Opinions about North Campus?

Colleges & Universities University of California - Los Angeles
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<p>So my friends tease me quite a bit for being North Campus, but lately I’ve been wondering whether it actually is teasing or if they’re being serious.</p>

<p>My question is this. Do South Campus majors legitimately think that North Campus majors are stupid and/or lazy? If you were to meet a girl, and without knowing much else about her, you asked her major and she answered “political science”, would you automatically lose respect for her? And finally… South Campus guys, would you date a North Campus girl? (And not just in a sexually attracted sort of way, in a you’d-actually-be-able-to-take-her-seriously sort of way.) </p>

<p>I tend to get along with South Campus types better than North Campus types but I feel like they look down on me for not being as math-smart as them. Do I feel this for a good reason, or am I overreacting?</p>

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<p>If one were to assume the stereotype, then it is safe to assume a south campus guy would be glad to have any girl talk to them, regardless of the girl’s major. Also if you interpret indifference for shyness/lack of non-academic communication skills, then maybe you will have to put in some effort.</p>

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<p>I’m an engr. major.</p>

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It it teasing. However, there’s truth behind it.</p>

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lazy, but not necessarily stupid</p>

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Regarding the hypothetical polisci girl, yes I would lose respect for her. However, in terms of who to marry it really doesn’t matter. It’s just that I would then know that she did not put any thought into her future when choosing a major and/or she’s not smart enough to do south campus.</p>

<p>If you can handle math, then you should consider switching to a legitimate major. What’s the difference between a north campus major and a large pizza? A large pizza can feed a family.</p>

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<p>Hmm, it’s disappointing that you feel that way. I’m not trying to argue with you or change your mind, but I just want to state my reasons in case you haven’t heard them before.</p>

<p>In high school I hated math and science, not because I found them hard, but because I found them incredibly tedious and boring. I remember looking forward to every day of AP Gov, however.</p>

<p>So basically, I chose not to be a South Campus major because I would be completely miserable in both my classes and my career. I’m a poli sci major because I find the subject completely and utterly fascinating and I look forward to my classes. I recognize the salary sacrifice in the future, but I highly doubt that I’ll be working at McDonalds, I just won’t be pulling a 6-figure salary or anything. Unless by some miracle I get my Ph.D and become a professor because I think that would be the most fun job ever :)</p>

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<p>I suppose north campus majors might have chosen their majors cause they have a legitimate interest in those kind of things but it’s their fault for missing out on the awesomeness of math and science and as such they deserve to be looked down upon.</p>

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<p>If you like homey/nerdy looking gals, go to South Campus… good looking gals are in North Campus… So I think North campus is great…</p>

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<p>I’m a North Campus major, and even I look down on fellow North Campus majors. However, I think if you’re a North Campus major that excels in your major (i.e. Has a super high GPA, at least 3.7+) and has a planned out future (aiming for Top Tier 1 Law School, or going into obtaining a professional graduate degree - Public Policy, Urban Planning, Public Health) then I have no problem respecting that person and believing he or she is just as smart as any South Campus major.</p>

<p>The disrespect of North Campus majors tends to arise when I meet people who are majoring in something like Anthropology or Psychology and then tell me that they have no idea what they want to with their lives or show little interest in going to graduate school (and I don’t mean getting a M.A. in Psychology or Chicano Studies either).</p>

<p>BTW, I think Business-Economics/Economics w/ Accounting Minors are exempted right? I respect those who landed jobs with PWC, KPMG, and Ernest Young.</p>

<p>Also, I don’t respect and think highly of ALL South Campus majors. Some are just idiots that think they’re going to become doctors no matter what, even with their crappy 2.9 GPA.</p>

<p>EDIT**: I really do believe it just depends on who you talk to. I think a lot of people at UCLA, especially CC, are primarily concerned about “success” and by “success” I mean how much money you will be making. While money is important, I think some people should note that not everybody that comes to UCLA is concerned about taking the biggest paycheck. For instance, I have several friends who are Philosophy and Classics majors because they want to go to Seminary. Yes, they want to become pastors, the polar opposite of a lucrative 6 figure salary job.</p>

<p>At the same time, I have some friends who are majoring in Music in the Music School and I have friends who are Theater majors in the Theater School. While money is important for them to survive, I think these people are more concerned about doing what they love - and the thing is, they’re good at it. While they may not necessarily become a CEO of a Top 4 firm, they will get a job and enjoy what they do and be “successful.” Unfortunately in the eyes of others, like some who have posted on CC (I’m guilty of having this mentality too), success/respect/whatever you want to call it, is defined by your potential income.</p>

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<p>most south campus majors suck at philosophy because they lack critical thinking skills. A philosophy class is much harder to some SCM purely because they are asked to actually think rather than just memorize and absorb knowledge. (which barring a shiitty memory/inadequate math skills isn’t too difficult)</p>

