IAMA graduating senior at ucla. Ask me anything.

Colleges & Universities University of California - Los Angeles
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<p>@ dockers - <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-los-angeles/547149-life-science-major-math-31-series-vs-3-series.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-los-angeles/547149-life-science-major-math-31-series-vs-3-series.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>@ Galactica - i’m not too familiar with the EE department, but from what i’ve heard from my friends, there are many poor professors. While they are all very very intelligent, a lot of them are horrible lecturers. However, this may just be the case because the nature of the topic is also very complex, and may be similar at CMU.</p>

<p>Class size for upper divs will be 50-100. Maybe 150 max for lower divs. Maybe larger for general math/physics class during freshman year. From what i’ve seen, there are plenty of research opps at ucla. My friend has a <3.0 gpa and is able to get research opportunities as well.</p>

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<p>You were accepted as out of state applicant but you are paying in state-tuition now? Could you explain the process you took? Thanks in advance.</p>

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<p>@qjym8p - see: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/15722552-post27.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/15722552-post27.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>why is latenight so inefficient
why are the bathrooms at powell so disgusting
why can’t they have less tours going around campus at all times
why does everyone like hedrick dining hall so much now
why is the ucla store so expensive
why don’t they have a place you can use swipes on campus
why are the asucla restaurant vouchers you can get for a swipe only worth like $2
why is lot 11 always full
why does the dismount zone exist
why is the inverted fountain under construction
why is there always people in bruin plaza trying to get you to sign a petition and what is it even for
why do they have lot 3 as an option for orange parking permits
why is parking so expensive
why does the wifi suck so much
why are some professors so awful at teaching and why don’t they realize this
why do all the elevators have expired permits in them
why do the residence halls need access control but plazas and suites don’t</p>

<p>if you can answer even half of these, you’re a saint in my book</p>

65

<p>why is latenight so inefficient - i’ve only been to latenight two times this year and it didn’t seem too bad. I always just get a regular burger though. </p>

<p>why are the bathrooms at powell so disgusting - i’ve realized this too. old pipes/old architecture? or just too many kids with bad hygiene that don’t flush.</p>

<p>why can’t they have less tours going around campus at all times - because this: [10</a> Colleges That Get the Most Applications - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/the-short-list-college/articles/2013/01/08/10-colleges-that-get-the-most-applications]10”>http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/the-short-list-college/articles/2013/01/08/10-colleges-that-get-the-most-applications)</p>

<p>why does everyone like hedrick dining hall so much now - really? hedrick sucks. from what I remember…</p>

<p>why is the ucla store so expensive - cause people still buy it. upsell = profit. if you want cheap go to westwood 411 or something. quality sucks in both places anyways.</p>

<p>why don’t they have a place you can use swipes on campus - because they want you to have leftover swipes in which you spend 10$ for 2 bottles of water.</p>

<p>why are the asucla restaurant vouchers you can get for a swipe only worth like $2 - another ploy for more $. Did you know a meal plan is actually MORE expensive than paying the same amount of swipes individually? I even brought this up with UCLA Housing Services and they said meal plans are more expensive because it is more convenient for students… plus on campus students are required to have meal plans… sick</p>

<p>why is lot 11 always full - close to dorms. free past a certain time at night. </p>

<p>why does the dismount zone exist - in the past some longboarders have eaten massive **** while boarding down bruinwalk. they also often tackle ongoing pedestrians as well. in 2010 a longboarder at ucsd died while eating **** on a steep slope on campus (similar to bruinwalk)</p>

<p>why is the inverted fountain under construction - they are building a new building right next to it. I assume they need to stop the water flow while constructing. <a href=“http://www.schoolofmusic.ucla.edu/images/stories/hasom_misc/construction%20photos%2010.12.12.jpg[/url]”>http://www.schoolofmusic.ucla.edu/images/stories/hasom_misc/construction%20photos%2010.12.12.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>why is there always people in bruin plaza trying to get you to sign a petition and what is it even for - because they know they can find signatures if they just bother enough people. same with the people that ask for money for “feeding the poor” or some random cause. or the weird guy that tries to give you a free bhagavad gita book and then asks for a donation… My roommate offered him 25cents and he promptly took the book back and walked away. Looks like he has a lower limit haha.</p>

<p>why do they have lot 3 as an option for orange parking permits - no idea, never had oncampus parking</p>

