TODO: add preview image
(WIP)
In the beginning of my freshman year at UC San Diego, I had plenty of time to acclimate to the campus, so I decided to explore every nook and cranny, walking through every college at least once. This turned out to be very helpful: with knowledge of every part of campus, I can quickly find a place to study or chill from any place on campus. I recommend every new student to explore campus before classes get busy.
Since I graduated, I have no need to gatekeep these study spaces, and I want to list them here publicly before I forget. Here’s my hopefully exhaustive dump of study spaces, organized by college/neighborhood. This isn’t a list of good study spaces—that’s on you to try for yourself—but these are all places I’ve studied in before.
Also, here’s a list of intentionally 24/7 study spaces for students:
Colleges and neighborhoods
- University Center
- Revelle
- Muir
- Marshall
- Warren
- ERC
- Sixth
- Seventh
- Eighth
- Pepper Canyon
- Med campus
- SIO
Notes for all study spaces
UCSD (and most places in general) won’t let you sleep anywhere outside of a suite or apartment. In other words, if you’re caught sleeping, you’ll probably be woken up. So don’t get caught.
If you’re staying at odd hours (i.e. late in the night), you should be prepared to prove that you’re a UCSD affiliate, i.e. with a student ID card.
Academic buildings
Academic buildings (classrooms, professor office buildings) usually aren’t 24-hour, and you’ll be kicked out if caught by a custodian, which definitely go through the building at night. Plus, students who do stay overnight sometimes leave trash, and the morning custodians will blame the night custodians for not cleaning properly.
Res halls
One could argue that res halls are 24-hour.
If you’re a non resident, you have to trespass by tailing someone entering the building. I don’t think RAs care if they don’t recognize you, but only residents should be in the building.
Dining halls
I personally like studying in dining halls because there’s a lot of ambient background noise. Plus, when I had dining dollars, I wouldn’t have to move when I got hungry.
Also, if you keep a dining hall cup, you can use it for unlimited soda. This was better back when HDH partnered with Coca Cola and had those fancy touchscreen build-your-own soda dispensers; the Pepsi ones have fewer options.
Eighth
Res hall study rooms
You have to go to the ground floor for water and bathrooms.
Caveat: Eighth stairs will lock you out. The elevators had keycard scanners but they weren’t enforced when I was a student. Maybe that has changed.
In Eighth College, every floor of the res halls has at least one study room at one end of the hallway.
Podemos classrooms
There’s water and bathrooms in the interior hallway between classrooms.
The Eighth lecture halls are pretty nice and new. They have cushioned, wheeled chairs that are fun to zoom around in. The room is big and spacious when they’re empty.
I did an Amazon interview in one of these classrooms but forgot how to implement a heap. I didn’t pass.
Revelle
Galbraith
The building has running water.
Galbraith has two study rooms; one’s allegedly more quiet than the other. I personally don’t like studying in quiet or dimly lit spaces, and these rooms are both. But maybe that’s perfect for you.
I’ve heard that one of the rooms is 24-hour, but I’ve heard mixed information about this. It feels like sometimes on weekends or odd hours, it’s open, and other times, it’s closed.
Revelle commuter lounge
I don’t have a good photo of the interior, so here’s a photo outside.
The closest bathroom is probably next to Roger’s. You can get water at 64°.
Revelle commuter lounge my beloved. It’s a decent, quiet place to study in or chill at in Revelle, and it has outlets.
64°
It’s pretty loud, and there’s no outlets.
Muir
MOM’s
MOM’s always feels really busy, so it’s hard to find a table, so I usually don’t study here.
Pines and Roots
The dining halls are pretty calm outside of normal meal hours, so they’re a decent place to study.
I think it’s difficult to access an outlet in Roots, while Pines has a table with outlets on it. There’s bathrooms and water downstairs.
But this information is likely outdated since the dining halls are being renovated at the time of writing.
Glacier point
It’s a small, quiet, but reliable study room (when not full). There’s a big, long power strip on the floor, so outlets are easy to access.
Tenaya/Tioga common areas
McGill break room
In the evenings, the elevator is still unlocked but there’s virtually no one in the building, so this table I found in some staff break room makes for a nice study space. I think there’s a wall outlet next to it.
Treehouse/Treetop lounge
TODO: photo
Every computer has outlets in the desk. The closest bathroom is downstairs by Taco Villa or inside Blue Pepper, and the closest water is probably in Blue Pepper. Some of the sofa chairs are wheeled, and it’s fun to zoom around in them. At midnight, the lights automatically turn off.
