<p>As a class of 2001, I have a lot of free time these days, and I would like to take some time to answer your questions about the lifestyle of living in LA, classes to take, GPA boosters to ponder on, chicks to date, fun hangout places to go, etc.</p>
<p>Or if you are more of academic person, you can ask me about the Business Economics major.</p>
<p>How easy is it to get to one of the Orange County Beaches? How much does it cost? </p>
<p>I love Southern California, but not having a car would be hard to see a lot of it I imagine.</p>
<p>Well, the old wisdom says, “dont ever take 405 Freeway in LA!”</p>
<p>Really, it’s a ***** riding on that freeway, with heavy traffic jam all the time.</p>
<p>I think there must be other venues such as bus or train, but it would be more time consuming and more inconvenient than expensive. I am not sure about the costs, but I can’t imagine the cost being too high for anyone to afford.</p>
<p>Trust me. Once you get to live on campus, you will make a few close friends, and one of your close friends will take you to beaches once in a while.</p>
<p>what are some good GPA boosters? (i took psych 10 for a booster but it only hurt my gpa)</p>
<p>what were your favorite hangout places in westwood?</p>
<p>Philosophy 7: Intro to Philosophy of Minds</p>
<p>The TAs will hand out a sheet with an answer, and you memorize the contents, and take the final exam. </p>
<p>Management 130A and 130B: Basic Finance and Advanced Finance</p>
<p>The class itself is freaking hard, but the professsor, Andersen the Living Legend, is so nice that he will give you A if you show up every morning. If you miss twice or so, you would get B. If you really, really dont show up for the whole quarter, then perhaps you should get C.</p>
<p>Also, Microbiology 7, Music 15 (Art of Listening)</p>
<p>As for the hangout place in Westwood, I would recommend you to visit the Sunset Strip for some good bars and clubs. Key Club is a good club, highly elegant club, though. Also, check out the Body Shop, the best nude bar in town.</p>
<p>Is “Mahoney” still there in Westwood?</p>
<p>What is the Communication major like at UCLA? Popular? Competitive? Good job prospects?</p>
<p>This is purely my opinion, but if I were in your shoes, I would look to major in econ or business economics to boost my profile to potential suitors (entertainment, advertising, marketing, finance, banking corporations) and specialize in communication (sort of minor). The reasoning behind this is that studying business oriented classes will give you far more leaverage as far as the number and quality of opportunities, whereas studying communication alone will somewhat limit the kind of opportunities in comparison to the former scenario.</p>
<p>Again, I admit that I am a little biased toward business-focused curriculum, just because I got so much benefits out of the program. One regret I have over my UCLA days is that I quit on the half way to the completion of the specialization in computing, a very popular program. The businss econ major combined with this specialization provided some of my classamtes with more than $65,000 starting salary back in 1999. So, with the expected salary in 2009 or so (by the time you graduate from UCLA), you are looking at six figure income in your first year. Very realistic. The first year banking job in NY for someone with Columbia degree pays $100,000 in the first year, nowadays.</p>
<p>Granted, you could dread studying business curriculum since the nature of the concentration might not suit you at all. But its definetely worth a try.</p>
<p>if someone wants to get into some business field, like international business or operations management (not like hard business like accounting or finance or ibanking), but doesn’t want to major in any of the economics majors, is that still possible? any alternative majors? just wondering…</p>
<p>About that nudie bar, is tipping customary?</p>
<p>Actually, I was wondering why in the Berkeley forum you implied that you’d have rather gone to Berkeley than UCLA. You seemed pretty ****ed off at UCLA, and yet you seem to know the UCLA scene pretty well.</p>
<p>KFC4U: Sure, you could. Most of the ibanking firms(I know you are not interested in the field) interviews and hires students regardless of their majors. You will see quite often a number of firms that post the message on their job postings that basically states, “All majors are welcome to apply.”</p>
<p>However, I have also seen a quite few companies that exclusively invites only Business Econ and, to a lesser extent, economics majors students. For your information, you cant get into the Business Econ major in the first two years of college before you complete the “prerequiste core” courses. Upon the completion of the prerequisite courses, your profile will be evaluated against your peers on the basis of overall GPA, upper division courses GPA, math GPA, etc. And if you get in, then you should be ok. Otherwise, your next option is to get into the economics major, relatively easier major to get in in your third year. So there is some pecking order among these two majors at UCLA, albeit not too visible. Some companies only invite Business Econ major for interview since majoring in Business Econ would signal that you are actually a more “dedicated” student, but most companies hardly pay attention to the minor pedigree differences between the two majors.</p>
<p>Without knowing the name of your targeting companies (granted, I think it is a way too early for you to come with the names, of course), I can only give you this kind of general answers.</p>
<p>Going back to your preferance of not wanting to get into “hard” business, I sympathesize with you on this matter. I, also, hated accounting with the deepest passion:)</p>
<p>However, I really, really want to recommend that you take some finance courses, not only for the purpose of building up your resume, but also for the sheer practical value of studying such courses. </p>
<p>Studying economics will open a lot of doors for you, but not studying the major will not keep you out of the potential job industry.</p>
<p>You just have to do some more legwork in terms of initiating contacts on your own, following up with respective human resources manangers at each firm, and reiterating your desire to work for the firm.</p>
<p>If you really want, pick a well-known company, get a phone number for Human Resources department, and call for more information as to what they look for in students coming fresh out of college. Most HR managers will be very willing to share the information with you, even on the phone.</p>
<p>AIM78: Oh, I was just being cynical on the Berkeley forum:) I love having studied at UCLA, and I would do it all over again given another chance. In fact, I am now eagerly waiting for an acceptance letter from UCLA MBA Anderson program that should come within next month or so.</p>