<p>why is parking so expensive - it’s not just parking. space in general is expensive and overpriced. take a look at this: <a href=“http://la.curbed.com/uploads/2011.11_collegesfull.jpg[/url]”>http://la.curbed.com/uploads/2011.11_collegesfull.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>why does the wifi suck so much: I find wifi to be great actually. You just have to know where the hotspots are. I can download at 10-15MB/s in Ackerman. Once you remember the locations, you’ll be good. <a href=“https://www.bol.ucla.edu/services/wireless/coverage/[/url]”>https://www.bol.ucla.edu/services/wireless/coverage/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>why are some professors so awful at teaching and why don’t they realize this - because they get paid for research not for lecturing. they also get hired based on their research, NOT on their potential to teach. Professors usually have never taken courses on “how to teach” in their lives whereas all high-school teachers have to take teacher training courses.</p>

<p>why do all the elevators have expired permits in them - they shouldn’t lol. budget cuts?</p>

<p>why do the residence halls need access control but plazas and suites don’t. - only reason I can think of is because of the communal bathrooms on every floor. two levels of security so nobody gets rapered by a rando.</p>

66

<p>Hello! I am trying to decide between UCLA and Georgetown and Vanderbilt. Do you think that the education you got at UCLA prepared you enough for jobs/internships or did you feel like just a number?</p>

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<p>@ seniorsjd - it did plenty for me; however, I am an engineering major and the classes I took directly influenced what kind of jobs/internships I applied for.</p>

<p>This may not be the cause if you are a liberal arts major as taking a class on “philosophy” or “history of the roman empire” are completely different fields from most applicable jobs/internships. if you study one of these majors, you’ll probably have to do more independent work finding opportunities in whatever field you want to go into.</p>

<p>I’m sure this will be the case with georgetown and vanderbilt as well. I recommend visiting each campus and taking in weather, school campus, extra-curriculars, and general location into consideration.</p>

<p>if you want to work in the east coast, ucla may not be the option as you will rarely find employers over here.</p>

68

<p>I have the same question about UCLa as others have asked, can you graduate in 4 years, do you have to do summer school and research and internship and placements? my daughter got in UCLA for CE . she got into Harvey Mudd as well so we are comparing between these two schools, and what pros and cons are. we went for their open house over the weekend and I was totally impressed wtih their curriculum and they have so much to offer. financially with aid it will be same as UCLA. what are your views. please excuse my english/grammer.</p>

69

<p>Tell me more about these $2 swipe vouchers …</p>

70

<p>Hi! Thank you for doing this!
Do you have any pre-med friends? If so, what do you hear from them about their studies? Do they have a social life? What are some of their complaints? How hard is the competition?</p>

<p>Right now I’m deciding between UCSD and UCLA.</p>

71

<p>@vimank </p>

<p>Yes, 4 years is definitely do-able, but summer school helps tremendously, unless you come in with tons of AP units and can skip most of the lower div math and ge classes.</p>

<p>I always had a pretty decent schedule, with some quarters slightly more packed. This is what I did for my summers.</p>

<p>pre-freshman summer: took 2 ge courses
freshman summer: local internship + 1 math class at junior college (transfer credit)
sophomore summer: study abroad for fun + 1 math class
junior summer: internship </p>

<p>so in total, i took 4 extra classes in summer school. which adds up to 1 less class for 4 consecutive quarters. definitely helps!</p>

72

<p>@stephieism</p>

<p>I have a few pre-med friends, some of which are now already accepted into med school. I would say pre-med is mostly memorization material whereas engineering is more on harder conceptual topics and logical understanding. Pre-med is definitely very competitive though. You will definitely have time for a social life, at least way more-so than an engineer major :)</p>

<p>Complaints i’ve heard are that if you’re gpa or mcat scores are too low, many end up changing majors or fields. I have a few friends that ended up switching out of pre-med and going into public health. They are doing well now though, and got into great pub health grad schools.</p>

73

<p>How do you switch majors in engineering (aersospace to bioeng) before enrolling?</p>

74

<p>Thanks so much for your help, that sounds like a good plan. if you dont mind where did you do your internship? and was it hard to find. was the study abroad related to cs. one more question, my daughter has AP us history 4, AP chem 5, Ap physics 4, AP clac bc5, AP lit 5, AP STATS 5 and AP psych. I heared that UCLA dont honor all AP credits.appreciate all your help.</p>

75

<p>Did you have any AP credits going into your first year? Did you have to take Eng comp 3 and the full lower division math series (31A-33B)?</p>

76

<p>@Andy2017 - “How do you switch majors in engineering (aersospace to bioeng) before enrolling?”</p>

<p>you’re gonna have to ask your counselor that during freshman orientation or send them an email when you get further information. They might not let you change majors freshman year since you have to take the exact same courses anyways (ge’s, math, physics, etc).</p>