Sixth
Sixth computer lab
This computer lab has Macs with the Adobe suite installed. Every computer has outlets in the desk.
The closest bathroom (and water) is in the hallway, but the door back to the computer lab locks, so you have to walk the long way around outside. That’s why people prop the door open with a trash bin.
The custodians seem pretty diligent and punctual, and immediately kick people out when the computer lab and commuter lounge close at 9 pm.
Sixth commuter lounge
Since it’s a commuter lounge, there’s a sink and fridge.
The only outlets are along the walls.
RWAC classrooms
RWAC classrooms are nice and new; they have swivel chairs and outlets in the desk I think, as well as in the floor. Unfortuantely, since my first year, most of the classrooms are locked by default, except for the classrooms on the ground floor for some reason.
The classroom near Fan-Fan is nice to stop by in the evening.
Because winter 2022 was partially remote due to Covid, my friends would camp out in RWAC 0426. The classroom suddenly getting locked is the reason why I made my classroom schedule website.
RWAC floor 7 has a great view of both the ocean and campus, but partly because students kept leaving a mess, they’ve since locked the room up for special events only.
RWAC terrace
There’s a nice terrace on the fifth floor of RWAC with an ocean view. It’s pretty well known among students.
You used to be able to access the terrace (and the other elevator lobbies in the building) 24/7 because the elevators didn’t lock. On weekends and at night, you could take the elevators up from the parking garage. I hear that this has now been fixed.
Since it’s outdoor, it’s bright and windy, so it’s not a great place for neither paper nor online homework.
EDS lounge
There’s a study area in the north end of RWAC floor 4. It’s in an open area next to offices, so it’s not as private as a classroom.
Wolftown
Wolftown has a quiet side room with plenty of wall and floor outlets. At least for the big wooden tall table, you’ll need a long-ish cable to reach the floor outlet. Since it’s a dining hall, you can get unlimited soda if you keep an HDH cup.
Catalyst lecture hall lounge
At some point they finally furnished the lounge for CTL 125 with a few tables. I think I studied there once.
There’s a bathroom with a brown trail coming out of it on the floor for some reason.
Mosaic common areas
If you stand and wait in the right Mosaic elevator (or wait for someone to scan their ID), the elevator will get sent up to the apartment floors of Mosaic. The common areas of these floors have a bit of ocean view, and except for people leaving/entering their dorms, it’s pretty isolated. The room gets pretty hot when the sun is shining in during the afternoon, though, and you’d have to go back down for a bathroom.
The Jeannie
The Jeannie is the biggest lecture hall on campus, and it has cushioned seats, outlets between each seat, and large desks (for a lecture hall).
Sometimes, I stick around after lecture. When the next lecture starts, the random lecture serves as good background noise. And if there’s no more lectures for the day, the lecture hall continues to be unlocked for the rest of the day, and the soundproofing in the room makes it a nice, quiet place to study. Plus, the room can be used to watch movies.
Marshall
Angela’s space
I don’t really like this study space because the tables are too tall for their seats, which makes using a laptop on the table uncomfortable. It’s also kind of dim.
That new Malk study lounge
When I visited UCSD after graduating, they had opened Malk Hall in new Marshall, where the Marshall Lowers used to be.
I found this study lounge (intended for GPS students IIRC). It only has a few tables, and there’s a random hallway with a cushioned seat next to an outlet. Presumably one could nap there.
ERC
GPS
The common area for the GPS classrooms is a pretty nice study space. There are outlets in the tables.
ERC computer lab
You could study here, but I don’t like that there’s not really much natural sunlight. The lights in this room are really yellow.
ERC commuter lounge
This is the only photo I have of the lounge, which is behind the flyer.
ERC’s commuter lounge is pretty small I think.
Cafe V
Before the renovation, I used to study here sometimes. But the tables had sticky edges and there were no outlets.
The new Cafe V has some tall tables with outlets in it, which is nice.
Seventh
North Break
Seventh East Tower terrace
RIMAC annex
Warren
JK Wood lounge / CV
Courtroom
CSE basement
CSE master’s commons
CSE floor 1 cafe area
That one computer room in the computer science building
WLH computer lab
WLH lab rooms
ECE tutoring center
Warren commuter lounge
Pepper Canyon
Envision
The Lodge
DIB floors 3 and 4
Pepper Canyon West study rooms
University Center
Geisel
Price Center
Medical campus
Biomed / WongAvery
SIO
Eckart building
Sumner auditorium
All my photos are licensed under CC BY 4.0 because I don’t care what you do with them, but people should know where they came from.