University of California San Diego — Restaurant in San Diego

It's been three decades since I've walked around the UCSD campus just to look at all the changes that taken place; the campus has grown tremendously & it's at least three times the size that it was when I last talked though it. The architectural designs are quite beautiful however, the campus seem so empty due to COVID-19. The city and County transit buses now drop & pick up - mostly students - & at least fifteen different routes take can take one most anywhere within North,South, East or West San Diego; the coast route is awesome and shopping at the La Jolla Shopping Center has a number of nice upscale stores! The new northbound trolley should be completed with less than a year and the ride looks like it will be a lot of fun & hopefully contribute to our Global Warming problem, as well as our local economy. I recieved my degree in Ecology at SDSU decades ago; only two us received that degree back in the early 80's and I'm about 3 units away from a psychology degree however, at 70 years old I've spent most my life reading & writing because I love it & it keeps my mind very active. My house burned to the ground in January 2017 & although my room was protected, about thirty thousand of dollars worth of my heirlooms - coins, stamps, 128 old comic books, old rock n' roll albums, a Marantz amplifier, etc.,etc.,etc were stolen,as well as 715 Ntl.Geographics, over 100 priceless old paper backs, college books, & two cardboard boxes full of commentaries & letters to the editor were stolen; I was one of those guys who wanted to change the world & although I don't believe that I failed yet, I no longer have any records of any of my accomplishments, so "I'm just a real nowhere man." I no longer have any friends, except one and my cat KiKi is my bestest friend in the world!😻 My slogan is "TRUST NO ONE" however, I've always really liked to talk to people. I think that anyone can still receive their COVID-19 vaccines at UCSD however, I got mine somewhere else. The townhouse that I live in is called Friars Village & no one there likes me but, it's what I call a "controlled community" & you only own the inside of your home: Anything on the outside belongs to all the homeowners, so all are free to walk - especially their dogs - anywhere they please. The HOA Board of Directors put the "doggie waste sign" facing my bed room window & our upstairs balcony: Although I spent years complaining our/THEIR greenbelt, the grass started to turn yellow as soon as our weather got very warm,from the nitrogen in the dog urine; they've suddenly stopped for some reason which is probably due to the Prescott Companies, who say we ow them $3000 - it could be $10,000 - however my sister Linda, who passed away in Dec.due to severe Dementia was stealing money from everyone & my 93 year old mother passed in May of 2020 of severe Dementia; we weren't allowed to see them because of COVID-19! My sister Laura was mom's primary caretaker & while Dementia has five stages, as a Psychologist I noticed her problems about three years after it started & slowly watched her pass over at least a decade & the last three years were a desultory imbroglio for me, as well as enhanced the vicissitudes of my life. I was homeless for over 2 years, so I learned a lot about the "homeless lifestyle." Even one of the directors of PATH told me "that all the men on the men's floor were con men! Since I wasn't one of "them," I faced constant physical & mental harrassment! Unless you LIVE their types of lives, you could never even imagine what it was like & when I finally get enough spare time I'll write an article that speaks the real honest truth about them. "IT WAS A TRUE HORROR STORY! While I was walking around the UCSD campus, not one student would even talk to me, however they all wore headphones! Welcome to the age of automation! no long have any records of all the letters, commentaries and articles that I spent nearly a lifetime writing. Most everything was stolen, eventhough I came back every few weeks!! Due to the fire, I've no records of anything that I wrote that...

