University of California-Irvine Top Questions

Campus Representatives is pretty popular, Sigma Chi, the water polo and volleyball teams always go to the Olympics. I was involved with the Campus Representatives and thereby gave campus tours, spoke on student panels and helped out with events. I loved giving tours though because I love talking to strangers and prospective students. The Campus Representatives had a lot of events just to mingle and connect. I am still friends with some of the members. I left my dorm room unlocked all the time. 2am on a Tuesday means getting fast food at Del Taco or making a run to Albertsons. Wayzgoose, the campus wide medieval festival, happens every year as well as the extemely popular Regae Fest and Octoberfest. Saturday night was probably spent by the pool or at the movie theater or enjoying the movie Sideways for the millionth time with friends.

UCI social life has many options. There are comedy performances, theater, concerts, sports games, speakers, and different events such as Octoberfest. Student's don't leave their doors open, but everyone hangs out in each others room most of the time. The common areas were for studying and ping pong contests. Saturday night without drinking is studying. There's not much to do in Irvine on a Saturday night especially for a college student looking to self-sooth and vent the mental stress of studying.

The Greek scene is visible at UCI, but it is not as large as it is in other schools I feel. A lot of students seemed to join them freshman year in order to make friends, but you will find that there are many other outlets available on campus that you can meet people through. Our dance teams are pretty popular, such as Kaba Modern. Also, we have a few ethnic clubs that are also very popular. I worked in Housing in both Mesa Court and Middle Earth for 2 years and have made a lot of lasting friendships from that. I strongly believe that UCI has one of the best Housing programs in the nation and that the student staff here works very hard and does a lot for the housing complexes they oversee. I recommend that every first year student live in the dorms on campus because that is one of the best experiences of college and probably the best year since you have the least amount of responsibilities and can have fun living with your dorm mates. You also find that when you start being involved in school, it is a snowball effect where you join more and more organizations and clubs, and pretty soon you have a large group of friends and many things you are active in. Also, I was involved in SPOP, a orientation for incoming freshman, and that was one of my best experiences at UCI. From that, I was able to interact with many lower-class students and help them adjust to college life and also was able to meet many of my peers. As far as partying, its all about Thursday night.

It seemed to me that any of the Asian-American groups were usually the mos popular, frats and sororities after that. I was involved with a mentoring group called WYSE that focused on helping at-risk girls in middle school. It was a rewarding experience, and something I would highly recommend. I attended many theater productions, since many of my friends were with in them, or part of them in some way. I also saw the Dali Lama speak when I was a student there, which was a great experience. I met my friends all through our freshman dorm, and we all remained bonded throughout most of our four years. Traditions include Wayzgoose, our annual medieval-themed carnival in Aldrich park, at the center of campus. It's a fun way for clubs to sell food and trinkets, and for prospective students to get a feel for the atmosphere of the school. Off campus, I worked at a coffee shop. I was there alot. :)

ASUCI appears to be the elite of the school. They are magically and heavily funded and decide whether they want to share that wealth with the other student organizations. The Greeks tend to get what they want, and the queers can't even get enough funding for a dance. It is then we rely on local community organizations to help sponsor our LGBT events. Students in dorms leave their doors wide open and blasting all kinds of music whilst IMing their roommates who are sitting 2 feet away from them. There are often pizza boxes stacked on the floor, high enough to make it into a stool for uninvited guests for some World of Warcraft action. Athletic events? Oh right, our volleyball team is pretty good, I hear. The band plays at basketball games, and I think we have cheerleaders...? Aside from the friends that come automatically with student organizational involvement, I (guiltily) also made some friends through Facebook. Everything starts with a poke. If I'm awake at 2am, I'm probably talking to friends online or hanging out with the people I had just met through Facebook, and I probably won't go home because I can easily pass out on someone's couch. on a Saturday night we can make dinner together and play guitar and sing and watch downloaded movies until the wee hours of the morning, and then go to the beach and watch the sunrise together, eat a hearty surfer breakfast, then go home and sleep at 9am.

