<p>@Fizast, I know for sure that my circumstances were worse than a lot of transfers and equal to many Hispanics (I have 0 FAFSA EFC, house was foreclosed on during my Junior year, had to move states and attend a new high school my senior year), so to imply that that people who enter UCLA directly somehow had it easier is ridiculous. I busted my ass to get into a good school with a good scholarship. My roommate on the other hand, who’s a transfer student, comes from a privileged background and didn’t work at all during high school and didn’t go straight to university out of pure laziness. </p>
<p>Also, I’m pretty sure there’s a statistic comparing average transfer UCLA GPA and average non-transfer UCLA GPA that shows that those who enter UCLA directly keep a better GPA once they get here. </p>
<p>HOWEVER, I do agree that 1) zygote was out of line with that comment and 2) that many UCLA students lack the ability to think critically and for themselves. Sometimes I’m shocked by all the questions I see here that could be answered by a Google search or a little bit of independent thinking (i.e. What size backpack should I get- really?!). And I’m no less surprised when I see people not even attempting to understand the concept behind problems but instead just memorizing formulas or mnemonic devices so they can do well on a test. Of course they all complain when the professor throws a curveball that requires you to actually APPLY the knowledge to a novel situation.</p>
<p>Overall, I think this problem isn’t the result of his race OR the fact that he entered straight from high school. I think in general the ability to think critically has been deemphasized in society (probably as a result of the increasing dependence on standardized tests), leading to a generation of students that are incapable of forming their own opinions and doing much outside of regurgitating information they have been spoon-fed by a teacher or textbook.</p>