UC San Diego Reviews

Current Employee – been working at UC San Diego full-time

Pros – Great culture. Nice people, super flexible work hours. Variety of work and opportunities. Great benefits and pension.

Cons – Very little movement in pay.

Advice to Senior Management – Become less dependent on the CA state budget.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at UC San Diego full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – very good weather, good seminars, many opportunities for communication, cooperation and among the best graduate schools to attend. many bio-related companies around this area.

Cons – it is in la jolla, not in a big city, the bus transportation is not that convenient, the university is only good for engineering, other subjects, such as literature, laws, medicine are not that top.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at UC San Diego full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – The research at UCSD is top-notch. Close collaboration with neighboring Institutes, like the Salk and others, make it a great place to do research. The graduate community is a close-knit group and events for the students are held throughout the year. And of course the location is beautiful, and within a short distance to the beach and downtown.

Cons – Housing prices in the immediate area are a little steep. Student housing was also hard to get into, although I hear they are trying to improve it.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at UC San Diego full-time for more than a year

Pros – Large campus, many resources
Many research opportunities
Professors try their best to help students be successful in their projects
Health care system is excellent for graduate student insurance

Cons – Can have unnecessary politics in office situations including pleasing professors over needs of students. You can get lost in the system due to the large school size, standing out is important.

Advice to Senior Management – For advising office, please make sure to research the classes you are assigning graduate students to teach. Placing graduate students in classes in their field gives much better results in terms of undergraduate education.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at UC San Diego part-time for more than a year

Pros – Great people to work for if you are in the right department. The pay is commpetitive and the benfits for full-time is awesome.

Cons – The parking is a nightmare and you either have to commute in or get to campus very early and pay $8 to park there all day.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at UC San Diego as a contractor for more than a year

Pros – work life balance and pay for TAs is good.

Cons – transportation is difficult, other than that its a good place to work

Former Employee – worked at UC San Diego part-time for less than a year

Pros – Half of my tuition was paid by the university

Cons – Hourly wage was not high. $20/h for tutors.

Current Employee – been working at UC San Diego part-time for less than a year

Pros – As a TA you get reduced tuition for the quarter. It's seriously great especially if you are a Master's student since you often don't meet the qualifications for most fellowships and grants. You also get free healthcare for the quarter. All of this in addition to being paid.

Cons – Sometimes you might be paired with a professor that essentially wants you to run the class or one that doesn't make their expectation of the TAs clear.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at UC San Diego full-time

Pros – I dealt with so many different events on a day to day basis which increased my experience of managing several projects at once. There are possibilities for promotions which is nice. They were also various incentives of working within the UC system.

Cons – Communication throughout every department at UCSD is just terrible. There is no consistency in who to contact for various services etc. It is always a challenge tracking down the right individual for help without someone saying 'thats not my job'

Advice to Senior Management – See cons. Improve communications among departments.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at UC San Diego full-time

Pros – Flexibility, benefits, compensation, coworkers, work/life balance

Cons – Not a strong culture of philanthropy

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company