j. t.

Review of Uinversity of California, San ...

I was at UCSD for Triton Day because I was accepte...

I was at UCSD for Triton Day because I was accepted as a student. I LOVED almost everything about the campus. The tours and info sessions at Revelle were excellent, I loved the programs I heard about, the student orgs, etc, etc. In fact, if I was accept under my desired major (rather than "Undeclared"), I probably would have signed a SIR during Triton Day. About midway through the day, I expected to go home considering that UCSD would probably be my school. However, when I applied to UCSD for CS I was accepted as Undeclared. Thus, I decided (appropriately) to attend the "Undeclared Majors: Engineering" talk. In this talk, I expected to hear facts and pathways to entering the various engineering programs UCSD has. Instead, I heard that (if I am to attend UCSD) I should pursue something other than CS. When asked about CS (or almost any other engineering program), the two presenters were frustratingly taking every avenue to dodge giving away any useful information and statistics (aside from directing the audience to the CS program s website for application pre-reqs). They refused to give any CS statistics whatsoever and would not discuss the reasonability of transferring into the CS major. Instead, they'd just advertise other non-engineering majors. Even when directly asked about admissions into various engineering programs, they would find a way out of telling any admissions info. They repeatedly explicitly stated that they didn't have any numbers. After the presentation, I personally approached one of them and asked about how many spots they allocate towards freshmen in the CS program, and the presenter pulled out a packet and showed me some numbers. This showed me that they did have the statistics, but they were (for some reason) withholding them. The fact that they lied about having any statistics (sadly) has gradually made me afraid to attend UCSD. After the presentation my mother cried not only because we could see how hopeless it seemed to be to enter the CS major/programs as "Undeclared", but also because UCSD seemed so right for me. Almost every aspect of UCSD felt right until that point. The purpose of college is academia, so this makes it harder for me to sign up for UCSD May 1st/2nd. I have no problem with going to a school as Undeclared if I have a clear, honest, reasonable pathway to enter my major. If they were willing to disclose statistics (no matter how unreliable, inconsistent, or ridiculous they may be), I would feel far more confident in UCSD right now. Instead, I was scared away from UCSD. I will proudly attend UW next fall, where they publicly display their department statistics because they know they're not full of BS. Felt like a bait and switch.

(Aside from this one presentation, Triton Day was excellent. However, Triton Day ultimately ruled UCSD out of my college choices.)