<p>Well orientation can be a bit overwhelming. But it’ll be fun too! (Also try to sign up together with friends, if you want. That could help. Many people do go to orientation with their HS friends.)</p>
<p>Keep your eyes on MyUCLA for the sign up link. It should be sometime shortly after you (or most people) receive a packet about orientation.</p>
<p>katherine, freshmen move in at the same time as everyone else - almost 1 week before class officially starts. That week is also known as Welcome Week / Zero Week. So this year, move-in will begin on the weekend of September 22. Class technically starts that Thursday (27th), but some professors/TAs might cancel it while others will jump right into the material.</p>
<p>On average, how many classes do students take during first quarter? I’m sure it varies a lot, but for someone who doesn’t want to be overwhelmed…what is a happy medium?</p>
<p>Your orientation counselors will tell you to choose 3 classes for your fall quarter. 2 of them will most likely be for your major and the third will be an “easy GE.” This will amount to 13-15 units (which is 13-15 hours of class per week).</p>
<ul>
<li><p>how’s the hiphop scene at UCLA? does UCLA have a hiphop dance group / classes? hiphop dance = love, so it’d be cool to meet other people who dance too.</p></li>
<li><p>during the weekdays, is there always something going on? not necessarily a big event like on ucla happenings, but students or organizations doing stuff? (hahah okay that couldn’t sound any more vague, but yeah. maybe someone’ll know get i’m talking about.)</p></li>
<li><p>any clubs that are especially popular among UCLA students? do they stay in the westwood area for clubbing or drive out to hollywood? (lvl3…element…lax…etc)</p></li>
<li><p>what’s the greek life like?</p></li>
</ul>
<p>this is random, but does anyone know of any good latin dance clubs (reggaeton, salsa, merengue, etc)??</p>
<p>and…what is the best way to make friends and meet people? i am planning on living in a plaza and not a residence hall and will definitely need to put myself out there…</p>
<ul>
<li>how’s the hiphop scene at UCLA? does UCLA have a hiphop dance group / classes? hiphop dance = love, so it’d be cool to meet other people who dance too.</li>
</ul>
<p>yes</p>
<ul>
<li>during the weekdays, is there always something going on? not necessarily a big event like on ucla happenings, but students or organizations doing stuff? (hahah okay that couldn’t sound any more vague, but yeah. maybe someone’ll know get i’m talking about.)</li>
</ul>
<p>yes (i’ll leave this for others to elaborate)</p>
<ul>
<li>any clubs that are especially popular among UCLA students? do they stay in the westwood area for clubbing or drive out to hollywood? (lvl3…element…lax…etc)</li>
</ul>
<p>there aren’t clubs in westwood really, if people go clubbing they go to west hollywood or hollywood. arena and rage seem most popular among bruins i’ve talked to (females mostly)</p>
<ul>
<li>what’s the greek life like?</li>
</ul>
<p>it’s strong but not dominate, and is heavily white. you can do all the usual stuff like at any other greek school</p>
<p>1) There’s ACA Hiphop, which you should definitely check out. There’s also hip hop classes.</p>
<p>2) Most student run organization events occur on weekdays. I don’t know much about the different clubs and their outings. I do know that there are many service clubs that have events on Saturdays though.</p>
<p>3) I would say that most people go clubbing with a group (organization). Half the time, rides are not provided, so venues are usually Hollywood. I’ve been to Level 3 … pretty nice. There’s another popular asian club that people go to …you’ll find out during Rush week.</p>
<p>4) Greek life is terrible if your intention to come to UCLA was to party big. Frat parties have mostly the same people coming every week …</p>
<p>I have no basis for sororities. But females who I know who are in sororities seem to be content.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>De Neve is not a prison; that means you can make friends, if you open up your comfort zone.
