Persons on this message board like to use the words competitive and collaborative against each other, relative to how student bodies are oriented at a university, in this case UCLA. Some will say that the University has students who like to assemble in study groups for life-science courses – they are collaborative; others say its students in the premed track are “cutthroat,” and extremely competitive.
So which is it? I don’t think the word cutthroat would have ever been fair to characterize the premeds at UCLA. The word competitive I think is much more fair to utilize. Therefore, I think it can be both, and I don’t think that these traits are mutually exclusive with respect to an individual or persons.
The students who are involved in greek orgs – and greeks at UCLA are extremely studious and surprisingly many will become doctors-- will have fraternal and sorority notes on professors and copies of their tests for future reference, and they’ll take classes and study together. Additionally, study groups will be big for those who primarily reside on the Hill, which is where most of the residences are at UCLA as the study rooms there will be perpetually booked. But these students who are obviously collaborative are also extremely competitive, which in this case means that they are extremely studious.
I’m sure that there are some who would rather go it alone and hog all whatever scholastic glory comes their way, but it appears that these are fewer and farther between. The collaborative team capstones are reserved more for the E majors; the capstones in the life sciences are more individual senior projects with professors, but I don’t think that this bespeaks of one going his or her own way in bio-related sciences by orientation of study.
And getting classes at UCLA won’t be a problem, but they will certainly not be a problem at SCU, so I guess what you’re saying is true, but worded negatively.