<p>BK mentioned the Writing 39 series TAs. Something to keep in mind is that UCI has outstanding graduate programs in literary criticism and in creative writing . They are easily top 10, maybe top 2or 3, so the graduate TAs aren’t pushovers. They have high standards and expectations, but if students are willing to work, they are willing to help you learn. The problem comes with students who have yet to learn why Gene Fowler said, “Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead."</p>
<p>Do seminars have finals? The weekly ones, where you meet once a week. Will I have to sit through those awful 2 hours sessions during finals week? Does anyone recommend that I take them? </p>
<p>Would it be more beneficial to take 39 C over poetry/fiction (the other option) ? I was gonna do the other class to satisfy the requirement but friend mentioned that it will probably help him later with research and such.</p>
<p>I’m currently in Writing 39C right now. So far, I’m doing extremely well despite the fact that the thesis, economics and agriculture, is outside of my interest, mathematics and physics. </p>
<p>If you’re a social science or humanities major, I can see how Writing 39C would help with your future research writing. The course involves having to write 3 papers:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Research Proposal: An introduction and quick overview of the problem and why further research into this problem is important. As I was told, this is the paper that would determine whether you’ll get any funding or grants when you do real research. 4 - 5 pages double spaced.</p></li>
<li><p>Historical Analysis: Provide history of the problem, as in what events and influences caused the problem to occur. 6 - 8 pages double spaced.</p></li>
<li><p>Advocacy Essay: Provide what policies the proper groups (citizens, governments, agencies, etc.) should do to prevent, eliminate, or lessen the problem. 6 - 8 pages double spaced.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Now my personal opinion:</p>
<p>I always considered writing to be this: 20% ideas, 80% writing. As Calvin said “The purpose of writing is to inflate weak ideas, obscure pure reasoning, and inhibit clarity. With a little practice, writing can be an intimidating and impenetrable fog”. That’ll certainly get you through Writing 39B with flying colors. But in Writing 39C, it’s more of 10% ideas, 35% writing, 50% statistics and quotes, and 5% sticking to the thesis. For the time it takes you to write a sentence, it would’ve taken 4 times as much time to research information that gave you the idea what to write in that sentence.</p>
<p>At the moment my paper is coming up to a total of 40 sources and I haven’t even started the 3rd paper. It’d be conservative to say I had to check and scan at least 80 sources in which half were not used or proved to be worthless.</p>
<p>This course in conjunction with another intensive writing course, I had to write another 8 page essay, made this past week the most academically stressful week of my life. The stress was much worse than what I had in high school where I had to complete a 3 month project in 2 days because my friends slacked off. Okay I admit some of it was my fault because I procrasinated, but god damn did I feel *<strong><em>ing invincible by the end of the week once I got all my *</em></strong> done and turned in, both well written, edited, and polished. This weekend I’m enjoying myself by reading math, consuming pizza and cola, and slacking off as my superego is making me feel as if I deserve the rest for once.</p>
<p>Okay I’m done venting. Writing 39B and 39C, which are considered as 4-unit seminars, do not give out exams.</p>
<p>DO I have a chane entering as A Spanish major with a high GPA 3.8+
and a low SAt (1590)?</p>
<p>great SAT IIs and Great APs</p>
<p>So has anybody taken 100LW before? Is it really time consuming?</p>
<p>How do the pre reqs work? For example for bio the pre req for Bio 97 is Bio 94. If we take Bio 94 w/o taking bio 93 can we still enroll in bio 97.</p>
<p>Since Bio 93 is pre-req for Bio 94, you have to take Bio 93 first before taking Bio 94. After taking both then you can take Bio 97.</p>
<p>I posted this in the other topic but maybe it should be here. -
I’m currently a junior in high school in Colorado. Do you think I could get into UC Irvine (under Biology or just anything actually) if I have a 3.88 right now and a 1700 something SAT score? I plan on taking some AP classes to bump up my GPA my senior year, and I am retaking the SAT in a month or so. I haven’t taken my AP tests yet, but I don’t think I will get a good score for AP Gov, but probably a 3 or 4 in AP Lit. Is it possible for me to get in? I really want to experience life in California. Out of the 1000 some students at my school, there’s probably about 5 Asians.</p>
<p>Hey blupowerade,</p>
<p>The UCs only consider 10-11 grade courses in their GPA calculation. They consider the rigor of your senior-year coursework, but you won’t be able to “bump up” your GPA senior year… so try to finish out this year on a high note.</p>
<p>Remember that for OOS applicants, the UC pretty much only gives honors points for AP and IB courses. (Maybe college courses as well, if you can establish that they’re transferable to UC.)</p>