Try to meet as many people as you can first week.</p>
<p>I found out that after a few weeks, cliques kick in and it’s harder to make friends. Not impossible, but harder.</p>
<p>“you’d better sign up for orientation this week or you’ll be going to the last session”</p>
<p>i was just saying, that whenever the time comes for signups, no announcement is gonna pop up as a friendly reminder to tap you on the shoulder and say, go sign up now if you want to avoid the last session… xD</p>
<p>Best way to meet people? Network through the friends you make on your residence hall. Join clubs/organizations (<a href=“http://www.studentgroups.ucla.edu%5B/url%5D”>http://www.studentgroups.ucla.edu</a>) Take advantage of the first week of school when all of the freshmen are eager to make new friends and are saying hello and asking your name. You can’t do this again – there is a narrow window at the beginning of fall quarter. Even if you can’t make friends from your lecture classes, there are still discussion sections that go on along with your lectures that have about 20 students. It makes things a little bit easier.</p>
<p>1) Describe the typical weather patterns during the year and how hot it can get during the day / how cold it can get during the night.
2) Is UCLA what you expected? What is different than you expected?
3) Is there anything you wish you had or had not done during your freshman year?</p>
<p>1) Warm. Feels like 70-80F year-round. How? There’s air conditioning in the plazas. </p>
<p>2) No. It’s not as difficult as I thought it would be, which isn’t to say that it’s a cake-walk. I thought I would actually need to study those 2 hours per day per class. That’s way too much. (Well, to be fair, some classes require a lot more studying than others and hey you might even need more than 2 hours per day for particular class.) I found out there’s so much room to procrastinate (and yes plenty of opportunities to get away with it). Exams sneak up on you. It goes by really fast. I also thought since there were so many people that it would be easy to find a niche. It’s been a little bit hard for me but I am taking more initiative and finding organizations than fit my interests. There’s just a lot of sifting through the masses that you have to do to find a comfortable net of friends and acquaintances. I was hoping for a more academic/intellectual experience and I have been disappointed so far. Partly because I have only taken GE classes that no one is willing to take (e.g. History of Opera) and partly because you can get away a lot with not doing readings or participating in discussion. I was hoping my classes would be really lively (the non math/science classes obviously). It is getting better though because I have found more specialized (and small) courses for the quarter and I am really looking forward to it. Also, I didn’t expect such a wide range of students. UCLA is really well-rounded in what type of students they attract. You have people that make you scratch your head and wonder how they got in. You have jocks. Frat/sorority girls. Nerds who study 24/7. I mean, there are just so many types of students! I feel like UCLA is an exaggerated version of high-school cliques except it’s at the college-level. Also, I would say there is a bit of self-segregation going on. From my discussions in classes and such, I’ve realized how important diversity is (ugh, this sounds like the first line of a cheesy college admissions essay). Sometimes, I feel like there is this apathetic, homogeneous conglomerate of students. Yeah, I realize that I’m still taking freshman/introductory courses but I can’t help but feel disappointed most of the time. Again, I am optimistic that it will get better and that I *will<a href=“and%20yes%20I’m%20determined%20to%20find%20it”>/i</a> get better as I progress to even more specialized courses. I forgot to mention that my experience at UCLA kinda went through cycles. Fall quarter I was really optimistic, and ready to take on everything. I was making friends and having a good time, etc. I started to become homesick after it became routine and exams and classes started to settle in and things got more serious. (Oh how typical of the freshman experience!) Winter was completely miserable and I became disillusioned and upset. Spring quarter I have become a lot more convinced that things will work out. It’s weird. I’m not sure if anyone else has felt the same but I met a good number of miserable or depressed (perhaps these words are too strong) students during the winter quarter. It’s quite the blah!</p>
<p>3) Yes. I wish I had not forced myself into taking math/science courses. I felt like I had to be a bio-major/pre-med and that I should take this path yadadada. I had this very narrow mind-set and came in thinking that I could secure research positions, participate in organizations, and have everything figured out and planned. Sure, I ended up doing the planning, taking the right courses, making the right connections, etc. but I felt completely miserable. So please, keep an open mind and be ready to change if you feel so inclined. Oh and I would’ve not cared so much about whether courses satisfied requirements and should’ve just went with whatever I wanted to take. It’s fine to explore a little bit… within limitations yadadada.</p>
<p>1- Socal doesn’t really have defined “seasons.” Fall is usually warm, highs in the 70s-80s and lows in the 60s. We get the occasional Santa Anna winds, which are hot, dry winds from the NE, but unless you live in wildfire-prone areas, it’s not really a concern. Winter is cool, with highs in the 60-70s and lows in the 50s, sometimes dipping into the 40s with occasional rain. Spring is nice with highs in the 70s and lows in the 60s with occasional rain. Summer is warm with highs in the 70s-80s, usually hitting the 90 degree mark several times (although last summer was hotter than usual) with nights in the 60s. In other words, weather is not something you have to “think” about like in other parts of the country. For the most part, LA is pretty dry and mild, because of the proximity of the ocean.