<p>My whole point is that dont go to UCLA over UC Berkley just for a “chick” factor…like I did 10 years ago:) It would be damn hard to justify your action later on, if you take the factor at more than the “face value” (pun intended).</p>
<p>Berkeley community offers an array of very awesome social scenes packed with pretty girls as well. You just have to search harder.</p>
<p>As to your question about tipping, yes, it is a rule that is heavily enforced. No tips = no sitting in the front row. But if you are sitting in your table, then there is no tipping required.</p>
<p>At “Bodyshop”, there are some happy hours in which you can get two “lapdances” for the price of one. So hold on to your pants and wait for the happy hours.</p>
<p>DaRaverLA: How long did it take you to graduate from UCLA? How strong is the Bruin Alumni?</p>
<p>Remember everyone, if you ever go to the Body Shop, wear your briefs.</p>
<p>I like to hear positive comments about Berkeley once in a while. A school that huge must have a social scene. I’d rather go to Berkeley than UCLA, because then I wouldn’t have to take a plane to visit home, but I hear nothing but criticism on these boards. Maybe I’ll be inspired when I visit. But I’m thankful that even if Berkeley rejects me, I have UCLA which is at the very least tied as first choice with Berk.</p>
<p>It took me 6 years to graduate from UCLA not because the academics made it darn hard for me to graduate in four years, but because I was working on my entrepreneur entity for two years during my college days.</p>
<p>eiffelguy, I just saw your post on the other thread saying that you wouldnt be able to graduate from UCLA in four years, and I am scratching my head to learn what prompted you to say this.</p>
<p>Graduating from UCLA in four years is absolutely doable, whether you are an engineering major or sociology major.</p>
<p>Remember you need to complete 180 units to qualify for diploma. Most of the classes carry four-units with an exception to writing heavy classes, which carry five units.</p>
<p>So in order to graduate in four years (or 12 quarters excluding summer sessions), you need to complete 45 units per year or about 11~12 classes per year. And divide the number of classes by three quarters, you have to complete approximately four classes per quarter. </p>
<p>Taking and passing four classes per quarter UCLA is absolutely feasible under any circumstances, and I have seen a lot, I mean, a lot of people complete their diploma in four years. </p>
<p>Furthermore, subtract any units you would gain from your AP courses, you would have to complete less than 180 units to graduate from UCLA.</p>
<p>Now, most people do take five and six years to graduate simply because, first, they are either doing double majors, specializing in some other program, or taking joint study courses, and, second, they are re-taking some of the courses in which they have received less than satisfactory grades (below C-). Or more commonly, they are simply retaking the classes they had dropped previously because they didnt like their academic performance in the previous courses. </p>
<p>As for me, I dropped three courses at UCLA, and you can more than make up these by spreading and taking the courses over time.</p>
<p>I think one major reason (not the only reason, though) for the low four year graduation rate is that the tuition is so cheap at UCLA compared to other private schools, people are simply taking off a quarter here, a quarter there, or taking one or two classes at the full time rate to explore other options in the huge LA market.</p>
<p>Personally, I have so many friends who are still completing their BA degree not because they are stupid or the classes are hard, but because of their individual circumstances.</p>
<p>Do you know if they will accept credit from a community college outside California? My cisco networking class I take afterschool gives me 16 credits to my local community college, and some other classes give me credit too.</p>
<p>DeRaverLA: Thanks for your input; I saw stats on UCLA grad in 4 years (about 50%) compared to Stanford’s 95% (I think) and 88-90% (Georgetown).</p>
<p>I’ve heard classes are impacted and difficult to enter and that worries me.</p>
<p>Just because you are attending out of state CC, the UC admission committee will not automatically disallow the credits you have earned at your school.</p>
<p>With this said, UC system requires the completion of something called “IGETC” , which is basically a list of the courses required before transferring. And because California community colleges are well aware of the requirement of IGETC, the students are naturally followed to take the courses according to the IGETC requirement.</p>
<p>Go to any UC site and search the term “IGETC”. You should get a fairly comprehensive overview of the courses they want to see on your transcript. As to whether they would allow the transfer of the credits you just mentioned, I really do not have an answer. I think you need to check with the admissino counselor at the UC campus you are planning to apply to.</p>
<p>"I like to hear positive comments about Berkeley once in a while. "</p>
<p>Actually, a Cal grad I know has mentioned that the social scene in Berkeley is awesome. He is not just a dull, boring no-life guy. Rather, he’s fairly good looking (Can I say this here? I am a guy :)) and seems to have strong taste in social scene.</p>
<p>One of the major knocks of Berkeley is that the career center is “terrible” (the words literally used by many Cal grads) both on UG and Graduate level.</p>
<p>That was a few years ago, and I dont know the trend nowadays.</p>
<p>Yes, so classes are impacted, hence you cannot drop even if you are flunking. But such courses are really a rarity. </p>
<p>Scheduling your classes according your preferances (e.g. “not a morning person, thus no morning classes” or “four day weekend, thus no classes on Monday and Friday”) is hard, but if you are willing to sacrifice some of your personal preferances, you should find enough time and motivation to complete four classes every quarter.</p>
<p>eiffelguy87: I think the chances of not graduating in four years would mostly depend on the external circumstances, and not internal factors (such as hard classes, jerk professors, long lines, etc). I have seen many people change their major from pre-med or engineering to economics, politcal science, or sociology in their third year. I have also seen a couple of people who take one year off so that they could focus on their acting careers (really, the campus is only a few miles away from Hollywood). And finally, I have seen many people who only takes one or two classes while trying to juggle their part time employment at the same time. </p>
<p>These factors will invariably bring down the graduation rate, not by the nature of the institution and academic policy, but by the individual choice each student is making.</p>