University of California, San Diego

Responses from the Student Interview

From a student  who identifies as Major: Pharmacological Chemistry
Minor: Psychology
Student Self Identifies as: Hispanic Heterosexual Male

Summary

I [have a leadership position] in a pre-pharmacy professional organization.

Background

Gender Identity: Male
Race/Ethnicity: Hispanic
Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual

High School Experience: Public high school in San Jose, CA with a graduating class of about 750 people. There was a culture of going to college.
First-Generation College Student: Yes
Major: Pharmacological Chemistry
Minor: Psychology

Extracurricular Activities: I [have a leadership position] in a pre-pharmacy professional organization.
How has this organization impacted your experience?
Joining the pre-professional organization has helped me learn more about the career I want to go in, as well as make connections with fellow like-minded students.

Academic Experience

Can you describe your weekly coursework for your major?
Right now, we have problem sets. We usually have homework but it’s not assigned, it’s just homework you probably should be doing. We also have weekly quizzes for biology classes. If it’s a chemistry course we might have online homework. Most of it is studying and taking the exams.
Is there anything you feel that your major’s department does especially well or poorly?
They do a good job of making sure you have the resources you need to succeed in class. The Chemistry department offers a lot of tutoring. As far as classes that are geared more toward engineering, I find it’s lacking in help. For the Chemistry department, you’re required to take a physics series geared toward engineering students. Tutoring isn’t really offered for that, it’s more geared toward the sciences.
How would you describe the learning environment? Do you think it’s particularly competitive or collaborative?
My experience has been more collaborative than competitive. I’ve barely had a class where it’s graded on a curve and your rank in the class determines your grade. For every class, they emphasize collaboration where everyone can get an A.
How accessible are your professors?
Professors are generally accessible. You can talk to them after lectures or shoot them an email. We have a program where we can go and chat with the professors while eating at a very fancy place. You can invite them and schedule an appointment if you want to get to know your professor a bit more.
What has been your favorite class in your major?
Chemistry 6C. It’s the end of the general chemistry series. Not only did it build up on stuff I learned previously in AP Chemistry in high school, but it was also new information that was stimulating enough to be interesting, but it wasn’t insanely hard.
Why did you pick your major? Are you happy with your choice?
Ideally, I want to peruse a career in pharmacy, so the classes tend to line up with that. You only take a couple of extra classes. I might be switching majors due to the Chemistry department is requirements. We’re required to take an engineering series in physics, as well as calculus, which I don’t see the point in taking those classes if I’m not pursuing a career in engineering. Biology students generally don’t have to take those classes. They take a much more toned-down physics series and don’t have to take the additional vector calculus classes.
How was transitioning academically as a first-generation college student? Were there any systems in place that helped you adjust?
Coming to college as a first-generation student, everything was new. The whole college life and how it works was pretty hectic to figure out. Most of it I did by myself, however, the college specifically has events geared toward first-generation students. They also have programs that help those students thrive, like, they have mentor-mentee programs. Not only do they provide us with mentors and mentees, but we also get perks such as going to presentations geared more toward research opportunities and financial aid. I also get priority enrollment in classes. The systems put in place makes it feel like the university cares about helping first-generation students.

Reasons to Attend

1) The weather is amazing. It rains sometimes but isn’t as temperamental compared to Northern California.
2) I’ve had really good professors and I feel like they do care about the undergraduate population. They want you to succeed and many of them are well established.
3) The beach is right there. Because we live in an area that’s so wealthy, there are people who pave down sand to even it out in the mornings. It’s so clean and beautiful. It makes the campus stand out and seem a lot more uplifting and happy.
4) The prestige. Since we are one of the top UCs, we generally have a good reputation. The opportunities you’re able to get from being a UCSD student have been great. I’ve had friends who’ve gotten internships with the hospitals around us, and they’ve been able to get into a good position where they’re paid money for interning.

Reasons Not to Attend

1) We’ve had a large number of people that the chancellor has been admitting, which makes the school very busy. We have a huge undergraduate population but not necessarily enough housing to put everyone in there. [There has been a 22% increase in enrollment since 2014.]
2) Since there is so much construction going on, parking on campus has gotten terrible. If you’re the type of person that likes going everywhere in their car this might affect you since permits are expensive and they’ve made it so you have to be an upperclassman to own a permit. [In Fall 2019, UCSD started charging students to park on campus during the weekends.]
3) If you’re looking for a certain type of college experience that’s portrayed in movies where you go on campus to party and there’s a super busy nightlife, this probably isn’t the school for you. If you want to get involved in Greek life we have so many organizations and you’d have a similar experience, but at night or weekends campus is very dead.

