Oh god, this is going to be long...
To be honest, UCSD was not my first choice, and that was the general consensus of the people in my dorm. UCSD was my second choice, where my first choice was USC. But then as the years passed, I gave UCSD a chance, and I really enjoy it here. I met great friends, received great opportunities, and created many cherished memories with the events hosted here. If you're into the more underground, indie music, there's a lot of those concerts here with Copeland, ra ra riot, and much more. Then there's SUN GOOOOOD!!!! hahaha
And from what I hear, UCSD has started to rank really fast for a really young school, so that pretty impressive. haha I'd say if you were trying to go into science come here. We have a really solid science and research programs here, and our neuroscience is pretty legit too. That's why I came here. (I'm a neuroscience major.) Last I heard, we have Einstein's brain too! yee yee! I'm not sure if we still do though. haha Also our psychology is pretty awesome too, Ramachandran teaches here from time to time. (I'm also a psychology major.)
For me the school is just right, but I've heard others complain it was too big. Parents and adults are usually pretty impressed that I go to UCSD, but I don't know if they are pretending it's impressive or not. But I do remember going to Santa Barbara, and talking to a Gaucho there. He was a Math & Poli Sci double major, and he was talking about how he believed that there were tiers in the UCs, there It's like UCLA, UC Berkeley, and UCSD in the first tier, and the second tier was like UCI, UCSC, and UCSB, and then the rest are third tiers. But for me though, I'm just proud to be here, and kinda don't really care what other people think. I'm getting the education I need.
I spend most of my time in Sun God Lounge, but others spend it in Geisel Library and PC (Price Center, basically our food court.) The reason why I spend my time in Sun God Lounge is because I'm in a co-ed fraternity, and that's where all the meetings are. So I just hang out in there and run into my bros. haha But there's always other groups of people surfing on the computer and reading or even taking a nap on the couches. haha! Oh, I also remember going to the commuter lounge in Peppercanyon Hall during finals week, and some dude gave me his blanket as I napped. hahahaha It was super nice. I know that there's this club called MACOKE that hangs out in there a lot. They were all really chill, nerdy, nice, and gamers. haha
La Jolla doesn't have a frat row 'cause it's not allowed... for some strange reason. *shakes fist* But I think we've all managed and the frats/sororities generally just all live together off campus somewhere, and when there is a house full of frat boys/sorority girls, they choose if they want their house to be the party house.
The school's administration is alright. I'm in Sixth College, and the people are super sweet here. But sometimes there's really unhelpful people too. Generally the biology department is VERY helpful, especially if you make an appointment. The Psych department people sucked balls. They were not helpful at all. The career services people are also very helpful. & the financial aid people got things done, but didn't really help much. All they did was give you a piece of paper with all these links that might be helpful. haha
The biggest recent controversy on campus was this thing some fraternity did.. The Compton Cookout. It was super racist, and brought up lots of issues.
There's not that much school pride here... I blame it on the lack of a football team. haha But we have really good water sports teams here like water polo and crew. I heard the male tennis team was pretty legit too.
If you guys have any other questions, feel free to contact me!