PROS AND CONS ABOUT UC IRVINE

A few things that make Irvine great and things that hinder it. Trying to be as honest as possible and hope it can help.

[dietymadrid]

wow thank you so much for this! I'm going to be a freshman this fall and this really made me feel better about irvine. Also love how you went straight to the point.

[tiktokssneakerhead]

I like how you went off then started getting happy 😭

[sandrayungblut]

Don’t trust the bio sci counselors, they’re ready to tell you what you CANT do, BUT research opportunities for undergrads are insanely amazing, great video!

[robertschlesinger]

Very worthwhile video with a good reality check on bringing a car to campus if one dorms on campus.

[rottncollie]

As an alumnus from the class of 1981, I’m saddened by the large class sizes, parking fees and all the other cons that made UCI a PRO back when I started in 1977. Few had cars. Parking was free. Dorms (just Mesa Court& Middle Earth) had 2 to a room. I see pics of sometimes 4– 2 bunk beds! I lived my first year in Lago & my second year in Otero. I moved to Park West apartments after that cuz I DID have a car. Tuition was $234 for one quarter for CA residents which was still not a lot of money back then. BTW and FYI, it was in 77-78 that we voted on making the Anteater name official.

[alicelayola]

I am a transfer student at irvine (bio major 4 th year) and I live a few cities down. An all day parking pass is 13$ per day.

Food: For those of you that dont know, there is a university town center right next to irvine within walking distance. Some stores next to campus that are really convenient include:
Chick fil A, in n out, taco bell, jack in the box, blaze pizza, chipotle, KBBQ to go, poke, rame, sushi, monster (ice cream, boba, and macrons sold here), tender greens, luna grill, trader joes, and indian restuarant (ashya? or something like that), a pizza place, GNC, cookies, cha for tea, sharetea, a nail salon, a clothing store, Target, dunkin donuts, the market place, an edwards theatre, and there is much more. Thats just a jjist of whats near by. going down a few blocks or so is an albertsons and a whole bunch of restaurants!


The campus itself has about three or more starbucks and some small coffee stands around. Vending machines are scattered on campus and there are about three cafeterias (i think) maybe one more.
Some restaurants/fast food includes: wendys, wahoo fish tacos, subway (2), panda express, jamba juice, organic greens to go, einstein bros, and more. There are also a few convenience stores around campus to go to. They sell pretty much everything a student would need (i.e. hygenic products/frozenfood/fresh food/ supplies/ scantrons).

There is a beautiful park in the middle of campus shaped as a circle and all the class buildings around the circle. Many events take place in or outside the rings of the circle and.

Study locations: There are plenty of study spots. the libraries are open 24 hours during finals week and there is the gateway center that opens from 8am to 3 am i believe. We have two libraries. One Bio sci library and the langson library. The bio sci library closes earlier. Both libraries and the gateway center along with the student center all have rooms that you can borrow with made apointments.

Professors: Many of the professors here I have had for my core classes are relatively good. Use rate my professor to kinda get the feel of how a prof teaches but DO NOT RELY entirely on this website because some teachers may have bad reviews but it is only in a certain class that they are graded horribly but in other classes they could be godsend/incredibly easy. Same for professors that have high scores on RMP because they could be ass at teaching but are generally liked due to their charm/humor. Ask people in your classes what they thought of certain classes that youre interested in.


GE classes- Many classes are actually pretty easy if you just look up the professors on RMP. I have had wonderful professors for all of my GE classes (even for the harder classes that I took). Many were boring but still passionate about the subject. On average, the class size tends to be around 100-300 depending on what class it is and the demand for the class (i.e. introduction to anthropology or economics).


Summer session: One great thing that UCI offers are the summer classes. First of all, they only make you pay per unit and the max you have to pay for is 8 units (and you can take 10 units max per summer session with a total of 20 units over two summer sessions). Each summer session is 5 weeks long. A regular quarter costs around 5.2-3 grand while summer session costs about only 2.3 grand!!!! That is a bargain. As a bio major, i feel that they off adequate amounts of labs and lectures.
Summer session is a great way to get earlier enrollment windows because assigned enrollment windows is BASE ON HOW MANY UNITS YOU HAVE TAKEN AT UCI (unless you are a transfer).

