University of California, Irvine

Course Description

The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and professional degrees, and roughly 30,000 undergraduates and 6,000 graduate students are enrolled at UCI as of Fall 2019. The university is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity", and had $436.6 million in research and development expenditures in 2018. UCI became a member of the Association of American Universities in 1996.[13] The university was rated as one of the "Public Ivies” in 1985 and 2001 surveys comparing publicly funded universities the authors claimed provide an education comparable to the Ivy League. The university also administers the UC Irvine Medical Center, a large teaching hospital in Orange, and its affiliated health sciences system; the University of California, Irvine, Arboretum; and a portion of the University of California Natural Reserve System. UC Irvine set up the first Earth System Science Department in the United States. UC Irvine was one of three new UC campuses established in the 1960s to accommodate growing enrollments across the UC system. A site in Orange County was identified in 1959, and in the following year the Irvine Company sold the University of California 1,000 acres (400 ha) of land for one dollar to establish the new campus. President Lyndon B. Johnson dedicated the campus in 1964, a fact commemorated with the delivery of a commencement speech by President Barack Obama fifty years later. As of January 2022, there have been 8 Nobel Prize laureates, 7 Pulitzer Prize winners, 6 MacArthur "Genius Grant" recipients, 37 Guggenheim Fellows, and 1 Turing Award winner affiliated with the university as alumni, faculty or researchers. The UC Irvine Anteaters currently compete in the NCAA Division I as members of the Big West Conference.During the early years of the school's existence, the teams played at the NCAA Division II level. The Anteaters have won 28 national championships in nine different team sports, 64 Anteaters have won individual national championships, and 53 Anteaters have competed in the Olympics, winning a total of 33 Olympic medals.

Why the University of California, Irvine

• Location: The University of California, Irvine enjoys an incomparable coastal location with many advantages for recreational and cultural activities. Our campus is a short bike ride from the famed sailing and surfing beaches of Newport, Laguna, and Huntington, and is centrally located to hundreds of miles of bike and hiking trails, desert camping, and mountain resorts for snowboarding and skiing. Just a few miles from the campus are internationally famous venues such as Disneyland and Angel Stadium, and we are less than an hour from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), Hollywood, Los Angeles, and Palm Springs.
• Multicultural community: The University of California, Irvine is a multicultural community of people from diverse backgrounds. We are enriched by our mutual respect for one another, and we strive to learn from our differences in an atmosphere of positive engagement. Universities exist to provide the conditions for hard thought and difficult debate so that individuals can develop the capacity for independent judgment. For that reason, tolerance, civility and respect for diversity of background, gender, ethnicity, race, religion, political beliefs, sexual orientation and physical abilities are crucially important for our campus community to thrive.
• Events and activities: The Activities team creates a quarterly calendar full of various events, trips, sports, and activities both on and off-campus for students to enjoy. Previous pre-planned activities usually included city tours to famous locations, theme parks, museums, beaches, and performances.
• Housing: Depending on your needs and the type of experience you want during your stay, International Programs offers you different housing options, all of which ensure that you enjoy a safe, clean, fully furnished living environment, including University Apartments (which allow you to interact with and explore the community while practicing your English in real-life situations), Homestays (which will immerse you in American culture within a family environment), and UCI Dorms (which give you the opportunity to live on the UCI campus near classrooms, with meal plans available - dorms only available in the summer quarter). No matter which one you choose, you’ll be sure to enjoy an authentic American living experience!