<p>As for SAT scores, 1700 is a bit low… the average for accepted applicants is ~1840. Also remember that UCs will still require two SAT II scores next year (in different “areas” – e.g., you can’t take Chemistry and Biology).</p>
<p>If you go to the main University of California website, there’s a ton of information for prospective applicants.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Thanks MaMooose. I’ll definitely try to end with all A’s this year. But I’ll probably get 1 B cause of Trig. Lately, I’ve been studying through my Princeton Review SAT books for when I retake the test so hopefully they will pay off. I don’t know anything about the SAT II so I guess I have to really look into that. I just Google’d it and they said that there’s foreign language tests too. I’m currently in Spanish 3, do you think I should go for the Spanish on the SAT II or just stick with math and history or science? Do a lot of California schools like UCLA, or even UC Fullerton make you take the SAT II? Sorry for all of the questions. I guess it’s pretty different here.</p>
<p>Hey blupowerade,</p>
<p>What most folks do with the SAT IIs is take them after they’ve taken an AP course in the subject… that seems to be a good prep. So you might take that strategy… if you take Spanish, you’ll be competing with students with more prep (plus a fair number of native speakers). Basically, go for your strongest subjects… and if you take more than two, the UC will only count your highest two.</p>
<p>Fullerton is not a UC, it’s a California State University. Some of the Cal States require SATs, none require the SAT IIs (I think… not sure about Cal Poly). If you go to the CSUMentor website, they can step you through all the campuses and admission requirements. </p>
<p>Don’t apologize for the questions… the process can be confusing even for in-state applicants.</p>
<p>And make sure you’ve got all the required courses for the UC… the year-long Visual/Performing Art requirement trips up a lot of OOS applicants.</p>
<p>Don’t I have to start applying to colleges during/at the end of summer/early fall? The only AP courses I am taking right now are Literature, and Gov. Do you think you could possibly post the link to where it says all of the requirements? I’m trying to find it through the site and it’s sort of confusing. My parents will only let me go to California if I find a school better than CU Boulder, so I will try to see what other schools I should try. But up first on my list is definitely Irvine. Is this the right link? [University</a> of California - Admissions](<a href=“http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/admissions/undergrad_adm/paths_to_adm/freshman.html]University”>http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/admissions/undergrad_adm/paths_to_adm/freshman.html)</p>
<p>UC’s application period is November 1-30, but you can still take tests (SAT, SAT II, ACT) into December (or maybe even the first test cycle in January… but you may need to rush the scores).</p>
<p>If you go to this site, you’ll find all the materials that the UC folks give to California HS guidance counselors… you should find more than enough information:
[University</a> of California - Counselors](<a href=“http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/educators/counselors/resources/materials.html]University”>http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/educators/counselors/resources/materials.html)</p>
<p>If you take the SAT II in Literature this June, you’ll be in good shape. I don’t think there’s one in Government, but there is one in U.S. History (also World History). Go to College Board to see all the topics available. Two things to note for the UC:
- you must have scores from (at least) two tests in two different areas (i.e., you can’t submit just Biology and Chemistry)… if you submit more than two scores, they’ll take the highest two from two different areas;
- if you’re going to do Math, it has to be Math II.</p>
<p>If your parents’ requirement is that the California school must be “better” than CU-Boulder (by whatever criteria), most of the CSUs are probably off the table (with the possible exception of Cal Poly SLO. There are some great CSU campuses, and some have terrific niche strengths, but few would be considered as strong as Boulder.</p>
<p>That application period is for all UC’s and doesn’t apply to the CSUs, right? Are the essays for the schools usually different since sometimes some state schools have the same prompt or let you use the same essay when applying.</p>
<p>Why do I have to take Math II instead of I? Thanks, I’ll try to sign up for taking the SAT II in literature for June then. I’ll probably end up doing Math II and Literature. I think those 2 would be my two highest, and if I took the others it would be a waste of money.</p>
<p>My parents didn’t really specify in how the California schools have to be better than CU Boulder. All they said was it had to be better overall, so I’m assuming just in overall rank or academically give or take a few statistics are off sometimes.</p>
<p>I think I will try to make a list of what California schools I can find that fit this. If I send you it do you think you could check it or maybe add on other possible California schools to it? After that I will probably have to narrow it down to schools I could actually get into with my GPA/SAT/other test scores that I will get later. Like how you guys have been saying that I really need to raise my scores and finish off strong this year, to even have a chance. Then obviously I wouldn’t stand a chance for Stanford, Berkeley, etc. I talked to my counselor today and he said to check Princeton Review online. Would CSU Fullerton be better than CU Boulder?</p>