There is no one popular group/organization/club/team on campus. Everyone has their own interest and will join whatever interests them. The fraternity and sorority life is pretty big on campus. They are out there every day on campus recruiting studetns and holding philanthrapy events. There are hundreds of clubs and organizations. If there is a certain a club that student likes and is not offerred. That student could start one themselves. I am a campus rep and so i give tours of the school and help out with events on campus. I am also a student athelete participating in cross country and track and field. Students leave their dorm rooms open and closed. The relationship and trust grows as the year goes on. I have never heard of anything being stolen from a room. There are guest speakers here all the time. Depending on the department or organization. You can find a guest speaker almost every day on campus. I am usually a late night person. On weekdays i like to start my homework late and am up till about 3am. I dont normally go out on the weekdays however if i do usually thursday night is the night most students will go out and party or hang out with friends. People party here quite often depending on the crowd. Fraternities and sororities have the most party events that will take you to clubs and bars. There are many house parties held by students. Newport Beach is a common place for students to live and party. They are right on the beach and so its always a fun place to hang out. This past weekend i went to a party in newport beach and a house party in the city of irvine. During the day I went to the arc which is our recreation center to play some soccer. Saturday nights can be fun. I like to go to a shopping center called the spectrum where i can watch a movie, get some dinner and walk around. Newport beach is fun to walk around at night there are alwyas people out and about. There are also concerts held on campus or around the area I like to go to.

Greek life tends to take over campus and you can always find someone from the Greek community handing out fliers to a party near the Student Center. The two political groups also make headlines when they’re controversial. The campus tour guides I hang out with are the most spirited group of people I’ve ever met and come from every background imaginable. We’re all out-going, extremely involved and active in the community. Everyone leaves their dorms door opens and everyone is willing to have a conversation if it is ever needed. Athletic events are popular but not as popular as they could be and are no match for big sporting schools. Concerts are big at UCI. Kanye West, Bob Dylan and Kelly Clarkson are among those that come to UCI and every year Reggae Fest is a fun outing with tons of free beer for those overage. We also have a lot of interesting speakers come, including author David Sedaris. The theatre shows are well-attended and always sell out. The dating scene is typical and you will see a lot of couples hanging out at school. I meet a lot of people just from going to class, which I think is atypical at some other schools where class is just where you go to learn a thing or two. If I’m awake at 2 in the morning, that’s likely because I’m finishing a paper, not an indication that I’m looking for a party. UCI Celebration is something to look forward to every year, where all the groups on campus come out and perform or put booths out with food specific to their culture, etc. People do party, but not as much as on other campuses. Thursday nights is the big day to go out. Weekends are generally used to get away from campus – going to the beach, a concert, movie, a night in L.A., etc. I’m pretty good at budgeting for the weekend. I wasn’t involved in Greek life, but I had a lot of friends that were and it was very important to them. Greek life is a large part of the UCI campus but does not overwhelm it.

There is so much going on here, it's hard to say what is the most popular! There are Greek organizations--I have many Greek friends, but it is not a large part of campus. There are many service organizations, political organizations, academic organizations--tons of stuff going on. Many people say we don't have school spirit, but I disagree. The biggest sports are basketball and volleyball--men's volleyball rocks! They won the NCAA championship last year, and they are really good and fun to watch. I am involved in the Campuswide Honors Program, which is pretty small but has a great community feel. In honors housing, everyone leaves their door open, and it feels like you are part of a big family. People study together, eat together, watch movies together. Partying is not that big here, but it usually happens off campus (in Newport.) There is great shopping and entertainment in the area... we are also near Angel Stadium and the Arrowhead Pond (where the Ducks play.) I and many of my friends have Disneyland annual passes--its great to go at night and watch the fireworks. This really is the best location to go to the college. It's the only UC in the OC!

I would say sororities and fraternities are probably most popular groups to join on campus. I am involved in the new university campus newspaper and I take photos of events around campus or UCI related. In the dorms, it depends on how close the dorm is as a whole. My dorm was not close at all. In fact, I didn't know most of the people in my dorm. I met my best friend at the dorm; she was the only person in the dorm I hung out with. I met my other closest friends on the last day of my first year from the dorm across mine, and happen to hang out with them the next year. Events that happen are usually antstock, which is when bands play in aldrich park, swap meets couple times during the quarter, shocktoberfest for Halloween and it also has a concert, and dash film festival, which is a film festival with students' videos. I would say people party on weekends starting from Thursday to Saturday or Sunday. Fraternities and sororities are not that important as long as you meet a cool group of people you can just party with. Last weekend, I hung out with friends and just relaxed because it was after midterms.

The social life here sometimes seems nonexistent but is easy to search out if you make an effort to look. Fraternities and sororities are not huge here, something like 10{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of the students are involved in them, but they all seem to be really nice and throw some pretty good parties around campus. Throughout my time here I've always felt that everyone has been really friendly and sociable. In the dorms everyone always had their door open and would stop by to hang out, people are always having events for the club or group on campus, and I have met a lot of friends just from classes I've taken with them. A lot of people tend to go off campus as of late because we just recently got our student center back from renovations. They mostly head out to Newport Beach to party down there or just take in the sun at the beach. If you like outdoors, then UCI would be an easy transition, it's one of the only places in the country where you can go surfing and snowboarding in the same day.