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Student (Anonymous)
Reviewed on Jan 28, 2025(Enrolled 2023)What Students Say
Likes
- The distance to the beach is very close to the campus
- The quality of education is of the highest standards
- Peer on campus is very friendly and allows good networking
Dislikes
- Within-campus shuttle service does not cover Central area
- Washrooms should have jet sprays for all nationalities
- Wifi is extremely weak on the whole campus
Course Curriculum
8
- I found the Applied Mathematics major to be more theoretical than I expected.
- I think that the curriculum can be as easy or hard as one wishes because there are a lot of options between which courses we want to take.
- I did some honors courses so they were extremely hard for me and I think it may have been better if I had taken the normal courses instead, but also I made some of my best friends in these courses.
Admission Experience
- Applied to 16 universities: Rice (Rejected), Emory (Rejected), UCLA (Rejected), UC Berkeley (Rejected), USC (Rejected), WashU (Rejected), NYU (Waitlisted, Rejected), Georgia Tech (Rejected), UNC Chapel Hill (Rejected), UCSD (Admitted, chosen), UW-Madison (Waitlisted, Admitted), UIUC (Admitted), UC Davis (Waitlisted, did not continue), UMass Amherst (Admitted), Penn State (Admitted), Case Western Reserve (Admitted)
- Factors that influenced my decision: location, weather, safety, community (friends and family), quality of education, student life, rankings.
- Admission process: I submitted the UC application by the date and then simply waited for the acceptance. The application asked for a lot of general info about myself and I had to write 4 essays.
- I did the SAT and got a score of 1530, but the UCs are test-blind so they did not see my score. I also got to skip the English requirement but they accept the TOEFL and IELTS (min score unknown).
- My overall admission process was quite tedious. A lot of colleges asked for the same information and I had to write a lot of essays.
- I applied to some colleges early decision, some early action, and some regular decision. The college that I eventually chose was one that I applied to regular decision.
- The full admission process took about 10 months from the time I started the applications (Aug), to the time my last decision came (May). I began by filling in simple information like my name, birthday, general education. The last thing I did was the essays, but this took the most time.
Class Schedule
8
- Typically one can expect to have between 1-4 classes in a regular day.
- Some classes that are required by many majors may have close to 500 students, while less common classes like honors classes have closer to 30-50 students.
Faculty
8
- On average I'd say the faculty to student ratio is about 1 to 100.
- I don't like this and would prefer smaller class sizes. In general, the teaching format for STEM classes is like: theory (definitions + explanations), and then example questions; for humanities classes the professors talk a lot more but give more examples and less applicable information.
- From my experience faculty members do not assist students in finding internships or jobs, except maybe for their TAs.
Campus Life
8
- The University of California has 10 campuses across the state, with UC San Francisco Being a campus only for graduate studies. I am at UC San Diego. UCSD has many Facilities for sports, academics, and other student services.
- UCSD competes at the NCAA Division I level in many sports including basketball, baseball, fencing and swimming, and competes at the Division II level in a few other sports. As a result, the sports facilities on campus are excellent with courts for any sport one may wish to do.
- There is even a climbing gym on campus (which I discovered just this quarter). Outside of sports, UCSD has many mental health and well-being resources and offers free counselling / therapy services to students.
- Each housing college holds many events forstudents in each quarter, while a few big events (like the Sun God Festival) are hostedby the university itself.
- There are over 500 listed student orgs at UCSD so there are a lot of opportunities to pursue activities outside of academics.
- Some of the orgs that I have been involved with are SUMS (math society), DS3 (Data Science org), Hiking club, and the Okinawan Karate club. Along with clubs we also have greek life (sororities and fraternities), though I do not have much information about these.
Part Time Jobs
- At UCSD, there are TA and RA positions available. In the math department, undergraduate students cannot become a TA, only masters and PhD students. Instead, undergraduate students can become a "tutor" for a course.
- The RA position is typically reserved for third and fourth year students and is much harder to get. While the tutor application is a simple online form, the RA position requires one to become close to a professor and ask them for the position personally.
- Most Indian students typically work in Housing Dining Hospitality, but mainly in dining halls as servers and caterers. The typical hourly wage in the beginning is close to the minimum wage of seventeen dollars.
- It is not that easy to secure a job on campus. Many places don't respond to your application and some respond but after months. For most applications, it simply involves filling a form.
- Some jobs at cafes and such can be obtained by becoming friendly with the current employees or manager.
Placement
8
- As I am still a second-year student, I will not have much information about this right now. That being said, I do know that about 86% of UCSD graduates in the 2022-23 batch received full time job offers within three months of graduating, and graduates have an average early-career salary of approximately $80,000.
- To find jobs, UCSD has a job portal called Handshake, where various companies list available positions and job applications. On this portal, students can even find on-campus job opportunities.
- Besides Hanshake, the Data Science department created their own portal called 12Twenty, which serves a similar purpose but is more specific and exclusive to Data Science students.
- Placement experiences of my batchmates have been mixed, with some not able to get summer internships while others can.
- One of my batchmates even got an REU (Research Experience for Undergrads) opportunity last summer.
Accommodation
Off Campus
8
- I opted for on-campus accommodations. University of California San Diego provides guaranteed on-campus housing for undergraduate students for the first two years only. I chose on-campus housing because it is more convenient to go to classes, and I liked my dorms and suitemates.
- The rent is paid per quarter and are part of the quarterly fees billed to me
Exams
- As far as I remember, UCSD only has an English requirement for the undergraduate program, so either the TOEFL or IELTS exam.
- UCSD is test-blind meaning they will not look at your SAT or ACT score even if you want to submit it.
- As part of the application, UCSD requires a resume and letters of recommendation. UCSD does not hold interviews as part of its application process
Fees
- Total cost for a full academic year is about seventy thousand US dollars.
- Fifty thousand dollars are for tuition and fees costs, twenty thousand dollars are for living costs (which include four thousand dollars for the base meal plan for the year). In addition, there are miscellaneous costs (for example groceries, eating at restaurants, commute, etc.) which will vary per person.
- Fees are charged per quarter, and there are three quarters (+ an optional summer quarter).
Scholarship
- I have not received any scholarships during my course so far.
- At the University of California, extreme preference is given to in-state students (students from California), and there are almost no scholarship opportunities for international students.
- A lot of my in-state friends have received some scholarships (minimum five thousand dollars, maximum full tuition amount).
