This past Tuesday, the University of California, Fremont (UCF) officially released its list of prospective courses for the 2027-2028 school year. Located close to the heart of Silicon Valley, UCF has plans to leverage its optimal location and industry connections to provide world-class tech education. Released courses reflect this, with courses on semiconductor engineering (ENG56: Semiconductor Design and Manufacturing, ENG29: Processing of Semiconductors) and machine learning (CSE129: Systems for Large Language Models) creating a buzz in parent groups. The undergraduate AI major has also drawn particular attention in the local community.
The university is separated into three primary colleges: the College of Science and Computing (CS, data science, math, physics, and statistics), the College of Engineering, and the Singh School of Artificial Intelligence. UC Fremont has incredibly flexible general education requirements, all of which can be fulfilled with major-required coursework, with the exception of ENGL1: Elementary Grammar and Reading, which can be waived by demonstrating fifth-grade English proficiency through an English literacy test or a passing grade in a high school English class. This gives students much more freedom when choosing the courses they would like to take. When staff were interviewed regarding this decision, most took it as a step in the right direction. A staff member, who chose to keep their name anonymous, explained, “We’ve seen from schools like UC San Diego that oftentimes, general education requirements are something students tend to avoid if possible. And really, who cares if the students are literate when they’re working for Google? Besides, everyone knows ChatGPT’s doing all the writing now anyway.”
Traditional humanities classes have also been replaced with more practical courses like COMM 100A: Communication, the Machine, and Everyday Life, COMM 82: Building Relationships with Large Language Models, ENG 31AC: Paraphrasing and Summarizing, and ENG 32: Prompt Design and Strategy. UCF is also one of the first universities to experiment with AI education, with PSY1004: Social Psychology being the first fully AI-taught and proctored in-person course, focusing on human thought and interactions.
To draw more high-achieving students to the Bay, UCF has introduced a co-op program, partnering with FAANG (Facebook/Meta, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google) companies. “Our university motto is Locutio Fortuita Latine, and we really hold our school to that standard. We hope to overtake Carnegie Mellon and become the #1 feeder into Big Tech and AI jobs,” stated the Chancellor of UC Fremont in an interview with the Irvington Voice.
Ever Edgekid (11) is excited for the new school. “Both my parents are software engineers at Tesla. Of course I’m trying to get a job in the tech industry. I think I’m definitely very self-motivated and have big plans to create my own tech startup. Maybe in a niche field like generative AI. UCF sounds like the place that would help me achieve that, and I’ll definitely apply in the fall.”
UCF admin has big plans to increase the school’s national rankings fast. They recently announced on their Instagram page, @ucfremontofficial, that they will be the only UC to not require the four supplemental essays in order to encourage student applications. Asspir N.K. Onslour, head of undergraduate admissions and former admissions reader for MIT, predicts “the number of total applicants to be somewhere in the hundreds of thousands when [they] open admissions in the fall, and acceptance rates to be very, very low. Hopefully somewhere in the single digits.” Furthermore, the school plans to send the bottom 20% of the incoming class to study at San Jose State University, with guaranteed transfer after the first year. UCF has already begun aggressively advertising on billboards, YouTube shorts, and App Store games like Water Sort Puzzle.
News has quickly spread to parent Facebook groups and the Fremont subreddit, r/Fremont, to mixed reviews. One redditor commented, “Fremont is way [too] expensive for students, faculty, and administration. It’s best to get some rich mother f***** to donate a boatload of land somewhere where land is cheap.” Much to our collective disappointment, no rich donor has stepped forward to volunteer. If any wealthy philanthropists do happen to read to this point, Irvington humbly asks for a 10 million dollar donation to fund our construction beginning this summer (you may refer to “New Constructions, New Realities: Update on Campus Renovations” for more details). The war isn’t making things cheap.