<p>I personally lose respect for south-campus majors who just go into a major purely because of the amount of money they’ll make, or because it is the type of job that there parents would find respectable. I think there’s more to happiness than that, but then again i am a philosopher lol.</p>

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<p>I started off as a Poli Sci major and am now South Campus (although since I’ve started I’ve been taking math/science classes, it was just a matter of switching majors). I feel like to some extent majoring in a North campus major is taking the easy way out because from my experience north campus classes are insanely easy and almost anyone can do well. However, I have a lot of stupid south campus friends who are getting C- in chem but are too proud too realize they aren’t smart and/or motivated enough to be south campus majors. At least north campus majors who tried south campus and couldn’t excel were smart enough to switch out because getting a 2.5 in MIMG isn’t going to get you a better job than a 3.8 in Econ. I guess if people are really interested in a north campus subject, they might as well major in it if they don’t care about not working in some prestigious career field. The only thing that really annoys me is the double poli sci/sociology/psych/etc. who try and argue that it’s comparable to taking a south campus major.</p>

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<p>@Beyphy, that might apply to premeds (actually i tend to agree. My friends in chem all try and memorize specific examples instead of just thinking :confused: ) but math/engineering/physics majors all have to do a lot of critical thinking.</p>

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<p>ill say this</p>

<p>im soouth campus and the girl i like is south campus too…kind of nerdy girl, pretty (but not hot)…for some reason i like her…she is hardworking just like me (prolly more hard workin than me) and probably smarter than me…ive never talked to her but she does seem like a decent person</p>

<p>north campus ppl arent that bad/stupid…in fact most south campus premeds are actually quite dumb…many of them just have a really strong work ethic and came from good science high schools…kwwboarder nails the point about switching</p>

<p>and beyphy u generalize too much although i do agreee most premeds can write worth ****…however getting a bad grade in philo can be due to a bad TA</p>

<p>i dont think a north campus girl who doesn’t party/slut deserves to be given less respect…I HAVE LEARNED AT UCLA TO NOT LIKE A GIRL JUST BECAUSE SHE IS SMART AND GOOD LOOKING… SO MANY OF THE GOOD LOOKING SOUTH CAMPUS GIRLS ARE TOTAL BITC-HES…i would never marry them…i would rather marry a dolt north campus girl that is a good person</p>

<p>in high school i prolly would have been automatically attracted to a girl just because she is both smart and beautiful…not anymore…although i hate UCLA i do thank it for teaching me that lesson</p>

<p>AND ENGINEERING IS THE HARDEST STUFF EVER (IM NOT ENGR BTW)</p>

<p>i think a good looking south campus girl, who is intelligent, AND IS A GOOD PERSON…would probably be more desirable…in terms of character i give NORTH CAMPUS (WITH EXCEPTION OF PARTIER/FRAT FAGS) the EDGE</p>

<p>ABOUT MONEY:</p>

<p>money is necessary to live comfortably and i am majoring just to make money…however i want the money for a mature reason (ive talked to numerous old ppl about my view on money and they all say that i have the correct view)…the south campus premed fags want the money to buy fancy cars big house, clothes, anything to be a showoff…thats cause 95% of ucla premeds are showoffs and are shallow ppl (even the ppl with 4.0s getting into harvard med)</p>

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<p>^That’s a pretty big generalization you’re making yourself. I highly doubt you know all of UCLA’s premeds, and I even more highly doubt that you know that all of their reasons for wanting to be doctors is so that they can show off their wealth.</p>

<p>One of my friends is a history major, and he told me he that a tentative plan he had was to double major in history and polisci and minor in French–and he’d still be able to graduate in 4 years! I’m not so sure I can even graduate with my engineering degree in 4 years.</p>

<p>But yeah, I don’t look down on north campus majors. Any teasing that I do is just that–teasing (and perhaps maybe a bit of jealousy of their free time). I’ve seen really ignorant views from both sides though. Just because someone is north campus doesn’t mean that they just couldn’t handle a south campus major, and just because someone is a south campus major doesn’t mean that all they do is memorize and regurgitate with no original thought, and that they’re just in it for the money. Why can’t some people just accept that the two are different, and you will find both as************sholes and good people on both sides of campus, as well as both lazy slackers and hard-working critical thinkers?</p>

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<p>I think there are a larger percentage of North Campus majors that are stupid/lazy, but there are certainly a few South Campus majors in that category too. The smartest and most hardworking North Campus majors are probably also on a par with the best and brightest of South Campus. So no, I wouldn’t automatically lose respect for a girl that’s a Poli Sci major.</p>

<p>FWIW, I do think a 4.0 or very close (after several quarters) is much less impressive if you’re a North Campus major. It’s just not a guarantee of hard work or intelligence the same way it is for a South Campus major.

