University of California--Irvine
Hallmarks and Quirks
Things I'm Good At:
- Biology. The sciences in general at UC Irvine get ranked very highly—both at the undergraduate and graduate level.
- Dance. The Claire Trevor School of the Arts attracts all kinds of talented movers and shakers (of the body).
- Taking the party to other UCs or to nearby Newport Beach. Seriously, I'm not a big party school, but that's because there's so much party everywhere around me.
My Top 5 Must-Haves:
- Sunscreen. I'm no Baz Luhrmann, but seriously, it never rains here anymore.
- The drive to participate in the awesome UC-wide Education Abroad Program. Spending a year of Irvine in Berlin or Gaborone is highly recommended.
- A car, or a roommate with a car. Sorry, but SoCal still worships the almighty automobile, and if you want to explore it, you're gonna need one.
- Extra-curricular activities. Mesa Court dorms build this directly into the housing experience by giving each hall a special interest or social orientation. Seriously, though, working with petri dishes all day can get to you, so if you're not an undergrad at Mesa, get thyself an extracurricular hobby.
- In-N-Out Burger. It's a cult in SoCal, and there's one across the street. Vegetarian options are available. And yes, I know Texans don't like it.
Why You Might Have Heard of Me:
- Yeah, fine, as far as fundamental particles of the universe go, neutrinos are losers in mass and charge. But they have one of the catchiest names in physics—and one that gets forever linked to UC Irvine after my neutrino-loving professor Fred Reines won the Nobel Prize in 1995 for helping to discover these cosmic boogers in the 1950s.
- Professor Sherwood Rowland also picked up a Nobel Prize in 1995 for showing that CFCs were ripping a gigantic hole in the ozone layer. UC Irvine remains a huge player in environmental science and all the fun, perilous threats we face due to global warming.
- I have a fantastic philosophy department. Jacques Derrida, literary philosopher extraordinaire, taught and deconstructed here until his death.
- I am regularly rated one of the happiest schools in the country. The great weather around here certainly helps with that.
On a regular Saturday night, you can find me...
I'm probably leaving Irvine for the bright lights of Los Angeles and the tawdry nights of San Diego. Irvine is a place to study, not play, but that's okay—there's plenty of fun to be had north and south of me.
Favorite Hangouts:
- Aldrich Park, a nineteen-acre park for napping, sunbathing, and graduating.
- Bren Events Center, site of concerts and Division I sports events.
- In-N-Out Burger.
- The Irvine Spectrum Center or the Fashion Island Shopping Center, malls that give new meaning to Arcade Fire's song Sprawl II.
- The libraries. It's not hard to sneak coffee in.
Quirks:
- Yeah, we're the anteaters. Suck it up, mate, and let it be known that we yell "Zot Zot Zot!" at athletic events. (BTW, that's the sound the anteater makes in the comic strip BC).
- My creepy but somewhat impressive Brutalist buildings were used as the backdrop for Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, Poltergeist, and, for some reason, Ocean's 11.
- I'm home to Wayzgoose, a medieval fair held every April that serves as an open house for the university.
- Will Ferrell grew up in Irvine. He guessed the size of the Irvine Police Department's workload on any given day by the number of tickets they handed out to bicyclists.
Famous Alumni:
- Jon Lovitz, actor-comedian known for his run on Saturday Night Live in the 1980s and for being the radio in The Brave Little Toaster.
- Greg Louganis, an Olympic gold medalist diver and early, eloquent spokesperson for HIV-AIDS awareness.
- Aubrey O'Day
- Coco Lee
- Betsy McLaughlin, CEO of Hot Topic, Inc.