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<p>First of all, congratulation! How did you feel when you received that big package with the acceptance letter inside and some other info regarding how great UCLA is. I’m glad that you are joining our Bruin family! Welcome to UCLA math department!</p>
<p>For the Math/Applied Science with concentration in Accounting/Management, you are right that it is no longer available. In fact, I am in their last year to graduate with this major. It is particularly a strong major because of the diversity of required courses including statistics, math, accounting and two MBA graduate level courses (I’m lucky to have completed these 2 courses and this fact helped me getting many interviews indeed.) </p>
<p>For the Math/Econ, beside all the lower division math courses and 3 basic econs (I assumed you finish most of them), you need to take 7 math and 6 econ for upper division. Here is the link: [UCLA</a> Department of Mathematics](<a href=“http://www.math.ucla.edu/ugrad/majors/major.mathecon.shtml]UCLA”>Undergraduate Program | UCLA Department of Mathematics) . </p>
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<p>Now, you should be relieved with this major because all you need is only 7 math courses but pure math needs about 14 courses. For additional 6 econ courses, I heard from friends that the econ material itself is not as tough as math but there are some tough professors who give lots of work and harsh grades (I personally don’t take econ there so i don’t know, though). </p>
<p>My general advices for you:
- Not having the crazy passion for math does not neccessarily mean that you will fail the math courses but of course if you love it, you will probably do better so first of all, don’t worry too much! Try your best and you will be fine, at least you will pass!</p>
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<li>For the first quarter (Fall 2008?), you should take all the lower division if you are still missing them. I strongly advice you to take Math 115A (Linear algebra) before you even touch any other math because that course will bridge the gap between lower and upper division math. Once you do fine in 115A, you will gain confidence and apply those learning technique to other upper division math courses. Math 115A is 60% theoretical and 40% computational. You deal with “linear independence, bases, orthogonality, the Gram-Schmidt process, linear transformations, eigenvalues and eigenvectors, and diagonalization of matrices.” </li>
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<p>[UCLA</a> Department of Mathematics](<a href=“Undergraduate Course Landing | UCLA Department of Mathematics”>Undergraduate Course Landing | UCLA Department of Mathematics) <<< General outlines for many math courses </p>
<p>Math 131A (real ananlysis) is considered the toughest math course according to many students and many delay this course untill their senior year. It is VERY THEORITICAL, it is like calculus I. However, you don’t calculate derivatives or integration but you rather prove all those fancy calculus theorems, existence of limit, convergence of limit …etc so you deal with epsilon and delta (remember those in beginning calculus?). </p>
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<li><p>Taking all math courses in a quarter is overwhelming so for your major, you have the flexibility to mix econ and math courses together. I suggest you either take 2 econ and 1 mah (this is easiest option) or 2 math and 1 econ (this is balanced option). For any math course, you will probably have weekly homework which is very long (we spend average 3-9 hours per week just for 1 class doing homework.) and you won’t spend much time on econ (again this is my econ friends’ opinions). </p></li>
<li><p>Try to adapt to this new quarter system as much as you can. This is essentially very important for you, new student. I can assure you that you will be shocked by the different grading system (almost all math courses here are based on curve and the the test grade has 70% average and sometimes as low as 30%) , by the pace of the course (finding out that you have midterm on 3rd or 4th week), by the competition among many smart students, by the new environment (you need to walk back and forth at least 20 minutes per day from your apartment or parking to your classrooms)…etc</p></li>
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<p>So be prepared for new changes like don’t judge your grades by the x% but rather judge it by where you stand in the class (percentile). In another words, if you have around the median score, you will get about B- to B+ which is a passing grade which in fact the grade most students end up with. </p>
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<li><p>Math 170 (probability) is very hard, and replacing it with a statistics course would be a good option for you. </p></li>
<li><p>Visit professors in their office hours if you get stuck in your assignments (this will most likely happen). TAs will help you a lot too if you ask them so just be active and ask around, just don’t sit there thinking how badly you will fail but rather run around and ask for help. </p></li>
<li><p>Form study groups with your classmates especially the ones who are smart. </p></li>
<li><p>Have a good attitude toward your progress and always reward yourself whenever you get a good grades in homework, midterms and especially final. </p></li>
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<p>Anyways, my final week is approaching so I might not visit this forum for a few weeks… I will come back whenever I have time. If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to post them here.</p>