University of California-Irvine Top Questions

They are focused, study constantly, and often asian.

My classmates are very intelligent and diverse, but I wish they were more social.

Intelligent, but lacks support to continue education.

My classmates are interested in the subject matter in which they are taking, making it fun to intereact inside the classroom.

My classmates are generally very focused, the majority of which are Biology majors, and are primarily Asian.

My classmates, as Enlgish majors, were extremely self-sufficient, but at the same time, they were mostly introverted.

Funny

I hate to keep referring to the OC bubble, but because many students are from the surrounding upper-middle class suburbia, it has to be mentioned. They tend to dress trendily and stylish. I come from a working class background and felt at least some kind of divide because of this. One of the off-campus apartments near UCI, called Park West, is dubiously nicknamed "Park Watts" (as a reference to the area Watts). It is one of the cheaper apartments around and it's quality isn't as good as other apartments found in Irvine. However if you placed the same apartment complex in Los Angeles, or in some other urban cities, it'd probably be considered a higher-end apartment complex. I hope this gives you an idea of the standards many of these students have lived under (think on the lines of parents making $70-150k as a guesstimation of the norm). But as I keep saying, if you spend the time to find the right people you will find them. With a school of 20,000+, you're bound to find some interesting non-generic non-cliquish people. :) Despite all that I've said, the UCI crowd is a very friendly bunch. And very laid back as well. But sheltered! The religious students tend to be right, while the rest tend to be mid-left/middle. That is, in the rare instances where people actually care about politics.

The classmates that I have encountered are very diverse and range from attentive to uninterested, from praticipants to non-participants, from helpful to non-helpful, and from goal-oriented to not goal-oriented.

Dedicated and reliable.

Oh god. Well, there is little diversity, for starters. Students are nice, but they can be very close-minded. I think the best way to describe the political situation is apathetic. I've met more "moderates" than I've ever met in my whole life at Irvine. Coming from the Bay Area, this was a huge shock. There are plenty of Republicans as well, as it's Southern California, and I have heard many times "Gay marriage should be illegal" or "Abortion is a sin". If you're looking for a liberal college, this is not it. Most kids are from around the school--Diamondbar, Valencia, SD, Hollywood, Compton, etc. Those from the Bay Area clump together. I've never met anyone from out of state at Irvine.

Some were very serious, others surfed the web during class

A large asian population, there is a good amount of students who work hard at this school.

Not super friendly nor rude...everyone minds their own business. You pretty much stick to the friends you make early on.

Students here are either grateful they came to a good university and therefore get good grades, or consume themselves into thinking they are "better" than the school, but get bad grades instead of proving that they really are better.

competitive

Most of my classmates are Asian either majoring in Psychology or Engineering.

All around good people, focused on completing there studies so they may acquire a job upon graduation.

driven students who want to do well in the future

Really helpful but competitive

My classmates are hard working individuals that study everyday to keep up in their classes and are helpful to one another.

They are mostly well off, studious, Asian, fun loving, party going, people that have a little quirky side to them.

Most of my classmates are extremely cut throat and are out to help themselves, but what else should be expected of a biological sciences class of 1900 and everyone has dreams of medical school, only a select few will actually make it.

There were more Asian people on campus than any other ethnicity.

just there to get a degree, have fun, and get enjoy life

all asian smart a lot of them are in my classes

Well oriented and grounded for the most part.

Half are very friendly and fun to get along with while the other half seem to be focused to hard on doing nothing but studying.

Some are motivated and others are not; it's like an exension of high school sometimes.

My classmates are driven, motivated and hard workers with a sense of humor wrapped with self worth.

Most students here care about their academics .

Fun, caring, outgoing, smart, and very well-rounded individuals!

I spent a lot of my time in the Cross Cultural Center and with activisty kids who liked stuff like I do. I would have to say there was a slight separation between the kids who did more activist, multicultural type things like me and the kids who did the Greek Life thing. Not that you could not do both, but most of the time there you could sense the separation. The cool thing about UCI having just basically one big campus in a circle is that it is possible to bump into friends that have different majors than you on the way to class. For example even though I was at the school of social science, most of my friends were in engineering and bio sci. That is very different from other schools with campuses of different schools that are very separated and far from each other.

