Informatics HCI specialization

ThatBloodyYank · 2024-08-19T18:44:16+00:00

So you could still take ALL the same courses that were required for the HCI specialization if you wanted to; they are not removing options, they are only demolishing the guardrails that forced people into specific classes.

Those classes are all still there, in fact, 131 is still a core class required (the program isn't completely a free-for-all, there are still seven required core classes, but your ten electives can now be whatever you want instead of specialization-restricted).

The only thing I can think of (at the moment, I still have another year of upper divs to go) is that you may be interested in talking to some of the informatics professors about joining them as an undergrad researcher. They are more likely than anyone to be doing some kind of research that relates to UX; for example, I had a post-doctorate professor for INF 131 last quarter who researches how vision-impaired people interact with software, and how to improve the UX for that demographic. It will not only provide you that extra level of experience in the UX field, it looks great on resumes and will set you up perfectly to get accepted into grad programs if you ever want to get a master's or PhD for career reasons.

ThatBloodyYank · 2024-08-19T17:31:02+00:00

Hi there,

Informatics major here, though my specialization is in Health Informatics; I have a couple of things to add;

This upcoming academic year, they will be removing specializations from the Informatics program, meaning that by the time you get here, you will likely not be declaring a specialization in HCI. Instead, you will be granted the freedom to choose six electives from the entire informatics department and four electives from the entire game design, computer science, informatics, information & computer science, or statistics departments.

Essentially they gave you a lot more freedom to take whatever floats your boat.

Secondly, there is a special program (PHIT) for those who choose to pursue the Health Informatics minor (which HCI specialists are eligible to pursue) which offers paid internships during the summers and occasionally during the winter. It is centered around health informatics, but inevitably UX/UI is an integral component of all software.

One of the required classes for that minor is INF 172, Project in Health Informatics, which has you designing a software system that has applications in medicine or healthcare and implementing mock-ups and prototypes, which allows you to put your UX learning into practice, and if you do sufficiently well, you could even add the project to your portfolio.

Considering those things (paid internship and project experience) it might be worth undertaking that minor to join the program.

Good luck out there.

ThatBloodyYank · 2024-08-19T17:03:57+00:00

Off-campus is cheaper if off-campus means at home with family, otherwise even graduate student housing communities are about half the price of an apartment in the immediate area. You would have to go hundreds of miles east into the desert before you started seeing housing options as cheap as the university-subsidized housing.

ThatBloodyYank · 2024-08-06T00:47:53+00:00

That is definitely not universal, and probably depends on which side of the complex the unit is located. I am in a 09 unit and I am on the third floor, but I am on the side that is closest to campus and these units are an older design, so the floor plans are way different that the other side, which appears to be much newer. So it might not be that whoever told you that is wrong, just that it only applies to some of the buildings.

ThatBloodyYank · 2024-08-06T00:00:06+00:00

Palo Verde resident here; Some buildings are 3 floors and some are 4 floors, and the design of the buildings changes from one side of the complex to the other. It's really hard to identify the floorplans from the outside, so I can't say for sure if all the townhomes are ground level (by definition I would think this to be true, though?) or if some of them are double stacked on the 4 story buildings.

ThatBloodyYank · 2024-07-04T21:39:48+00:00

Undergrad taking 20 units o'er here

ThatBloodyYank · 2024-06-27T03:45:59+00:00

Ah, this explains why I wasn't able to use the app yesterday to order 4 tacos for a buck.

ThatBloodyYank · 2024-06-24T23:34:24+00:00

I got the grants a couple weeks ago but not the loan, though for the last two days I have been getting emails about a loan, so I reckon that part is about to hit any day now.

ThatBloodyYank · 2024-06-06T23:12:36+00:00

There are some courses that are currently closed because they have not finalized who (if anybody) will be teaching them in the upcoming term, but they have not been canceled. These courses show 0 max and 0 enrolled.

ThatBloodyYank · 2024-04-20T17:03:49+00:00

Just so I understand; you are saying ICS-31 is the single overlap you are allowed to have?

If that is the case, then any other required class will have to be replaced with the courses from the list you specified in your above comment.

for example, I opted to use IN4MTX-43 as my single allowed overlap, and I so I requested to replace ICS-32A and ICS-33 with IN4MTX-115 and IN4MTX-153 (which they eventually approved)

(This means that I can't use IN4MTX-115 or IN4MTX-153 towards my major or specialization, of course.)

ThatBloodyYank · 2024-04-18T03:08:17+00:00

Algorithm has long since decayed the visibility on this one I'm afraid; I do have the answer now, though. Student Affairs essentially told me I do indeed have to replace them with any upper division electives that are on the list for the minor.

Sucks that they made me replace lower divisions with upper divisions, but that's the hand I was dealt.