<p>CSU application deadlines vary by campus… this year a lot of campuses closed their application period earlier than usual (due to the 10,000 cut in systemwide admissions).</p>
<p>CSUs don’t require SAT IIs or essays.</p>
<p>I don’t know why UC only accepts Math II… I guess because some of the schools/majors required it (e.g., engineering), so it seemed more “fair” to standardize across applicants… or maybe they felt Math I was too similar to the Math section of the SAT. I’m sure somebody can explain.</p>
<p>If you’re willing to pay OOS tuition for a UC, you might want to broaden your search to include private universities as well. I’m not a good person to advise you, but others will be happen to make suggestions.</p>
<p>I’m not quite sure why you’re attracted to Fullerton. It has some strong programs, but really doesn’t offer much of a residential college experience… only 7% of the freshmen live on campus.</p>
<p>Comparing the CSUs to CU-Boulder is a bit of an apples-to-oranges problem because most ranking systems separate the national universities (i.e., those that grant Ph.D.s and are research universities) from “regional” universities (those whose highest degree is a Masters) from LAC (liberal arts colleges).</p>
<p>All the UCs are considered research universities (please, no Merced digs), as is CU-Boulder. I’m not saying this necessarily makes them superior to the top CSUs (especially for an undergraduate education), but it makes it harder to come up with objective comparative data.</p>
<p>As far as U.S. News is concerned (just one ranking system… don’t use any as gospel), Boulder is ranked 77th among national universities (Tier 1, tied with Marquette and SUNY-Binghamton). That puts it behind Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD, Davis, UCI, and UCSB, but ahead of UCSC, Riverside, and Merced.</p>
<p>Cal Poly-SLO (the top-ranked CSU) is ranked the 10th best “Master’s University in the West.” So you can’t directly compare it (though I’m sure you can get plenty of folks on the forum to weigh in).</p>
<p>The bottom line is to find a school that’s a good match for your interests (and where you can see yourself happily living for four years of your life). California has a lot of great options… but Boulder isn’t exactly chopped liver.</p>
<p>My parents will only play OOS intuition if I get into a college in California that’s better than CU Boulder because it would be pointless to pay more to go to a worse school. </p>
<p>I’ve just heard some friends of friends go to Fullerton so I was thinking or hoping it’s a decent college. Wow, that’s a low percent.</p>
<p>I know that there’s not one ranking system that everyone goes off of just since there’s so many specifics. But I think my parents just want me to go to a school that’s overall better academically, so their money won’t be wasted since if I do go to a California college it is going to be very expensive. </p>
<p>CU Boulder isn’t too bad I guess. It’s the closest college to me, excluding some community college. I know there’s a lot of people that have graduated from my school that go there now, and even some of my classmates who are already set on going there. I would just like to get out of Colorado, because I feel that if I don’t get out now, then I never will.</p>
<p>The top 6 UCs are among the top 50 national Tier 1 Universities. Are they worth paying OOS tuition. Depends on the major you want to study and your ability to get into a top national private university.</p>
<p>The only UCs IMO that are worth paying the OOS tuition for are : UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC San Diego , UC Santa Barbara, UC Irvine , UC Davis AND maybe UC Santa Cruz </p>
<p>Riverside and Merced aren’t really top colleges IMO</p>
<p>My major will probably be biology I think so that I can get into a pharmaceutical college after. None of the top 6 UCs are private right, or which ones are?</p>
<p>UC Berkeley and UCLA are the top UC schools, right? If I’m slightly below the avg acceptance rate for the fall '08 freshman at UCI, then I definitely have no chance of getting into those two other schools. Would UC Santa Barbara, UC Davis, and UC Santa Cruz be better choices than CU Boulder?</p>
<p>My parents would prefer me go to a top college, and even said UC Irvine was a really good school itself. As long as Riverside and Merced are above CU Boulder in some rankings, I can apply. My cousin said that she regrets not applying to a ton of colleges, just so that she could have more options. So I think I will try to apply to all of the California universities that are better than CU Boulder in a few rankings, and that I am interested in, and CU Boulder, since it’s one or the other. I think the real difficulty will be just getting in all of my requirements for applying to UC schools first, like taking 2 SAT IIs, etc and trying to get my SAT I score up.</p>
<p>hey jas0n i have a quick question about some GE’s that you took in your freshman year or if you have any recommendations on what to take?
my window opens tomorrow at 9am so i will be awesome if you respond before then. thanks man</p>