Diversity is one of UCI's strengths, however the Hispanic cohort is underrepresented there. Rednecks probably feel out of place at UCI. A majority of UCI students are from California, and political views vary widely as also do their financial backgrounds.

UCI is pretty diverse. It reminds me of high school at times, because certain groups will not interact with others. I wish there are more visible students with disabilities on campus. Although there has been some promotion about disability issues from Disability Service Center, I do not see a lot of interaction between students with disability and general student body.

Most students wear flip flops year round. I know I did!... I feel like I met a very diverse group of students throughout my four years at UCI. There are just so many different organizations on campus that I think it would be difficult to feel unable to fit in somewhere. I remember feeling like the student body was generally apathetic to political/social issues.

UCI is definitely racially diverse, but it's not necessarily the diversity that you would see in most of America. There are a lot of Asian people and quite a few Caucasians, but African Americans and Hispanics are definitely in the minority on this campus. The races generally stick together, probably accentuated by all the ethnic student organizations, but I never witnessed any animosity. Because it is southern California, people are pretty chill in fashion style. Sometimes people where PJs or business style clothes, but most wear shirt (which may have UCI on it), jeans, and flip-flops. The vast majority of UCI students are from California, but a few out-of-staters trickle through, including a significant showing from Hawaii. Of the Californians, some are from northern Caifornia, but most are from southern California either near LA, in the OC, or in the Inland Empire. Financially, most of the students are middle-class, but there are always some fancy cars in the student parking lots.

Because of my interest in issues of race, class and gender, I was involved at the Cross-Cultural Center where I worked and hung out with people of diverse background. UCI is quite unique in that it has a large active community of Muslim Americans. I got to know many active, smart, and funny Muslim American men and women. Some people might feel like it is harder to fit in a diverse pool of people, because people are organized in cultural specific groups. But I feel like I learn more by being with specific groups and being in seemingly different groups. When the Cross-Cultural Center hosts the Pictionary tournament, everyone's competitive spirit comes alive. It is definitely a friendly competition but it gets harder and harder to win every year. Most students are from California, with the majority from Southern California, a good amount from Northern California and few from outside of California. A bulk of the students live around campus but a fair amount are commuters. So it is sometimes hard to meet people if you don't have a class with them or is part of the same student organization.

The UCI student body is pretty tolerant and very easy going. The two groups that caused the most "disturbances" (in the sense that they drew a crowd and spoke passionately on both sides) on campus were the Muslim Student Union and the Jewish groups. Other than that, there was no major tension between groups on campus. Everyone gets along for the most part. Students are very casual to class. Most students live in jeans and sweatshirts with the occasional "dressy day". Most students seem to come from middle class families. I once had a professor say that we should not aspire to be or make more than our parents, because chances are most of us would be working in retail. At the time I thought he was just a pompous jerk who loved nothing better than to talk about himself, but in a way, he is right. A lot of jobs out there today are highly specialized. Our parents generation had to sturggle for everything. Our generation has been largely provided for and because of that we are a little naive and spoiled. We get a job in college working at a clothing store and then after graduation we keep it because the struggle of obtaining that dream job is too daunting. Some of us do move on and land that dream job or at least begin to work our way up the career ladder, but the rest seem stuck in a stage of wanting to be better, but afraid to take the chance, or ignorant as to how to start. College has taught us how to think and apply, but it doesn't really teach us how to land that dream job.

I would say in general the student body at UC Irvine is not very much political minded. I know people that do have strong opinions about issues but are not that vocal and proactive as they could be just merely because of the environment. Although there have been rallies, protests, and demonstrations on campus I feel that it is really not very often compare to more liberal UC campuses. Since UC Irvine is in Orange Country and Irvine itself (which seriously is a little suburban bubble) students are not as exposed as they could be to controversial issues as they ultimately will not impact them one way or another. UC Irvine is pretty accepting of any student and their background. In terms of finances most of the people I knew had jobs to support themselves as well as having the parentals to support them with the raising tuition costs. There are some people, just because the campus is in Orange County that did show of their wealth with designer labels and luxury cars.

