Guide to UC San Diego/Introduction

History

The first steps to creating UC San Diego took place in the 1950s. The Board of Regents of the University of California voted to create a graduate school in La Jolla in 1956. This school was originally planned to be a school of science and engineering and was to be closely connected to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The first graduate students arrived in 1960. Eventually it was decided that a general campus of the University of California was to be built rather than just a graduate school. More land was acquired, more facilities built and more faculty hired to make this a reality. The first undergraduate students arrived in 1964. They were the first class of First College, which was renamed Revelle College the next year to honor Roger Revelle, one of the most important figures in the founding of UC San Diego. John Muir College accepted its first class in 1967 and Third College (later renamed Thurgood Marshall College) accepted its first students in 1970. Earl Warren College accepted its first students in 1974 and Eleanor Roosevelt College accepted its first students in 1988. Finally, Sixth College accepted its first students in 2002. Today, UC San Diego is an important public university in the University of California system.

Academic Year

At UC San Diego, the academic year is divided into quarters. Each quarter has ten weeks of instruction followed by a week devoted to final exams. The academic year begins with Fall Quarter, which starts in late September each year. After the Fall Quarter ends in December, there is a break before Winter Quarter begins in January. Spring Break divides Winter Quarter from Spring Quarter. Students can take classes during the summer as well as during the regular academic year. Summer is divided into Summer Session 1 and Summer Session 2. Each of these summer sessions in five weeks long so instructors compress a regular ten week course into only five weeks. A summer session course has twice as many weekly hours of instruction as a regular quarter course so students spend as many hours in class during a summer session as they do for a regular quarter course. There is also a Special Session for summer courses that have a different length than the regular Summer Session courses.