I was at UCSD for Triton Day because I was accepted as a student. I LOVED almost everything about the campus. The tours and info sessions at Revelle were excellent, I loved the programs I heard about, the student orgs, etc, etc. In fact, if I was accept under my desired major (rather than "Undeclared"), I probably would have signed a SIR during Triton Day. About midway through the day, I expected to go home considering that UCSD would probably be my school. However, when I applied to UCSD for CS I was accepted as Undeclared. Thus, I decided (appropriately) to attend the "Undeclared Majors: Engineering" talk. In this talk, I expected to hear facts and pathways to entering the various engineering programs UCSD has. Instead, I heard that (if I am to attend UCSD) I should pursue something other than CS. When asked about CS (or almost any other engineering program), the two presenters were frustratingly taking every avenue to dodge giving away any useful information and statistics (aside from directing the audience to the CS program’s website for application pre-reqs). They refused to give any CS statistics whatsoever and would not discuss the reasonability of transferring into the CS major. Instead, they'd just advertise other non-engineering majors. Even when directly asked about admissions into various engineering programs, they would find a way out of telling any admissions info. They repeatedly explicitly stated that they didn't have any numbers. After the presentation, I personally approached one of them and asked about how many spots they allocate towards freshmen in the CS program, and the presenter pulled out a packet and showed me some numbers. This showed me that they did have the statistics, but they were (for some reason) withholding them. The fact that they lied about having any statistics (sadly) has gradually made me afraid to attend UCSD. After the presentation my mother cried not only because we could see how hopeless it seemed to be to enter the CS major/programs as "Undeclared", but also because UCSD seemed so right for me. Almost every aspect of UCSD felt right until that point. The purpose of college is academia, so this makes it harder for me to sign up for UCSD May 1st/2nd. I have no problem with going to a school as “Undeclared” if I have a clear, honest, reasonable pathway to enter my major. If they were willing to disclose statistics (no matter how “unreliable,” “inconsistent,” or ridiculous they may be), I would feel far more confident in UCSD right now. Instead, I was scared away from UCSD. I will proudly attend UW next fall, where they publicly display their department statistics because they know they're not full of BS. Felt like a bait and switch.

(Aside from this one presentation, Triton Day was excellent. However, Triton Day ultimately ruled UCSD out of my...

UC San Diego: Silent, Gray, and Slowly Draining Your Soul 🧪🌫️📉

They call it elite. They call it innovative. But let’s be real: UCSD is an overhyped, ultra-sterile maze of bureaucracy, burnout, and broken dreams—packaged in ocean fog and overrated rankings.

It’s Not a Campus—It’s a Concrete Graveyard 🪦🏢

UCSD is cold. Literally and emotionally. Brutalist architecture. Dead social life. Endless gray. People joke that it's a “social desert”—but it’s not a joke if you're actually stuck there, wondering why it feels like no one’s alive.

STEM Hype, Real-World Meh ⚗️📉

Sure, UCSD is strong in science and engineering—on paper. But most students leave without direction, buried under textbook knowledge and zero real-world skills. Unless you’re doing groundbreaking research (spoiler: you’re probably not), you’re just grinding through irrelevant formulas in silence.

Academic Rigor = Slow Death 🧠➡️☠️

They brag about how “challenging” it is. But that challenge mostly means unreasonable workloads, robotic grading, and a total lack of support. No creativity. No mentorship. Just you vs. the system—and the system always wins.

“Prestige” That No One Cares About 💼❌

Outside of academia, nobody’s impressed that you went to UCSD. Employers don’t care. Clients don’t care. The world moves fast—and UCSD moves like a spreadsheet with legs. While you’re stressing about GPA curves, others are building things that actually matter.

The Beach Is Nearby… But You Won’t See It 🏖️📚

They love to flex the location. But students are too busy crying over chemistry labs and CS problem sets to enjoy any part of San Diego. You’re not living—you’re surviving.

Creativity? Vision? Purpose? Not Here. 🎨🚫

Got big dreams? Want to create something? Launch a movement? UCSD will hand you a degree and send you off confused, disconnected, and unsure why your spark went cold. They don’t teach you how to lead—they teach you how to obey.

You Could Learn It All Faster—Without the Fog 🌐🤖

Everything they teach? Already online. Free. Better. Faster. With ChatGPT, online courses, and real-world practice, you could get ahead in 6 months instead of drowning in UCSD’s 4-year slog.

Final Truth: UCSD Is an Expensive Way to Forget Who You Are 🧠💤

You’ll go in bright. Passionate. Hungry. You’ll come out tired. Directionless. Programmed. And you’ll wonder where the time went.

So skip the ocean fog. Skip the dead halls. Skip the prestige trap.

Build. Create. Live fully—now.

And don’t wait for UCSD to hand you permission to be great. Because...