UCI is very diverse. I have frequently been in a class where I am the only white guy. Usually all of the groups interact very nicely, however, as I noted before, the Jews, Muslims and Christians tend to argue about a lot of stupid crap. And every once in a while, they will arrange for guest speakers to come which spur protests. As for most UCs the majority of the school is pretty left, but because it is located in conservative Orange County, any students are Republicans. The wealth of students varies too. many pay their way through UCI by working, and others have their parents pay. People don't really talk about future earnings, but those who get jobs will occasionally speak of what they were offered.

Most of the students at UCI keep to themselves, I'd say. There are some groups, however, that have a definate presence on campus. The greeks are one such prescence as well as the political groups. The muslim student union is probably the most controversial group on campus. There are groups that are growing in popularity such as pro-Isael and dance groups.

Honestly, i never though that it was possible to be surrounded by so many asian people without actually being in the far east. guess i was wrong. Most people at the school seem to come from upper-middle class homes. People are moderately active and definately lean towards the left.

The Jewish community is bulleying the Muslim community. Four Tables: Asians, Frat and Sorority, smarts, & regulars.

When it comes to politics, most UCI students seem to be apathetic. Some students are very politically active, and the campus has been on FBI's watchlist because of the conflict between the Muslim and Jewish student unions (A Muslim student was hit by an FBI car last year). Most campuses tend to be more liberal than the surrounding area (except in Berkeley), and this seems to be true of UCI and Irvine. But when the surrounding area is filled with bourgeoise bastards (Republicans, and Democrats to a lesser extent, that are interested in keeping property values high and wages low), you tend to see their progeny spewing out bullshit about how going into Iraq is spreading freedom. You get a range of political ideologies in the social sciences, even a few neo-Marxists that will get your minds thinking revolution. But ultimately, you will realize that the only revolutions that have a chance of happening in Irvine have to do with the Ron Paul Revolution.

mellow.

People aren't too spirited here and in general, are not excited to be at UCI. On the plus side, there are a lot of really good looking people here for a UC campus. It's also a fairly sized school. So when you're walking along campus, you'll recognize people, and that provides a more homely feeling. In terms of the Asian population, again, it all depends on who you hang out with. I joined a fraternity in IFC. The population in the system is pretty diverse.

People wear whatever they want to class usually. Different types of students interact in social clubs or in living accommodations that require it. In a dining hall, people of the same dorm will usually sit together. Most UCI students live locally and are fairly well off financially (or their parents are).

I love UCI because though the student body leans left on the political spectrum they are by no means falling off. Yes we have a person on our main walk way yelling about the end of the world, how Mulisms or Jews are destroying the middle east, but overall it is all chill. The money is well spread with a lot of middle/upper middle class. There aren't many super rich kids, but many are well off, though there are many people who come for lower SES backgrounds. There is a little bit of political apathy, but I kind of like that, every listens to others generally. Also UCI does an amazing job bringing in politicians and world leaders, from Jimmy Carter to former presidents of European countries to leaders in Isreal to leaders in the Muslim faith, UCI really does an awesome job at balancing the issues and providing a true forum (if you wish to attend, if that's just fine too)

I am a Caucasian in a sea of diversity. It's one of the things I love and hate about UCI. I love it b/c going to UCI has taught me to get along with all types of people, from all types of backgrounds, and to be more tolerant and understanding of people. However, being a Caucasian, I have also felt really left out b/c UCI has many activities geared to those with other cultural backgrounds. I blame most of this on myself for not being better at finding a niche where I was comfortable, but I also just think it's an inevitable part of going to a culturally diverse school. And perhaps it's been good for me to be the minority in college....the tables have turned on me and as a result, I'm a much stronger person that I was before I came here. All in all though everyone is very excepting of everyone else and UCI does not stand for racism AT ALL, which I think is really a great quality of UCI. Most students wear whatever the heck they want to class. We have people in pajamas, people coming in suits (for Fraternity or job/interview reasons)...but mostly people just wear jeans and flip-flops.....it's very casual. A lot of UCI students are from Southern California, with a few from Northern California, and an even fewer amount from out of state and out of the country. UCI students come from all different financial backgrounds, made possible both from UCI's extensive financial aid opportunities, it's low cost to begin with, and it's prestigious reputation. I think students are politically aware, and are active in terms of voting. I think there are probably more democrats than republicans, but there is a fair divide between the two parties.