Around Campus

Where have you lived on and around campus?
Freshman: Tenaya Hall in a triple with 9 other suitemates.
Sophomore: Tamarack Apartments with 6 people total.
How was transitioning from your hometown in San Jose to San Diego, CA?
UCSD is pretty much as south as you can go, and it’s the furthest UC from my hometown. It was different transitioning. It’s far away so at first it was a bit daunting if it’s an area you’re not familiar with. After living for over a year you get used to the location pretty easily. It feels like my second home at this point.
Can you describe the level of safety you’ve experienced on and around campus?
I’d say I feel a lot safer on campus compared to my hometown or other colleges I’ve visited while deciding which to go to. I study at the library late at night, so I tend to leave around 12 or 1 AM and I have no worries walking through campus. They’ve done a good job making sure everyone feels safe, and I think that the location is a plus. It’s situated in a wealthy neighborhood, and we haven’t had any problems with a homeless population coming onto campus.

Social Opportunities

What kind of weekend activities or nightlife do you like to participate in?
Some weekends I do go out off-campus to friend’s apartments for kickbacks. In general, there isn’t much nightlife on campus since it feels like most people from San Diego or neighboring cities such as Los Angeles, so most people go home. [In 2018-19, 19.6% of students were from San Diego and Imperial Counties and 35.7% of students were from Los Angeles and Orange Counties.]
What have been some of your favorite events at UCSD?
Sometimes the campus has different weeks with different events. We’ve had events where at night they have bands playing or carnival games. At least once a quarter we have some form of event where you can go to a certain place on campus where there’s free food, prizes, and for the fall they rent out a Ferris wheel.
What’s an alternative to going to a party or a bar that you like for a night out?
Going to the beach at night has been really nice. A lot of people like doing that since you can just walk down to the beach. Going at night is a whole different experience in my opinion.
What is the impact of Greek life on nightlife?
From what I’ve seen, Greek life does have a huge impact. In general, in terms of nightlife, every single fraternity and sorority has a house off campus where people go to party. No one really stays on campus. [About 8% of students are involved in Greek life.]
How happy are you with the weekend options at UCSD? Is there anything you would change about them if you could?
I’m a bit more introverted and I’m not into the whole party scene. I don’t really mind our nightlife scene. I know people who personally think it’s lacking, but it just depends on the type of person you are.
Campus Culture
How did you meet your closest friends?
Through organizations I’ve gone to meet and to join. A lot of my closest friends are through the [pre-pharmacy professional organization].
How did being a first-generation college student affect your social transition, if at all?
I wouldn’t say it did, since a huge part of the undergraduate population is also first-gen, it’s been more of a bonding thing than a negative thing because we know where each other is coming from.
How would you describe the overall social scene at UCSD?
I’d agree when people say it’s a bit cliquey. The organizations you join is usually how you meet your close group of friends, but it wouldn’t be the same as going to lecture and talking to the people around you. With the college being split into six different colleges, everyone has their own community so it’s not as broad or easy to intermingle with other students.
To what extent do people of different races and sexual orientations mix socially?
From what I’ve seen, there are a lot of clubs geared toward a certain demographic. For example, there is the Vietnamese Student Association. Clubs say they’re very accepting of people of different cultures, but from what I’ve seen these clubs geared toward a certain culture mainly cater to that culture. For professional organizations that are more broad, you do see more diversity among its population. [The undergraduate student population is about 20% Hispanic, 3% Black, 19% White, and 53% Asian.]
How do you like the size of UCSD in terms of undergraduate enrollment? How has it impacted your experience? [There are about 30,000 undergraduates.]
Since the campus is huge and divided by the college system, I’d say it makes it pretty hard to meet completely new people since everyone is sectioned off by what college they’re in. From what I’ve seen, people make their friends based on the college they live in. I’d say if it was changed from the six-college system to something broader, there would be a positive effect.
How has the six-college system impacted your experience at USCD?
Each one has its own core values. One is science-heavy, one is engineering heavy, and these are physical places on campus. if you’re taking a certain type of class, you’d most likely find it in said college. Since our campus is huge, you could have classes far away from each other which makes it difficult to get to them. When people apply to USCD, they pick a college that pertains to their current major. Within that college, you might find people of a similar major, but since the college system is based on [general education requirements], you’ll find some people choose a certain college based on how easy those are. So, you may end up in a college where everyone has a different major and you don’t all have the same interests from a professional standpoint.

Campus Culture

Careers

Have you learned any computer languages or software that will be helpful to you professionally?
I wouldn’t count MATLAB as a computer program, but we did have to learn it for Vector Calculus. I didn’t find it helpful, but that might be because it doesn’t pertain to my major.

Financial Aid

Have you used financial aid? If so, how easy is the office to work with?
I’ve contacted the financial aid office a couple of times. They have a reputation of being super late when it comes to sending out awards to the undergraduate population. I’d say they are a bit lacking in terms of that, but whenever I call the office they generally answer my questions pretty clearly.