<p>@Vimank - “Thanks so much for your help, that sounds like a good plan. if you dont mind where did you do your internship? and was it hard to find. was the study abroad related to cs. one more question, my daughter has AP us history 4, AP chem 5, Ap physics 4, AP clac bc5, AP lit 5, AP STATS 5 and AP psych. I heared that UCLA dont honor all AP credits.appreciate all your help.”</p>

<p>your welcome! I interned at a random tech company in santa monica during the summer of my freshman year doing IT work. I basically ran around and installed Windows on new machines and helped other employees if they had general computer issues. During this time, I also took a Math course at Santa Monica Community College. SMC courses are much cheaper than UCLA summer courses, and the grade gets transferred as a Pass/No Pass, so I didn’t have to worry about it affecting my GPA. </p>

<p>During my sophomore year, my gpa began to drop below 3.0 and I knew I had to raise it no matter what to be able to apply for good internships. I decided to take all of my GE and Easy classes to “pad” my GPA back up. During this time, I took a history GE and met a truly great professor and he offered a study abroad program in Paris. I received 10 units of upper division History credit, which could have probably been petitioned for GE units, but I had already finished all my requirements, so they were basically extra units. Although the courses won’t go towards my graduation, it was one of my favorite memories of college. I thoroughly recommend taking a course with this professor if anyone has the chance – [Teofilo</a> Ruiz - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teofilo_Ruiz]Teofilo”>Teofilo Ruiz - Wikipedia)</p>

<p>In my junior year, I applied to around 25 different tech companies in the fall quarter. I heard back from about 7 companies including microsoft, facebook, deloitte, and citi group. I ended up accepting the first offer which was from fb.</p>

<p>As for AP credits, UCLA offers either equivalent course credit or “unassigned” credit. Unassigned credit does not exempt you from any course requirements, but gives you a higher unit completed total which is used for priority in enrollment. Seniors get to enroll in classes before Juniors before sophomores etc.</p>

<p>AP Credits: [AP</a> Credit - UCLA Undergraduate Admissions](<a href=“http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/apcredit.htm]AP”>http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/apcredit.htm)</p>

<p>Class standing classification:
Freshman: 0 - 44.9 units
Sophomore: 45 - 89.9 units
Junior: 90 - 134.9 units
Senior: 135+</p>

<p>@storme - “Did you have any AP credits going into your first year? Did you have to take Eng comp 3 and the full lower division math series (31A-33B)?”</p>

<p>I scored a 5 on the Calc BC exam which gave me credits for 31A and 31B. I decided to retake 31B since I forgot most of my calculus. I also had to take Eng Comp 3 because I only scored a 3 on the AP Lit test, and you need a 4 to pass out. As an engineer, I had to take all 31-33 series.</p>

77

<p>Did you apply to be a Computer Science major? How do you select this? What type of jobs are you being recruited for? Thanks!</p>

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<p>@carmelina - “Did you apply to be a Computer Science major? How do you select this? What type of jobs are you being recruited for? Thanks!”</p>

<p>I always enjoyed learning about the computer. I got into online games at a relatively young age and that took up most of my free time during high school. It was pretty easy for me to choose cs as my major.</p>

<p>Since then, I rarely play anymore, but I still enjoy following the community.</p>

<p>In college, I realized I didn’t particularly have any passion for programming/software development, but I decided to stay in the major because of the job opportunities. Since I didn’t like programming, I applied to internships that were still technology based, but were not programming specific.</p>

<p>Specific jobs I applied for include things like:
[Microsoft</a> University Careers - Software Development Internships](<a href=“http://careers.microsoft.com/careers/en/us/tech-software-internships.aspx#tab_urswintern-2]Microsoft”>http://careers.microsoft.com/careers/en/us/tech-software-internships.aspx#tab_urswintern-2)
<a href=“https://www.facebook.com/careers/department?dept=grads&req=a2KA0000000HVVyMAO[/url]”>Redirecting...;
<a href=“https://www.facebook.com/careers/department?dept=grads&req=a2KA0000000LqigMAC[/url]”>Redirecting...;
[Summer</a> Scholar Analyst - Business Technology, Consulting - UCLA - Job Search Details - United States](<a href=“Job Search | Deloitte US”>Job Search | Deloitte US)</p>

<p>Those are just a few positions I had interest in that weren’t specific to software development.</p>

79

<p>Earlier you mentioned that some of your friends switched to public health majors. I plan on applying to public health schools after college and I was wondering what is considered a “public health” major? My major is MIMG (microbiology, etc…).</p>

80

<p>How would you consider the grad school placement for UCLA’s CSE program? I really want to go to Stanford grad school for Computer Science and Engineering.</p>