The University of California - Los Angeles

I am a transfer student and I was lured in by the money and the name. UCLA offered me the best financial aid package and I figured that geology programs were basically similar no matter where you went. I was wrong! Within the first 3 weeks of my first quarter I was very dissapointed by my level of instruction in my major classes. So much so that I applied again for transfer to 3 more schools. One of which was an original thought, SDSU. So now I will be attending SDSU this upcoming fall. Facilities here were a joke, old equipment left out, disorganized materials left unkept. I mean really people, take care of your stuff. Class discussions by instructors were a joke, most times being written as the class was walking in to class. Lectures are just that, but at the instructors level, no mention of special terms are defined for "new" people, aka students. There is the feeling that most professors just come in, read their power point presentation, which any 4th grader could do, then leave and have maybe 1 office hour that week. Students in my department are very unaware of their resources, be it our computer lab with free printing, our advising faculty, department activites. Some students who have been here for 2 years don't even know abou this stuff. As for the rest of the staff, the departmental leadership is poor if it even exists. Department chair and vice chair are not even remotely interested in students unless you have their class and are involved in working with them. I hear this department has lost some geology faculty in the last few years and this may the reason for my poor review. But departmentally, and organizationally, this place is a mess. People seem to want to stay out the way of students so they don't have to do their jobs. Test material is useless. The work to learning ratio is very high. I do not recommend this place for incoming geology students/transfers.

1st Year Male -- Class 2009

Campus Aesthetics: A, Education Quality: F