately off campus. Many students who sought fuller social lives would frequently drive to other towns. Additionally, the large number of students commuting put a damper on school spirit. Even as someone who was mostly uninterested in social activities typically associated with college students, I found myself occasionally wishing that there were more interesting cultural or art exhibitions in the surrounding area. Finally, there were many complaints about the availability and cost of campus parking while I was attending, as well as the online class scheduling system.

In summary, I would recommend UCI to students who are bright, highly academically focused, and determined to seek out opportunities to enhance their college experiences, as that type of student tends to thrive at this school. For students who do not meet those criteria, fitting in may prove to be more difficult.

SO it is that time. Despite the COVID menace we were determined to at least drive around some of the prospective campuses for our soon to be High School Senior. Yes, its not the same as a formal tour and the summer / summer of COVID means most are virtual ghost towns, but we wanted to get a feel for the school and the surrounding areas. First up was UC. Irvine.

Wow Irvine gives a great first impression. Even the older parts of campus look well maintained. Lots of internal pathways and a bike or board seems to be a must have.

Lots of eateries and shops for essentials and other needs. The campus is well laid out and looks like a great place to spend 4 years.

Saw one of my favorite shows here in the auditorium in 1986. T.S.O.L. (America land of the free,  free to the power of the people in uniform!) and the Damned. I hope they still have concerts!

Just an update. I remember my last meeting with one of the counselors before I left. She advised to possibly go to an easier program if I was to transfer to another Aerospace program.

So, after I transferred I graduated with honors from my program which was an extremely rigorous program. Now I am at the University of Southern California completing my M.S. In Aerospace Engineering on a fullride scholarship with guaranteed employment after I am done with school. I just want people to know that there are options out there. Much better ones. Don't fall for the hype and get sucked into something you don't want to do. I got out of there. Got into a much better program and am now at a top 10 engineering program. Good luck. Hope this helps.

The good:
1) Location
2) Nice campus
3) Some teachers.

The bad:
1) Everything else.
2) Not enough sections offered, if you're a Freshman, good luck if you are in a STEM major. You'll register late most likely.
3) Terrible staff in the cashier's office and business. No one helps.
4) Counseling offers little help when you can't find classes. You're on your own.
5) Food tastes the same in the dorms after awhile.
6) Tell you you'll graduate in 4 years, don't believe them if you are in a STEM major.
7) Parking sucks, and it's expensive.
8) They advertise well, but once you are there, you are just a cog in a machine.
9) There are subtle racial preferences on campus that students pick up on over time. If you're there long enough, you'll see them and experience them if you're not part of the "dominant" group.

If you want to be in classes that have 400+ students in them, girls and guys just looking at their Facebook pages (or I guess I should say Instagram or Snapchat now), and if you want to be in discussion classes where 3/4 of the students are sleeping and nobody raises their hand, then THIS is the right school for you!

Check out international schools, the prices are cheaper, education much MUCH better, and most international schools are very very American student friendly b/c we can tend to pay the higher tuition rates while students from their country often get schooling paid for as part of government spending.

Just think about it.

I had a lot of great friends at UCI.. my tenure wasn't perfect but definitely love my fellow anteaters like crazy and really enjoyed reuniting w friends at the anteater access event. Pike guys are my jam and Prof Currie is the man :)) and there was one Ksig bloke that I crushed on hard, can't be happier for him now xxxxxx

The most unprofessional thing about this school are the lab fees and electronic fees. That's in addition to the Teacher Assistant Professors who ruin your grades of course.

They charge you every quarter for electronic fees for nothing in the end. For rude front desk who don't do anything, for no help downloading softwares we paid for (it's probably cheaper to pay for the softwares themselves than to pay electronic fees for the school)

For the lab fees, the art department charges you for the material used. Funny enough, when you actually need to go and use the lab, there is no one there, lab is locked and you can't really use the resources. Then, you end up paying a ton outside of school to get the job done.

Thanks a lot! Such great unreachable resources UCI

I'm just going to say what no one else is going to say. If you are not a minority (white) then you are going to be discriminated against l. This is coming from someone whose mixed race (white and asian).
Since around 50% of students are Asian, there's alot of serious pro Asian pride at this school. I've been told by Asian Americans here that I'm not Asian enough and insist that I'm just white. The Asian professors here complain that there isn't enough diversity at school and blame this on white American professors. I'm mixed race and even I feel i am not welcomed here because of this stupid stigma. Honestly it seems that most students here feel like they have been opressed and victims of the evil white people.

Another thing, Uci and all other uc's except for ucka and ucb are like that child from a previous marriage. Neglected and not important. Alot of the professors are biased and lazy, socially and sports wise, this school is dead and the only way they bring in money is the ridiculous parking fees and international students. Compared to UCLA and UCB, this place is a ghost town.

Lastly I wanted to go to a school that was politically neutral.. nope, this school is very "politically correct", blames white people and republicans and doesn't care about freedom of speech and opinion. If you don't have a leftist way of thinking, then you're an idiot and you don't belong here type of mentality.

On a positive note, the area around uci is very clean and safe and there are alot of places to eat around here. Good for students I guess

Just an update to add that I have received news from a reliable source that sexual assault among international students is common, and goes unaddressed by university administration. According to this source, the administration knowingly and purposefully tries to sweep claims of saxual assault among international students under the rug.

Be warned.