[quote author="bkshopr" date=1189041001]UCI on the other hand are primarily Asians due to the many majors offered are in technical and analytical fields. Asians in University put studies first before relationship (Asians attending Junior College are the opposite). I could not find many bars around UCI where the kids could get drunk and get into trouble. The much more demanding school academic pressure in general allowed very little free time to partying and getting drunk which could lead to trouble. Most kids attending UCI are not really savvy in relationship. They are more of the introvert than the out going type. Read other posts regarding Irvine School to learn more about the students who attend school in Irvine.</blockquote>
Being an Asian myself, I find great ironic humour in your assessment of the 'studious UCI Asians.'
First, when I attended 10 years ago, UCI was known as the 'commuter campus' (compared to the other UC campuses.) Some students are true commuters (living at home), others (like myself) lived in on campus housing during the week, then go home for (most) weekends. As you noted, student life in and around campus, off-hours, was absolutely dead. UCI has since built more parking-lots and expanded the dorms (I stayed at Mesa Court and Campus Village when I was there), so the commuter-profile may have changed over time.
Also, UCI was, and still is, second-bench to UCLA and UC Berkeley. The first question I asked other students when I arrived on campus, "How/why did you choose UCI?" The #1 answer: "got rejected from UCLA/UCBerkeley/UCSD." I felt great kinship with these students, perhaps out of coincidence, because I too had applied to UCLA/UCBerkeley, and gotten rejected! Hence, through process of elimination, UCI was "winner by DEFAULT." In practical terms, of the students who were admitted to their top-UC (UCLA/UCB) but still picked UCI, generally did so due to financial-aide considerations (i.e. scholarship award to attend UCI.) I did encounter some students whose parents insisted they attend UCI over UCLA/Berkeley, because UCI was geographically closer to the parents (I have to admit, this is a lot more common in Asian families than Caucasian.)
With the majority of UCI Asians being rejectees of the Greater UC Campuses, there's a collective psychology there "well we weren't good enough for UCB/UCLA, but good enough for UCI." After all, they are merely AboveAverageAsians, instead of OverAchievingAsians. As a group, they are more laid back and lax in their study-habits (versus their OverAchieving UCB brethren.) While you can make the case that university-attending Asians are relatively introverted (compared to other ethnicities on the same campus), it's important to know that there are even more introverted Asians at the Greater UC Campuses. From what my older OverAchieving brother told me about his UCBerkeley experience (he was pre-med), A LOT of anti-social people there. And that's scary, because some of them would make fine medical researchers, but would have terrible, terrible bedside-manner (if they were becoming doctors to genuinely help other people...)
Finally, I apologize to anyone for my downtreading remarks about UCI. UCI's literature/writing program is strong (outranks the other ICs), in the same way that USC's film-program is strong. A lot of the Asians who attend UCI, sitting isolated and just studying, don't think as highly of the school as one would expect. (I definitely didn't...and I studied a lot when I was there.) It's the whole pecking-order mentality (IVY-LEAGUE > UCB/UCLA > UCI > UCR > Calstate/Calpoly > why couldn't my son/daughter even get into a state-school...) ingrained into them from their firstgen Asian immigrant parents.
<EDIT>
Ack, I forgot the original reason I replied to this thread...
One of my friends is considering relocating from Irvine to a place closer to Fullerton (but not actually in Fullerton.) When he mentioned Riverbend in Orange, my first question was "Why?!?" His point is that he has a townhome in an Irvine development which he considers "the ghettos of Irvine" (speaking facetiously, naturally) -- and with children on the way, he and his wife are thinking a single-family home is a better longterm place. I can't imagine Orange will have better schools than their current spot in Irvine ("ghetto" as it might be...)