Yet, when we took the student led tour, not much at all was said about the Engineering programs. And, when we walked past the Engineering Building(s), frankly they looked very drab. And, the tour did not take us inside.
If you went on the general walking tour of UCLA then I can understand that; a typical tour simply isn't long enough to explore every building on campus. The Engineering Open House walking tour is intended to offer such an exploration. As for the engineering buildings looking drab, keep in mind that the interior of the buildings get far more refurbishing than the exterior. It's a shame you didn't get a look inside Boelter/Engineering I/Engineering IV/CNSI/etc. or you wouldn't have to judge a book by its cover.
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Originally Posted by lovetocamp
What makes the above circumstances even more discouraging was the fact that your neighbor (USC), did put on a very good tour. I am not saying this to put down UCLA.
I understand; I've eavesdropped on USC guided tours while hanging around South LA and I think the tour guides put more effort into getting to know the visitors. However, keep in mind that the UCLA campus has twice the area of USC; it's simply not feasible to go into all the buildings on campus in the same amount of time.
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Originally Posted by lovetocamp
I ask you to enlighten me/us. Tell me/us of the wonderful things that go on inside the building. Tell me of the Labs. Tell me of the projects that you have worked on. The access to lab materials. Do you have access to Grad Labs? Are Engineering Lower division taught by Profs or TA/GSs?
Research happens behind every fourth door in Boelter. Next quarter I am working with a EE Ph.D. student in graph-modeling of USPTO citations using XML parsing and/or BerkeleyDB. One of my fourth-year ACM partners works in the CENS to write assembly code for low-power traffic motes to be deployed in Los Angeles. (I also have another project, which remains secret until it is approved by the Engineering Alumni Association.) Hmmm... Last year's lab classes were Physics 4AL and Physics 4BL, which involved veryifying laws of mechanics, electrostatics, DC/AC currents, magnetism, the speed/duality of light and geometric optics. This year's lab classes are CS 35 and CS M152A, which involve learning the Linux shell and implementing digital logic circuits with computer simulation, respectively. All engineering lectures are taught by professors, and all engineering discussion sections are led by teaching assistants who are M.S./Ph.D. graduate students.
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Originally Posted by lovetocamp
I realize that if/when we come down for the April 9th tour, that we will see a completely different and better picture.
well, since my double engineering major question has already been answered in this thread,
1) how hard is it to major in both engineering and business?
2) i was accepted for computer science and engineering, what's the diff btwn that and regular computer science?
3) is there a program similar to cal's EECS? i want both hardware and software
4) is it hard to change from CS&E to EE? i sorta just alternated btwn CS and EE for all the UC's, not sure which one i'd rather do yet (wanted to do both but i guess they don't allow it)
1. UCLA doesn't offer an undergraduate business major... As I already mentioned, though, Economics/Business Economics is possible, though improbable.
2. Computer Science and Engineering has additional Electrical Engineering/Computer Engineering requirements (e.g. EE 10: Circuit Analysis I) and fewer Computer Science requirements (e.g. CS 161: Fundamentals of Artificial Intelligence) than straight Computer Science. Also, CS majors have to choose a "technical support group" consisting of a field of specialization in a separate department at UCLA, whereas CSE majors aren't required.
3. The closest engineering undergraduate program UCLA offers to EECS is EECE (Electrical Engineering - Computer Engineering option).
4. It is very hard to change from CS&E to EE or vice versa... Last time I checked, the Office of Academic and Student Affairs doesn't give special preference to major-transfer applicants who are already engineering majors.
also, how many people double major w/ engineering and economics/business economics? if its too hard to double major like that i was thinking of majoring in engineering then attaining a minor in international relations or some form of a business related field. is that more plausible?
and should i just stick with CS&E? what are the opinions on CS vs. CS&E?
also, how many people double major w/ engineering and economics/business economics? if its too hard to double major like that i was thinking of majoring in engineering then attaining a minor in international relations or some form of a business related field. is that more plausible?
Only one student has double-majored in Engineering and Business Economics. I think you should experience the difficulty of a CS/CSE major's weeder classes before committing to a minor, no matter which school you go to. (One thing I loved about my orientation session was how so many naive people planned on double majoring in Computer Science and Japanese, then got soul-skewered by CS 32/33, and to this day never bring it up again.)
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Originally Posted by j0b0sapi3n
and should i just stick with CS&E? what are the opinions on CS vs. CS&E?
Stick with CSE... Someone at this quarter's CS Town Hall quipped that CSE was essentially CS + "circuit classes thrown in". Taking one major or the other will not prevent you from taking the courses in either major without going out of your way, curriculum-wise.