2-Yes, it is what I expected. Lots and lots of reading and papers. Fast terms. Midterm after midterm, paper after paper. No one cares how you’re doing in your classes except you and your parents.
3- N/A (I transferred)</p>
<p>1) Describe the typical weather patterns during the year and how hot it can get during the day / how cold it can get during the night.</p>
<p>Like Emmeline and bfired2 said, its pretty moderate here. There aren’t too many really cold days and really hot days - well not including summer. I’d say the worst part of the weather is when it rains which doesn’t happen frequently. </p>
<p>2) Is UCLA what you expected? What is different than you expected?</p>
<p>Definitely not what I expected. I had heard horror stories about curves in science classes with the super smart curve breakers and honestly, I haven’t seen that too often. Additionally, I naively didn’t expect campus to have such a liberal atmosphere. Don’t get me wrong, I generally don’t mind it too much anymore but since I’m more on the conservative side, it did take a quarter or two to get used to protests and boycotts and the such. </p>
<p>3) Is there anything you wish you had or had not done during your freshman year?</p>
<p>I definitely wish that I had done more exploring in other fields and taken more random classes. I mean, I’ve enjoyed taking my classes for the most part for my major but, I think it would’ve been nice to see what else there was to offer. Also, I didn’t really go to too many campus events my first year and I’ve just recently started to take advantage of the wide variety of things like movies, plays, concerts and etc that are offered to students and I can’t believe that I hadn’t gone to some of these things a lot earlier.</p>
<p>Emmeline, I completely agree with the winter thing! So far, I’m in the 2nd cycle of good-bad-goodness.</p>
<p>ckings, I’m more on the liberal side and I still find the type of protests on our campus a little too silly (in regards to the issue and the method) most of the time.</p>
<p>But yeahh… I don’t think I have anything else to add to the answers of your questions, katherine. :o</p>
<p>Is the housing selected on first come first serve basis at UCLA? And does the “passport-quality photo” need to be against a white/off-white background like standard passport photos (because I don’t really want to pay a studio photographer for an application)?</p>
<p>Housing is not first come first serve. Simply get in your housing app by the deadline.</p>
<p>I think your passport needs to be against white background. You can just go to a Wal-Mart or a similar store and they take passport pics for like 6 bucks or something</p>
Also, I didn’t expect such a wide range of students. UCLA is really well-rounded in what type of students they attract. You have people that make you scratch your head and wonder how they got in. You have jocks. Frat/sorority girls. Nerds who study 24/7. I mean, there are just so many types of students! I feel like UCLA is an exaggerated version of high-school cliques except it’s at the college-level. Also, I would say there is a bit of self-segregation going on. From my discussions in classes and such, I’ve realized how important diversity is (ugh, this sounds like the first line of a cheesy college admissions essay). Sometimes, I feel like there is this apathetic, homogeneous conglomerate of students. Yeah, I realize that I’m still taking freshman/introductory courses but I can’t help but feel disappointed most of the time. Again, I am optimistic that it will get better and that I *will<a href=“and%20yes%20I’m%20determined%20to%20find%20it”>/i</a> get better as I progress to even more specialized courses. ![http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=uclaownedpl8.png[/url]](http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=uclaownedpl8.png%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