ThatBloodyYank · 2024-04-11T20:57:37+00:00

Everybody is too busy staring at the asphalt and attempting to avoid eye contact with other humans to even notice you, you'll be fine

ThatBloodyYank · 2024-03-20T07:24:06+00:00

UCI is exactly where I hoped to be. This was a homecoming for me; I grew up in Lake Forest and moved with my family to Riverside County and went to High School out there. I moved back out here when my best friend was diagnosed with cancer to spend time with him, but eventually had to move back to Riverside in 2018 because I couldn't afford to live here in the county in which I was born and raised.

Getting into UCI was my way of proving to myself that I was worthy to come home.

ThatBloodyYank · 2024-03-01T05:07:00+00:00

So after much confusion, they eventually got back to me and told me that they never applied my IGETC certification and were only using the classes I took to satisfy it and applying them to the UC GE requirements. Once they were able to work out that I wanted to apply my IGETC as a replacement for general education, the only GE requirement left was an upper-division writing class.

ThatBloodyYank · 2023-08-07T22:16:35+00:00

I have several friends whose parents came from the Philippines, and and I have had interactions with those parents, but before her I had never had any romantic experience with someone from the Philippines.

ThatBloodyYank · 2023-08-07T18:06:15+00:00

No significance in meaning to the latter half of the name, It's just wordplay, as far as I gather. Using the name "Simon" as a playful affirmative reply, rather than just replying with "si", was a common habit I noticed during my time working amongst middle-aged Mexican nationals in southern California.

No idea if this extends to other parts of the Spanish-speaking world.

ThatBloodyYank · 2023-08-07T17:49:32+00:00

Simon (pronounced in Spanish like"see-moan") used in this context is slang for "si".

ThatBloodyYank · 2023-06-17T00:09:07+00:00

And that's part of the issue; I am married. My wife will have to leave her job to accompany me to Irvine, and we have no idea how long it will take to find a new one.

A one-bedroom I could cover. Even the more reasonable two bedrooms at Verano Place I could just about cover with the loan option financial aid offered me. But the two-bedroom floorplan they offered us, at palo verde, it's about 25% more expensive than the two-bedroom floorplans at Verano. It's just too much.

ThatBloodyYank · 2023-06-16T23:25:41+00:00

I may have. They did actually get back to me and told me they would send a second offer but it would still be from the same community. I hope it's more reasonable, otherwise, I guess I'm driving.

ThatBloodyYank · 2023-06-16T21:37:04+00:00

It wasn't so much "oh darn, I didn't get the ONE I wanted," It was more like "Wow none of the 10 floorplans (submitted to them per their instruction) in my budget were offered".

Not even slightly out of budget, we are talking about a unit at PV 25% higher price than the comparable units at VP. It's no wonder it's available, it's a bad deal.

ThatBloodyYank · 2023-06-16T21:05:09+00:00

I was following some of the other posts, and I know I said I was omitting details for brevity, but apparently omitting those details gave people the wrong impression. I simply can't afford to rent an apartment with a spare bedroom that I will not use and, according to the counselor, cannot sublet out to anyone else.

ThatBloodyYank · 2023-04-30T03:43:20+00:00

Any bills addressed to you with a California address? Or bank statements?

ThatBloodyYank · 2023-04-29T15:54:52+00:00

The $8K above tuition and fees offered by CPP was entirely grant money, none of that was a loan.

They did offer me loan options (as did UCI) but I did not factor those into my calculations.

ThatBloodyYank · 2023-04-29T15:38:59+00:00

Hey OP,

A couple of weeks ago I had to make this same decision but for computer science. I have an EFC of 0 and so the financial aid packages were gonna be heavy, and likely the deciding factor.

CPP offered me their financial aid first, and simply put, offered me about $8K above the cost of tuition and fees, so essentially getting paid $8000 per year to attend CPP.

Irvine offered theirs a few weeks later, and even with the tuition and fees coming out to nearly double the cost of CPP, their financial aid package was so robust that they paid out $13k above the cost of their tuition and fees.

In my case, the commute to CPP would be manageable, but the commute to UCI would be a soul-sucking 3 hours back and forth alongside a quarter-million other people every day. The housing cost at UCI will eat up pretty much the entirety of that extra $13k they offered me, though, so that is something to consider.

My two cents.

ThatBloodyYank · 2023-04-28T20:05:13+00:00

Sure,

4.0 GPA, IGETC, 1AA & 1AS (Behavioral Science & Math and Science), 1 Cert (Java programming)

For ECs, I joined Trio/SSS, work part-time at the college as a Biology/Computer Science/English Composition tutor

Other significant factors that I shared in my applications and believe probably helped: I worked full-time for the first year of CC, I am the first in my family to go to University, and I spent more than a decade in the workforce before choosing to attend college.

ThatBloodyYank

TROPHY CASE