namaste

during our annual spirit week we pass out shirts that say I (heart sign) UCLA. we call them i heart ucla shirts instead of i love ucla shirts. the reason i think we call it i "heart" instead of "love" is because heart is less affectionate.

basically, ucla is a great place, and i HEART it, but i dont LOVE it as it does have many flaws too. love = stronger than "heart".

karagon7

I would love to hear about the "many flaws" of UCLA as my son wants to pass up a 'full ride' to Rice University to attend. Ucla will cost us about $7500 a year ($2500 WS)

namaste

honestly, any college has "many flaws". i would say the benefits of ucla far outweigh the negatives anyday. if you are really curious PM me and ill tell you

karagon7

namaste: I do not know how to PM you??? Please tell.

PseudoIntellect

Click on his user name and then click the second option of the window that pops up, "Send a private message to namaste."

karagon7

Pseudo: it says "you have turned off private messages"???

liyana179

karagon, where do you guys live? is location a factor? because if money is the only factor, and getting hung up on the phrase "passing up a free ride" is keeping you from seeing his side of the story... try to look at other things. and not just the faults of ucla. does rice have faults? why does he want ucla, and is it well thought-out? what's his major, which school has a better program? if the total difference is going to be $5k a year out of pocket... make sure you aren't placing "free ride" over his happiness.

namaste

rice has more flaws than UCLA in my opinion

what are ucla's flaws: it's overcrowded - hard to get classes sometimes, housing is expensive and crowded (almost all freshmen get triples), the area is expensive and apartment managers are often unreasonable if you live off campus, LA can be a brutal scary place if you're some small town kid, there is a lot of race/class/background issues (but you'll find that at any public school and we do make conscious efforts to address them unlike a lot of midwestern or southern colleges), lack of parking and good public transportation, and the quarter system - endless midterms and finals = endless stress , if ya let it get to you

more importantly ucla has so many benefits, which are amazing programs, overall great faculty, cheap price, beautiful campus/location, endless opportunities - you can get into any industry if you make the effort, a great alumni network (they say USC is so amazing... well we have 340k living alumni and many are willing to help IF YOU MAKE THE EFFORT), proximity to the best city in the world, a great on campus housing experience (if you skip the triples), endless academic resources (world class libraries, free tutoring, people who will help) some of the best dining hall food in the country, a diverse student body - almost anybody can find a niche through hundreds of student groups and of course, our top knotch athletic program that brings the campus together. there's much more.

to sum it up: ucla can suck if you sit in your room and go to class. it's what you make of it. the world is at your fingertips. dig in, there's no limit.

at rice, well, great school i'm sure. great programs. great faculty. but what's the world surrounding rice? are you surrounded by a world class research universtiy? an incredibly diverse megapolis with endless opportunity and allure? dont think so

of course, if this is all too overwhelming, which i understand it is for some people (and LA chews some people alive and spits them out), rice by all means

karagon7

Thank you all for your insight. Liyana: My son lived half his life in the Silicon Valley and the other half in the Cental Valley and hates the latter. He wants big town, big school and loves the beach! I do believe he will thrive at UCLA and the decision is totally up to him. Namaste: should he try his best to stay away from the triples situation even if he prefers the social life and bathroom situation of the halls? ( I know it's still a 90% chance of him getting a triple) Thanks again.

hypergreenbean

Can someone please explain how enrollment for classes work? What are all these passes people are talking about?

Does it matter what you get priority enrollment from? (Athletics, Alumni, Regents) etc or are they all the same?

Does a freshman with priority get priority over someone who has junior standing?

Oh it's all so confusing. :|

mme-lin

great post namaste.

namaste

karagon: if your son is a typical (decently) outgoing guy he should be fine in a triple. will there challenges? of course! but unless he has major space/tidiness issues or is on the misanthropic side, he should be fine!

Ookla

hey namaste, can you explain more about the unreasonable apartment managers? I'll be dealing with one over the summer. thanks

namaste

i actually don't know since i never lived in an apt and probably never will (at least at ucla), but several of my friends and acquantinces have dealt with difficult managers who don't help out with maintainence issues, are rude, and charge high rents. now that's only some managers, i hear many positive stories too.

liyana179

okay, a quick briefing on enrollment:

there are 3 "passes" which are windows of time.

UCLA Schedule of Classes: Enrollment Appointments

this is the schedule of priority, first, and second passes for this quarter.

how priority works: you get priority pass in lieu of your first pass. you can use priority for 10 units, then second pass for the rest. first pass can be used to change around your units, but not to add more than 10.

if you don't have priority, then you use first pass to sign up for 10 units, and second pass for the rest.