Merced, CA

[mb712]

Thanks!

[winterstat]

Hi there,

I'm new here, and I wanted to resurrect this topic to see if there are any new UC Merced grad students that would like to weigh in on Merced, the town, and UCM, the university. I have been, unofficially, invited to UCM for graduate studies and am curious about people's experiences there.

As a note, I am an international applicant, but I've been to the US and CA a couple of times.

[revquackers]

I'm currently a graduate student in health psych here at UCM what questions did you have?

[poliscigrad]

On January 22, 2016 at 2:41 AM, winterstat said:

Hi there,

I'm new here, and I wanted to resurrect this topic to see if there are any new UC Merced grad students that would like to weigh in on Merced, the town, and UCM, the university. I have been, unofficially, invited to UCM for graduate studies and am curious about people's experiences there.

As a note, I am an international applicant, but I've been to the US and CA a couple of times.

Depending on where you are coming from, Merced the city can be quite the disappointment. There is not much to do, good restaurants are few and far between, and in some places it is obvious the city has struggled with unemployment rates on the higher end. That being said, you still get California weather and are 2 hours from the Bay Area and Yosemite and 4 hours from the LA area. The fact there is not much to do here is actually probably beneficial for graduate students because you have less distractions.

I'm indifferent about Merced but I love UCM. Everyone in every department seems to be exceptionally motivated and I have yet to encounter someone who is just flat out unpleasant. There seems to be a support system and resources available to graduate students here that does not exist most other places. Within the last couple of months a plan was approved by the UC board to expand the university (to double its current size) by 2020 so things will be rapidly growing within the next several years.

Along with the poster above, I am also happy to answer any specific questions.

[winterstat]

16 hours ago, poliscigrad said:

Depending on where you are coming from, Merced the city can be quite the disappointment. There is not much to do, good restaurants are few and far between, and in some places it is obvious the city has struggled with unemployment rates on the higher end. That being said, you still get California weather and are 2 hours from the Bay Area and Yosemite and 4 hours from the LA area. The fact there is not much to do here is actually probably beneficial for graduate students because you have less distractions.

I'm indifferent about Merced but I love UCM. Everyone in every department seems to be exceptionally motivated and I have yet to encounter someone who is just flat out unpleasant. There seems to be a support system and resources available to graduate students here that does not exist most other places. Within the last couple of months a plan was approved by the UC board to expand the university (to double its current size) by 2020 so things will be rapidly growing within the next several years.

Along with the poster above, I am also happy to answer any specific questions.

Thanks for the information, @poliscigrad and for the offer to answer more questions (also thanks @revquackers).

I'm currently living in Amsterdam, so I can imagine that Merced is a little boring compared to that haha. However, because I am moving to the US with my partner (who has a job in the Bay Area), I am planning on living in Merced part-time, and travel back and forth between the Bay Area and Merced. My POI spoke to me about these part-time rental places that exist in Merced (I am hoping to learn more about this once I'm at Merced on the 19th) and also said that most "school" activity happens on Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday. She also mentioned that, at least at her department (psychology), they don't really mind if you work from home, as long as you get the work done. Do you recognize this in your experience at UCM?

I'm happy to hear that everyone seems motivated and generally friendly. I've read some other posts about Merced (though some of them were quite old) that were less positive about the university. I guess I'll just have to see for myself, but I'm happy there are at least some people who are having a good experience over there! It can be quite hard to assess these things from a distance.

Oh as a Dutch person I have to ask: do a lot of students use a bike to get around UCM (is it even a big enough campus to warrant the use of a bike?)?

Edited February 10, 2016 by winterstat
typos

[poliscigrad]

8 hours ago, winterstat said:

Thanks for the information, @poliscigrad and for the offer to answer more questions (also thanks @revquackers).

I'm currently living in Amsterdam, so I can imagine that Merced is a little boring compared to that haha. However, because I am moving to the US with my partner (who has a job in the Bay Area), I am planning on living in Merced part-time, and travel back and forth between the Bay Area and Merced. My POI spoke to me about these part-time rental places that exist in Merced (I am hoping to learn more about this once I'm at Merced on the 19th) and also said that most "school" activity happens on Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday. She also mentioned that, at least at her department (psychology), they don't really mind if you work from home, as long as you get the work done. Do you recognize this in your experience at UCM?

I'm happy to hear that everyone seems motivated and generally friendly. I've read some other posts about Merced (though some of them were quite old) that were less positive about the university. I guess I'll just have to see for myself, but I'm happy there are at least some people who are having a good experience over there! It can be quite hard to assess these things from a distance.

Oh as a Dutch person I have to ask: do a lot of students use a bike to get around UCM (is it even a big enough campus to warrant the use of a bike?)?

In regards to the working from home thing, definitely. As long as I am around for the necessary things like seminars, meetings, TAing, etc., it would not matter if I did everything else at home. Some of the faculty don't even live in Merced and end up working from home sometimes.

People do not really use bikes around campus, it is a fairly small campus. Using a bike to commute to campus is somewhat common but if people use anything on the actual campus it is usually a skateboard.

[winterstat]

15 hours ago, poliscigrad said:

In regards to the working from home thing, definitely. As long as I am around for the necessary things like seminars, meetings, TAing, etc., it would not matter if I did everything else at home. Some of the faculty don't even live in Merced and end up working from home sometimes.

People do not really use bikes around campus, it is a fairly small campus. Using a bike to commute to campus is somewhat common but if people use anything on the actual campus it is usually a skateboard.

Hmm guess I need to work on my coordination/skateboarding skill in order to truly fit in  thanks again for taking the time to respond to my questions!

[Guest]

Recently admitted into UCM. Any housing recommendations? I'm considering renting out a room in a house. Rental prices seem a bit high for apartments in close proximity to the school.

[elmascapo]

Hi,

I am also recently admitted to UC Merced and I'm strongly considering going here.  Is it better to find an established household or do people usually find others and start a new place?  

Also if someone is interested in the latter, contact me.