Besides doing a good job answering questions, flopsy proved one thing lovetocamp was right: UCLA students are willing to take chance to put down USC. I don't quite understand this attitude, but can we all be proud of ourselves, and respect other people's efforts.
Lab exercises are certainly not research projects, however typical student projects differs from research projects too. Well, they both can elevate participants' profiles, but they train you different skills.
Working with top researchers can help you in a lot of ways, which I think more than just doing an implementation project. But frankly NO professors (in top research universities) want to take undergraduate students in their labs unless you really show the exceptional potentials, RESEARCH potentials. First, the professor has to put in efforts to define a meaningful research project suitable for UNDERGRADUATEs. Not easy, especially if you want to keep competitive in your field. Second, you have to take care of the student's mental and emotional development. Undergraduate student are comparatively immature, and professors are afraid to treat them in a normal sweat shop way as they do to grads Third, Undergraduates have a lot more courseworks and parties than graduate students, therefore less time for the project; And they usually don't share the same career goal as the supervisor envisions, make it unattractive for professors to invest time in.
What USC does different is the school makes undergraduate research an institutional one, and invests money in the projects and postions in research lab. Some of the positions are merit-based due to two major reasons: 1. Position shortage, and professors want to produce while working with better students; 2. Students have to be good enough to keep up with course load and spend time in labs. But there are some need-based actually. I am not in Engineering school, but our lab take one or two unders all the time (I talked about this in some other posts). My supervisor is not a good one to define easy projects for them (honestly), but she takes care of everything other things. Since we are pretty adequate in funding, she pays the students. You know what, all of them are going to medical schools. Incredible recommendations can do a lot of good things!
I believe UCLA also offers the similar access to research labs (maybe for some regent scholar? I am not sure, but I know some students working with professors there), but in light of UC culture, you have to be really competitive, and take tremendous initiatives yourself. CENS mentioned in flopsy's post is nice one. The director was a USC professor, then moved to UCLA to found this center. It was quite a loss of USC, and gain of UCLA. Here I have to question one of flopsy's statement: you're sure your friend will write assembly code on motes? As far as I've known, it is not advised. You may check your facts.
1) "CS majors have to choose a "technical support group" consisting of a field of specialization in a separate department at UCLA" What?
2) Exactly how do you rate the people in your CS classes? Uber-geeky, somewhat nerdy, jocks who have no clue wth they are doing there, or something else?
3) You mentioned job recruting on campus. Any chance for us CS undergrads?
4) How would you compare UCLA and UCB's CS program?
5) If I do end up at UCLA, can I hit you up for a research chance?
is EECE a seperate major? is it a lot harder than lets say EE or CS? is it harder to get into?
EECE is a specialization track of EE that you declare anytime after completing the lower-division general EE curriculum. It's not a separate major. If you're admitted as an EE major, then you just have to fulfill the major requirements.
1) "CS majors have to choose a "technical support group" consisting of a field of specialization in a separate department at UCLA" What?
2) Exactly how do you rate the people in your CS classes? Uber-geeky, somewhat nerdy, jocks who have no clue wth they are doing there, or something else?
3) You mentioned job recruting on campus. Any chance for us CS undergrads?
4) How would you compare UCLA and UCB's CS program?
5) If I do end up at UCLA, can I hit you up for a research chance?
1. The technical support group is a cluster of three related upper-division courses in a field outside CS, either in the HSSEAS or in the CL&S. It was intended by the CS Department to encourage us to specialize and apply our knowledge beyond CS, thus making our degrees (more) valuable during this period of outsourcing.
2. 29% uber-geeky, 40% somewhat nerdy, 30% well-rounded types, >1% jocks who have no clue what they are doing here (and leave later on).
3. Of course. About 40% of recruiters on campus look for UCLA CS majors.
4. To be honest I don't know much about UCB's CS program, besides the fact that freshmen enter as "pre-Computer Science" into the CL&S and then have to make a GPA cutoff in the prerequisites to get into the actual CS major during their junior year. That's partially why EECS freshman admissions are so competitive at UCB -- unlike CS, once you're in, you're in for good. CS 61 at UCB is like CS 32 at UCLA but for an entire semester. Feel the burn!
"The technical support group is a cluster of three related upper-division courses in a field outside CS, either in the HSSEAS or in the CL&S. It was intended by the CS Department to encourage us to specialize and apply our knowledge beyond CS, thus making our degrees (more) valuable during this period of outsourcing."
So I can basically take classes in and be proficient at a second "thing"? Like I do CS while adding on Economics classes. Will there be a note of this on your diploma?
Third, Undergraduates have a lot more courseworks and parties than graduate students, therefore less time for the project; And they usually don't share the same career goal as the supervisor envisions, make it unattractive for professors to invest time in. 
