Why I Chose To Attend UC Irvine
My name is Neelansh and I am currently a first-year undergraduate student at UC Irvine. I was born in India, but lived in Dubai and Ohio, USA for various amounts of time. However, right before I came to college, I lived in India and could never visit Irvine in person before deciding to spend the next four years here. My college decision process was all over the place when I was trying to pick my new home last year. In the end, I decided to come here and have had an amazing freshman year experience! Here are some of the deciding reasons on why I chose UCI:
After I was done researching the easily comparable factors, I wanted to dive in deeper to the environment and vibe each of my options gave out. The best way I found to get a deeper understanding of how it would feel to be at any one of my options was directly from current students!
I went through day-in-a-life videos, reddit posts, social media group chats, talked to current students, and any other direct form of media I could find from students about how it would feel to be at UC Irvine. The result? Over and over again I got the same answer about how UCI exhibits a culture that was more collaborative. A culture where academically it will not be cutthroat, but at the same time you will be pushed to do your best.
On the other hand, the school has an active social life if you wish to be a part of it, and if you’re more introverted, it won’t be pushed upon you. This was the exact blend I was looking for and was one of the top reasons I finally picked UCI.
I’m glad to say that this sense of the culture here I got was extremely accurate! I’m pushed academically in a manner that I never have been before. Yet, there has never been a moment of toxic competitiveness and rather students have been more than glad to help me if I struggle somewhere and vice-versa.
As regards to the social aspect, I have found a great friend group here that completely matches my expectations and wants for a social life. I do know people who prefer to spend their time alone, and have the freedom to do so. On the other hand, I know people who prefer to be heavily involved socially and have found clubs, frats and other avenues to achieve that. The ability to pick and choose exactly what social life you want is not something easily achievable everywhere but UCI is able to give that.
The third factor that locked UCI in for me was the abundance of diversity that this campus embodies. Living in Dubai, Ohio, and India gave me a breadth of different cultures and I loved that experience. Dubai in particular was a melting pot of cultures and being able to experience that was a key part of my life growing up. I wanted to live in a similar environment to that, and UCI was the perfect place to be. Being exposed to so many different cultures and learning from a wide variety of perspectives is truly an invaluable experience!
