@anikom15 I could not agree with you more, but I think that ship has already sailed. So many tech executives here in Silicon Valley say a double is essentially useless and internships are key. But there’s a mindset that somehow evolved, I think starting with the super-achievers, and it’s now plowing forward of it’s own momentum. And let’s not start on the triple majors! A person can specialize within their single major (maybe add a minor, as it’s no skin off anyone’s back) and focus on several powerful internships.
Honestly, orientation wasn’t a great experience for me, mainly because of the enrollment process. I don’t know if it’s a math major thing or what…First is the 3 class limit, which I was fine with. Then our NSA wouldn’t let us enroll in more than one UD major course–that is, we could only take 1 major course and had to take 2 elective classes. Frankly I think it’s a total waste of time/money to only take 1 major course and others in my group shared the same thoughts…one person even left and went to enroll on their own.
When it came to enrollment, our phones were taken away (did this happen to anyone else?) so we wouldn’t enroll on our own. At that point, I tried to be reasonable and tried choosing courses that I would like. Since I was thinking of doubling in possibly physics, I asked if I could do that–and the NSA told me no because it was a STEM class and that it would be too much of a load my first quarter! Same for stats, since our NSA didn’t want us taking more than 1 math-related class. I threw out so many choices like econ, PIC, but all were no’s for differing reasons. In the end I got 1 major course and 2 random electives like Art History and Linguistics.
Was anyone else’s enrollment “limited” and heavily policed like this? Particularly math majors? I love UCLA but honestly orientation was a frustrating experience and even though fall quarter hasn’t started I’m already looking forward for it to be over 
@Bearly Our phones weren’t taken away, but we were told not to use them at all (not even for instagram or anything) or the NSA would drop all our classes.
IDK what the dude who left was thinking. Our NSA told us that if you don’t register with them at 7pm, everything gets dropped…
@luckie1367 oh man they can drop your classes for you? So much control…I guess it’s a little relieving to hear that other groups had the same runaround. But now my main concern is the heavy policing of what I could (but mainly couldn’t) take. I just don’t want my first quarter to be wasted with only taking 1 major course and a bunch of useless electives (esp since we went through that work for IGETC to not have to do that again!). Considering for most majors you have on average 2 (up to 3 for heavier majors) requirements per quarter with our 6 quarters.
I mean, I know we have a bunch of empty class slots to fill anyways, which is why doubling or minoring in something was something I tried to put out there, but like I said my NSA wouldn’t let me take any STEM classes at all, and it wasn’t a technicality thing but a “we don’t want your first quarter load to be too heavy”. In the end I felt like we were being babied…I know they mean well for us but ?? Paying 4k to take one class I need :E
Yikes. That seems way harsh (to quote from Clueless).
My daughter had the perspective of both UCLA and Berkeley orientations. In retrospect, she liked Berkeley’s better because (if I remember correctly), the process was smoother at UCB.
–UCLA. All the applicants to the major meet at the same time, are given numbers(?) and then had to wait in a hallway while the NSA signed them up on a laptop in a dorm room. Bottleneck and confusion.
– Berkeley. You meet with your major group, then meet with your major advisor based on a time each student is given, so there isn’t a rush of kids. When meeting with the advisor, you are given a code to access the registration. From there, you head over to a computer room with a bank of computers and sign up on your own. If you had no questions for the advisor you were given a code straight out at the first meeting and could just head over early.
She felt UCLA, by being more hands-on and controlling of the entire day (a long list of scheduled meetings, whereas Berkeley was more loose, giving more independence to the kids), led to UCLA’s being a more exhausting and difficult process. Just her opinion, of course.
@Bearly @lindyk8 yeah, seemed harsh, but I can also see it from their point of view. I think they do their best to keep it fair, so if someone registers on their phone/iPad it ruins it for everyone else. Same for getting more than 1-2 UD division courses, I think they are trying to keep space for the later sessions.
If it helps, my NSA said that registration re-opens on Sep 15, and if anything is open you can sign up for it!