Research opportunities:
There are so many research opportunities offered to students. It is up to the student to fill out a packet of your information about a quarter beforehand, and contact the professor for which study/research you are interested in. FYI, many of the professors here are doing research and the research positions are offered/ can be found online (this should be stated in orientation).

Personal experiences:
Not gonna lie, as an introvert I had a really hard time transitioning to UCI from a city college. I had anxiety attacks and imposter syndrome. i did horrible my first year here but now my grades are getting better. I didnt really have any friends but over time i got used to the quick paced (10 week) quarter system and eventually got comfortable. I have met a lot of cool and nice people here! I do not think I have even experienced anyone that has been REALLY rude or mean to me once while attending here.

[BrawlFreak]

Current senior would have graduated last year and i can confirm that these are all facts

[AliceDeWolfe]

Really great video considering I am a prospect student next fall!

[williammckay]

Another con is the lack of a social life. I recommend looking into Sorority and Fraternity Life if you’re extroverted cuz a lot of you guys who partied in HS will be disappointed. Even if Greek life isn’t for you find something to get involved with on campus, I promise you it makes the experience there way better. They have an involvement fair in the beginning of Fall, 10/10 you should go to that if you’re a UCI student.

[sohailabaheer]

I am a senior in the bio sci and so far I only had like 5 or 6 classes that were less than 300 students lol

[eeehhh]

Current student at UCI and can confirm the class sizes are fairly large for the GEs and prereq classes. My physics class was around 350-400, same with my calc 2 and chem 1a classes. It also really depends on the class itself and what prof you get since some limit their lectures to 150 with 1-3 TAs.


Highly recommend checking out all the asian food in the area! Ramen, soon tofu, korean fried chicken, dim sum, etc.

[AlexA-hcqp]

I'm a junior transfer and this is my first year at UCI. Regarding the class size, I've had one that had 16 students only (me included) and I'm taking one with 12 other people. So what I'm saying is that it is possible to be in smaller classes. However, most of my classes are usually 100-300+

[adrienne]

My classes are still big as a fourth year but my professors are my homies, I am a bio major and I feel like a lot of my professors were really good, only had a couple that really sucked, for the most part they were a million times better than my high school teachers and it’s cool that a lot of them are famous in their field

[igorcosta]

Does anyone know a girl named Aeysa? She already studied at this university. Have some pictures of her on Google!

[ethan]

possibly applying next year, im so scared

[johnathanpetrossian]

I currently go to UCI and have no problem with the class sizes. Go to any prestigious school in the rest of the country and you'll see large class sizes. Virtually all of the "good" UCs have large class sizes for general education classes, this is quite frankly because they are easy and required. My largest class size was 500 and my smallest has been 80, and to be honest I have not really felt like one class was harder to get a hold of the professor or get questions asked more than the other. The canvas discussion board and a simple email goes a long way, large class sizes aren't a con and if you are going to a great University you will be met with this.

[Bobby-vvjn]

I just graduated from UCI and I disagree with some points. You can get to know your professors/TAs if you constantly go to office hours. I went all the time and got excellent Letters of Recommendations. College classes are never about being in an intimate setting tbh. That's more for liberal arts colleges because almost all class sizes there are small. Can't expect small classes and to get intimate with professors if you're at a public university tbh

[chuautesuma]

I graduated from UCI 2 years ago, it wasn't too bad, solid campus and good opportunities for partaking in research. I did Social Sciences but spoke with some Profs. in the Hard Sciences areas. It was good place man. Plus the crazy rich Asians and their cars, it was alright.

[nabogreva]

He died for our sins so that we would be with him. I will always defend his merciful name. He died so that we would not slaves to sin but instead followers of Christ. His grace is merciful and his grace is sufficient. He is love and strength in our weakness. When you give your life over to Christ you become someone New and the old self is done away with. I pray are all safe and healthy. God is good always amen.

Blessed is the name of God amen. He is our savior, our redeemer, and creator of all. All things are possible through God amen if we put our faith in him alone. God bless you all. Trust and follow the ways of the Lord for he directs our steps and guides us with his light and we shall follow.

[georgeroth]

You're stressing me out, I'm still waiting on this one