I already mentioned why I changed majors several times. But that's not all. If I hadn't attended UCI, I would have changed schools and majors less than I did.

By becoming a UCI alumnus, I would have at least less opportunities than a UCLA or UCBerkeley's. My advisors at UCI told me explicitly about that. Which mathematician would value UCI graduate more than UCLA or Berkeley's? I'm 100 percent sure that there's NONE.

I made the worst decision of my life by staying at UCI, and there's no way to make up the regrets. What counts is where you went, not how you did there.

Knowing that I wouldn't have much opprotunitities as a UCI mathematics student, I had to look for other chances. Most questions I received from the others were where it is. I explained that it is near Los Angeles. Then came the question again: why didn't you go to UCLA? It seems like when I said I chose it over others, they took it as a rationalization that I couldn't get in. That's what keep happening for over past ten years and will go on until the last day. That's good enough reason to hate UCI.

The most agonizing fact is that I can't never recover from it. It's really difficult to endure the derogatory marks while attending UCLA and UCBerkreley. Having been a student at UCLA, UCBerkeley, Caltech and some other prominent universities, I know how much I was deprived of opportunities I deserved and was entitled to.

(Nov-10-97)

Copyright© 1997-2003 Daniel SW Kim