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★★★★The Case for an Overlooked University2013-09-16While searching for colleges to apply to, you may have heard about the University of California, Riverside, or UCR. Often an overlooked campus for its lack of top-achievers and applicant ignorance to the point of knowing nothing besides there being a river nearby (which there isn't), UC Riverside is definitely a campus worth considering.FactsLet's start with the facts. UCR is the sixth out of the ten UCs to be founded. It hosts 18,539 undergraduate and 2,466 graduate students. It sits in the Inland Empire, fifty-six miles east of Los Angeles. It's U.S. News ranking is 112th nationally, or 55th among public schools. [1] It also ranks 10th in Leiden University's Natural Science and Engineering rankings and 2nd in the Washington Monthly National Universities rankings. [3] All rankings were taken from 2013.UC RejectsNow when hearing about UCR, you may have heard the term "UC Rejects". This is quite the insult, but it was in fact justified. The exact nature of this term refers to the "referral" pool of UC applicants--those who meet the a-g minimum requirements to apply, but are not accepted to any of the UCs they apply to. UCs low on applicants offer these referral students an application, or "referral" to their school. In the past, UCRiverside took part in the referral program, but from 2011 on, UC Riverside has enough applicants such that they do not accept referral students anymore. [4] Therefore, the term "UC Rejects" is no longer justified.AcademicsAcademics are the most important part of any school comparison. When picking a school, the most important question should be "What is the quality of the undergraduate program for my major?" And like two t-shirts at Ross, two four-year academic programs are best compared by experiencing both of them and comparing from the student perspective. Unfortunately, most people do not have eight years to compare two different programs firsthand.I am a student currently enrolled in UCR's electrical engineering program, or EE for short. I will be starting year four in the fall. Even now, I am curious as to whether my education would have been better had I gone to another school, so I did the next best thing to experiencing two programs--I experienced one and read about another.During summer 2013, I decided to do my own investigation. I went to UC San Diego's advising office and obtained a copy of their EE program description with course listing. I also went to a professor's office and looked at the final exam for an "electronic circuits" class. Comparison between the UCR and UCSD EE program descriptions did not yield much--sure there was "multivariable calculus" on both programs, but this told me nothing of the actual rigor of the courses. For the more specific final exam that I reviewed, I did see some content that was not covered at my school, such as "frequency response of differential amplifiers," but there was also content in my course that was not on the UCSD final exam. In short, if it is hard for me to compare having experienced one of the programs, it would be nearly impossible for someone who has experienced neither program to compare well.Fortunately, there exists a solution to this difficulty in program comparison. A set of standards set forth by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) sets very specific standards on the material that should be taught in every course. For example, in the "Logic Design" standards, students should be able to "understand Boolean algebra", "design simple combinational logics" and be familiar with concepts such as "SR Latch, D Flip-Flop". [7] In other words, any school that is ABET accredited will exhibit the same material in all of their courses. As of this writing, all nine undergraduate UCs except UC Merced are ABET accredited. In fact, in November 2012, UCR's ABET accreditation was renewed for the maximum length of six years, with the visitors saying that the programs were "among the best they have visited". [8]These ABET requirements are rigorous as well--they are not like SFUSD's bare minimum graduation requirements, being so lax that the UC and CSU systems had to define their own standards. No, these standards are credible enough such that one of the requirements to obtaining "Professional Engineer" certification is to "Earn a four-year degree in engineering from an accredited engineering program" (ABET) [9] And with the programs being so difficult to compare and the ABET standards so definitive, U.S. News' only requirement for being on "Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs Rankings" is "a school must have an undergraduate engineering program accredited by ABET." [10] As far as how they are ranked, "These undergrad engineering programs were ranked solely on a peer assessment survey conducted in spring 2013", peer assessment being senior faculty and deans, whatever their perspective is worth on an undergraduate education.As for outside the engineering college, the situation is very similar. From the perspective of lower-division psychology and biology courses that I have taken, the standards are the same across schools. This is manifested by the textbook schools use. At both City College of San Francisco and UCR, the "Introduction to Psychology" courses that I took both used "Psychology" by David G. Meyers, the same textbook used in AP Psychology at Lowell. Leo, a personal friend of mine, told me Meyers is also used at UC Irvine. In my "Cell and molecular biology" course, the textbook was "Campbell Biology", the same one used in Lowell's AP Biology course. These textbooks are large and contain much material, but they are nonetheless the same across schools.What this ABET and textbook standardization means is that the material taught across schools is the same with very minor differences. This is especially true in the University of California, where lectures are only three hours per week per course, leaving most of the learning to be done at home, from the textbook. What will differ across campuses is the performance of the students. If your SAT score and GPA are well below the average for that campus, that is a good indication that you will be in the lower half of the class. This can be motivating--but at the same time it can be demoralizing. The right balance is needed.FacilitiesIn addition to great academics, UCR has excellent facilities that will benefit all students--not just engineering majors. All classrooms are very modern and come equipped with a ceiling mounted projector (often three), audience response system, desktop computer and wireless microphone. The newest classrooms even come with touch screens. Also present are things I wished Lowell had when I graduated in 2010: namely, online class enrollment and teacher evaluation forms. All of this allows for excellent instruction.The school is also constantly being improved. A million-dollar track was completed in 2012 as a result of the UCR episode of television series "Undercover Boss". [5] In the case of the student recreation center, where you may want to run, lift weights or learn martial arts, UCR's recreation center offers all the same facilities as UCSD's RiMAC, but with a better layout. (I have been to both) A recreation center add-on, due for 2014 completion, will contain triple the machines, indoor pool and more. [6]For engineering majors specifically, a new materials science and engineering building was completed in 2010, with another building scheduled for the future. Engineers are also supported by the UCR Library, where they have access to online research journals such as IEEE Xplore.EmploymentAs far as UCR grads being hired, I see my peers being hired full-time from large defense companies like Boeing, Northrop Grumman and other organizations like NASA. Even more obtain internships at Aerovironment, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and other engineering firms. In other words, companies look everywhere for talent.ConclusionNow after all of this, your opinion may not change. Relatively speaking, UC Berkeley, Los Angeles, and San Diego are still more selective and more prestigious universities overall. There is nothing wrong with applying to them. However, if your GPA and SAT score do not put you in a favorable position for those schools, know that there are several places, Riverside included, where you may still obtain a high quality education.[1] University of California--Riverside[2] Page on scrible.com[3] National University Rankings 2013[4] Students Clamor to Attend UCR[5] UC Riverside Track Facility to be Dedicated on Friday, March 2[6] UCR Recreation: Home[7] Page on ucr.edu[8] Page on scrible.com[9] What is a PE?[10] Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs