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Originally Posted by flopsy Benefits of doing ESAP: you can get your M.S. in one year (instead of two), since your upper-division courses double-count towards the breadth requirements of your M.S. -- and of course you can stay at UCLA. |
I think you have ESAP confused with the Departmental Scholar program. Departmental Scholar is when you pursue bachelor's and master's degree programs simultaneously. This is not really done anymore, in part because of the cons you mentioned.
ESAP is different than this. Like flopsy said, if your major field upper division GPA is above 3.5 and your cumulative GPA is above a 3.5, you are guaranteed admission to the Master's program of your major. This is EXACTLY like if you had just applied for grad school and got accepted except you don't have to take the GREs or go through the long arduous process of applying to grad school.
Therefore, benefits: it's automatic admission into grad school, you don't have to apply which saves you a lot of time and money and if you decide to go to UCLA, you will be exactly the same kind of grad student as the one who applied and received admission
Cons? I can't think of any. I suppose the only con would be if you didn't want to go to UCLA in the first place but you decide to go since you got in on ESAP and it's the easiest route to go. But really, there are no major cons if you want to get a Master's in your field from UCLA.