Lindy, UCB’s way of doing it sounds so much nicer and less stressful!
Oh, so ppl could register via phone. I get it. It seems you need a code at Berkeley.
Does ucla use schedule builder? I don’t think they did last year.
UCLA has a ‘Class Planner’, which was really helpful actually. I could see in real time what my classes were when I was trying to scramble for seats.
I think the first pass/second pass system will be nice compared to how orientation registration went
As someone with some knowledge of school politics, students taking too many units and ending up dropping classes is a real problem, so I think the benefit of limiting new students to a few classes is quite understated.
As for double majors, my professors believe it is actually worse since it can make employers assume you are indecisive or are not fully interested in the field. FWIW there are no statistics that show double majors have better job prospects, and of course it won’t help you get into graduate school either.
@anikom15 My thinking re:double major/minors is that my psych major is so diverse, I wanted another way to show that I was a good fit for a computing/neuropsycho/programming type of grad school. ECs can do a significant amount of showing thats what I want to do, but having an actual minor could show that I took/did well in related classes…
@anikom15 I would say it depends on which majors you choose to double in. For instance, math majors commonly double (usually in econ or comp sci) because it’s way more practical. After all, there’s not much you can pursue with just a single math degree other than grad school or teaching. I could see the indecisiveness from employers’ perspectives maybe, but like I said it helps to have a reasoning behind it (and not just being indecisive). It can be of great use esp when the second major supplements your first one, sort of like luckie’s rationale.
And yeah, I can’t wait for winter to use the 1st/2nd pass system. I’ll try to get in a class I want Sep 15, we’ll see. Just wondering, do they open more classes with more sessions or? Because it’s only the 2nd transfer session yet a lot of the classes are filled up already. Plus what happens if people don’t attend or miss their orientation? How do they register? O
@Bearly they will continue to open up spaces in classes as the summer goes on. I think if people miss they just have to wait until Sep 15 to register for everything… which would be totally stressful!
Getting another major or minor in place of ECs is a really bad idea. Getting a minor in addition to ECs might help (but I doubt it).
The extra courses you’re going to take outside your major aren’t just ‘filler’. Sure, HSSEAS has much less GE than the College of Letters & Science, but that’s because the College is a liberal arts college. Getting a broad education with one major focus along with dabbling in a variety of other subjects is the whole idea of ‘liberal arts’. Now you might have reservations about the efficacy of a liberal arts education in an increasingly technical world, but that’s a separate debate
@Bearly and @luckie1367 , I’m not attending the orientation so I can answer that. I’ve been given a time to go online and register by myself, it is after all the orientations but it is also before September 15. Following this, it seems like it is gonna be pretty stressful but well … can’t really do much about it 
I honestly think I’d have been fine if I skipped orientation. Oh well at least the food was good.
@Bearly fellow math department major here! I can’t believe they only let you enroll in one major course, most of the people in my group were math/econ majors like myself and we had a hard time getting econ classes (long story) but my NSA allowed us to pick two math courses. I ended up enrolling in 115A and 170A. Not too worried about it though because I took a similar class to 170A before, and 115A is an extension of lower div linear algebra. What classes did you end up picking?
side note: kinda creepy, but we were in the same room for the department advisor meeting and didn’t even know it! 
@fncrane I ended up with 115A and two random electives (Art History & Linguistics). I wanted to take 115A and 170A too, I actually emailed Connie to ask about it, I’m really hoping to get to do so. Maybe it was just my NSA rather than a math major thing. Also yeah that’s crazy, there were like what, 20 students in that room? Just wondering, what row did you sit in? I sat in the very first row haha
I was at the back! And I’m taking linguistics too! Omg what if we end up with the same schedule
lol am i the only one who actually got 3 upper division courses … haha i honestly don’t think they’ll be too much just because of what they are and reviews etc, time will tell, but I wanted to start ticking off major requirements from the get go
I also have 3 upper division courses, but it’s just 12 units.