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<p>I agree with this. If it seems like someone lacks intellectual curiosity I do often lose some respect for them. That goes both for South Campus majors that obviously know nothing about Philosophy yet still look down on and for North Campus majors who say they don’t like math.</p>

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<p>I don’t know if I would say that. In my experience it’s more that south campus can effectively synthesize the information at hand, but can’t pull from outside sources. I guess what I’m saying is that south campus majors definitely have critical thinking skills, but they don’t tend to think critically “outside the box”.</p>

<p>Where I find south campus more lacking is in person-to-person situations. Not that I’m saying they’re all social awkward… to be a social butterfly all you need is confidence and the ability to observe-and-repeat. But I’ve met practically no south campus majors capable of reading between the lines in social situations. They tend to take social interactions at face value. Like, there could be some massive elephant in the room and I’ll mention it to a south campus friend and get a blank look, whereas the average north campus major would almost definitely have noticed it.</p>

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<p>I think it’s that north campus classes are more reflective of the effort you put into the class whereas south campus is more reflective of your intelligence. Everyone who gets an A in a north campus class will have put in the same amount of effort, everyone who gets a B will have put in the same amount of effort, etc. So yes in that way it is true that anyone can do well in a north campus class. Whereas with south campus classes, I’ve seen people study day and night for a week straight and fail their midterm, I’ve also seen people who barely ever study and have a 3.9. </p>

<p>Sometimes I wonder whether at Ivies south campus type classes are much harder than north campus type classes, given the grade inflation. I was talking to my dad who is a professor in a south campus subject and he told me that UC math and science professors make the classes unnecessarily difficult compared to the amount of knowledge you’d need in the workforce. He personally thinks it’s so the professors can get an ego trip.</p>

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<p>"most south campus majors suck at philosophy because they lack critical thinking skills. "</p>

<p>That’s bs. Math, especially upper div, is all critical thinking. Even philosophy is based off of this. Ever heard of Bertrand Russell?</p>

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<p>Lol yes i’ve heard of bertrand russel. Math is based on logic, and hence, on philosophy. </p>

<p>I am aware that many famous mathematicians were also philosophers (e.g. Descartes, Leibniz, Russel, etc.) I’m not sure if Russel’s type theory is really comparable to his arguments on denotation; or if leibniz’s theology is really similar to his calculus, etc. </p>

<p>Math is heavily used in science, although i’m not sure if that makes it one. Sciences are supposed to be about building a body of knowledge, and as einstein famously said “As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality” Logic is heavily used in philosophy, CS, and linguistics, although in the same way i’m not sure if that makes it philosophy (even though it pretty much has been for 2000 years)</p>

<p>tl;dr this is just a stupid generalization thread anyway. Anyone who thinks these are truths that actually hold is pretty stupid imo.</p>

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That’s not totally fair. Engineers who don’t think “outside the box” can’t innovate. Speaking as a computer science student, in my classes, if you can’t take what you’ve learned and apply it to something you’ve never seen before, you won’t be a top student.</p>

<p>To respond to the topic of the thread, pretty much every north campus class I’ve ever taken has been less time consuming and with a more generous grading scale than any of my engineering/math/science classes. That’s where the teasing comes from. That’s not to say anything about the people who take those classes; I agree that talent and work ethic vary by the person and it’s not fair to lump groups together. I respect any north campus major who is good at what he/she does and has a realistic plan for how to use that degree. There are plenty of south campus majors that don’t fall into either category.</p>

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<p>This is true, I wasn’t being fair and I was generalizing. What you’re describing is not thinking outside the box or pulling from outside sources though, it’s thinking critically by synthesizing the information the you’ve been given specifically from your cs classes. </p>

<p>Regardless, you are right that engineers can think outside the box, otherwise we wouldn’t have any modern day technological inventions. I think that those people deserve extra praise given that modern innovation requires using both sides of your brain, rather than the left/right dichotomy associated with north and south campus.</p>

<p>This is sort of unrelated, but I’m wondering whether there are any south campus majors who have taken north campus upper divs that can weigh in. Not that I’m saying they are harder than south campus UDs, but I think everyone here can agree that they are more difficult than north campus lower divs. Do you consider these classes incredibly easy/a joke as well?</p>

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<p>I took Philosophy 137, though I guess that’s more like a South Campus class. Anyway, it was somewhat difficult but not particularly time consuming and easier than most upper div math classes I’ve taken.</p>

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<p>I’m a Math/Econ major, who is graduating in a quarter. I guess you could say I am half and half. (Is Econ North campus or “mid-campus”?) I’ve taken Comp Sci (31,32,33) and one comp sci upper div. Then I’ve taken dozens of math classes and two stat classes (100A and 100B). For the econ portion, 7 econ classes.</p>

<p>I personally think that the content in the econ classes was easier in general, but the competition was a lot high than in math upper divs.</p>

<p>I’ve taken an upper div Comm Studies class just for 2 units. It’s not difficult in content, but is time consuming for 2 units (speeches, papers). I wouldn’t take another one. </p>

<p>Other than that I also took Film TV 133, but everyone knows that it’s easy. </p>

<p>The comm studies class and the film class were a lot more fun than my Math and Econ classes, but I couldn’t see myself majoring in them.</p>