Curtis WestbayOverview
University of California—Irvine is a public institution that was founded in 1965. It has a total undergraduate enrollment of 29,638 (fall 2020), its setting is suburban, and the campus size is 1,475 acres. It utilizes a quarter-based academic calendar.
The University of California—Irvine, a research institution in Orange County, specializes in areas such as cancer and neuroscience studies in conjunction with the highly ranked UC Irvine Medical Center. Graduate programs are highly regarded at UC Irvine, too, with specialty offerings at the Paul Merage School of Business and the Henry Samueli School of Engineering. Students can participate in more than 500 student organizations, including nearly 50 fraternities and sororities. The Pacific Ocean is only 5 miles from campus. Known as a commuter school, the university offers on-campus residences. Freshmen are not required to live on campus but more than three-fourths do. The university has earned accolades for its eco-friendly measures, promoting green initiatives through student groups like the Anteaters for Recycling and Conservation.
Acceptance Rate: About 30%
Notable Rankings (US News)
- Overall: #36
- Public University: #9
- Engineering: #42
- Business: #30
- Computer Science: #28
- Nursing: #31
What Students Say...
The Good
- "I'm a student graduated in 2019. After graduating 2 years, I realized how great our university is. To be honest, I miss UC Irvine badly. Our campus is extremely beautiful, safe and clean, and there are unlimited opportunities there for you to discover, whether academic research projects or entertainment activities. Our professors are great, intelligent and amiable! They do care students and trying to help us as much as possible. Moreover, UCI also has abundant resources around interdisciplinary subject such as Human-Computer Interaction, and I've done two different research projects there with best professors in this area! Overall speaking, I absolutely love UCI and the 4 years I've spent in here is amazing and unforgettable. I spent my best youth in this best school!"
- "I absolutely love my school. I think it's difficult to detail campus life since we all are doing our part to slow the spread of the virus on campus but I can say it's a wonderful environment. I have amazing professors that do their best even virtually to help everyone. The food is also delicious! As someone who is vegan, I was nervous that there wouldn't be that many options but I was surprised to see an entire kitchen section specifically for vegan cuisine. UCI also has many resources that ensure we perform well, from free tutoring and counseling to online events for studying in groups and meeting new people. UCI truly cares deeply about its students and I haven't had a bad experience with my campus representative. I am so happy with my decision to choose UCI and encourage anyone who wants to have a quality education in a great college environment to do the same."
- "The faculty members and professors are always helping and striving to educating the students. In my freshman year of college, I was struggling with choosing which major I wanted to study. By the end of my freshman year, I had switched my major three times, and it really took a toll mentally. However, when I have received advice and help from my peers and school, it allowed me to vision what I wanted to do in the future. Only 4 star because of covid, but school is now on campus!"
The Not-So-Good
- "There are some professors that have adjusted to a lighter workload on their students due to the pandemic because they are aware of the number of assignments that other classes assign. Other professors have simply given out weekly quizzes and assignments, in order to account for a self-paced online learning curriculum. In the online adjustment, many of the services on campus are difficult to reach, contact, or even get a response back."
- "If you are focused on sciences, pre-med, and engineering, this school might be worth your while, but if not, PLEASE take this into consideration: I went to UCI some years ago, and long story short, dropped out because of what was going on in my life, and saw that education was turning more into indoctrination with regards to certain breadth requirements and fields of study. Campus life, and the school community is very cliquish, and nowhere near as diverse as they claim to be. Groups that bond over cultural interests tend to treat you as an outsider passive-aggressively if you don't come from that specific culture. The campus used to have more Division I aquatic sports, but the team's funding was cut, and now what remains are largely club sports. If you are looking for a university with a well-rounded academic and life experience, this isn't it."
- "To me this school is more focused on how it appears rather than how it runs. It seems like money issues are more important than education as well. A lot of the teachers are barely ok. A handful of nice and sincere ones, but even then there’s not enough time to even acknowledge them, because of how fast paced the quarter system is."
Notable Alumni
- David Benioff, Game of Thrones Co-Creator & Showrunner
- Joe Lacob, Golden State Warriors owner
- Jon Lovitz, Actor/Comedian
- Greg Louganis, Multiple Olympic Gold Medal-winning Diver
- Coco Lee: Attended - Chinese pop star
- Vanness Wu - Singer, actor, director, producer, member of F4
- Vince Steckler - CEO of Avast Software
Student Life in Pics
