@Eastcoast234 Havent heard anything about alumni scholarships, they’re run by the alumni association. He can’t take community college classes until the summer after freshman year. I would meet with one of the academic counselors midway through his first year to see if it would be beneficial for him.
Hi @10s4life Thank you for the great content on this thread. My DS, will be attending UCLA CS as a freshman this Fall 2020.
- Would you know if he can get credit for AP Physics C to fulfill one or more of, the Physics 1A, 1B/4AL, 4BL and 1C course work?
- He has 21 APs all 5s (Calculus AB, Calculus BC, Physics 1, Physics C: Mechanics, Physics C : Electricity & Magnetism, Statistics, Music Theory, Chem, English Lang, English Literature, Micro Econ, Macro Econ, Spanish Language, Computer Science A, Environmental Science, Psychology, World History, US Gov, World History, Seminar, European History, US History) and several Post AP courses(LInear Algebra, Vector Calculus, Multivariable Calculus, Differential Equations, Modern Physics, Advanced Topics in Machine Learning), can he appear for challenge exams for any of the lower division courses?
- He chose CS as his first choice major, but I’m curious to know what you think of CSE and can he pick up a few courses in EE and get a double major (CS & CSE). I read on the school website that one cannot pick a second major from the HSSE? The only minors allowed are BIoinformatics and Environmental Engineering.
- Can he take courses from the School of Mathematics and declare it as his second major?
Thank you in advance for your guidance.
@user4ever1234 Congrats to your son! CS is the second hardest major to get into at UCLA after undeclared engineering. Hope this answers your questions.
- AP Physics C Mechanics (with petition) can be used to satisfy AP Physics 1A if he gets a 5. Everything else must be taken at UCLA. Notice though its with petition, and that is because nearly 100% of UCLA engineering students take Physics 1A even if they had an amazing AP Physics C Mechanics teacher in hs. Its because our Physics 1A uses multivariable calculus in many situations and introduces some linear algebra/diff eq depending on the professor. Its so rigorous that many students who took got a 5 on the AP exam struggle in the series. So if your son skipped 1A he will be in a 1B with students who all took 1A. Our classes are taught mostly from theory and there is very little number crunching (many exam questions will ask you to derive the equations for the systems from scratch, then solve for a general solution that can satisfy any variable changes). That's why everyone takes it from 1A because its easier to learn how "UCLA does physics" from the beginning when everyone is new rather than later in the series. AP Physics C E&M fulfills nothing. 1B and 1C and associated labs can't be skipped. Even taking the math courses, the physics series is still quite a challenge.
- There are no "challenge" exams to get out of courses. If he took them as dual enrollment in Community College he will need to send a transcript to UCLA for course evaluation to get credit. Be prepared to have course syllabuses to show OASA (Office of Academic and Student Affairs for Engineering) as well just in case. Since he got a 5 on Calc BC he can start with Math 32A which is the first multivariable calculus. But you said he took all the math through differential equations. If he did it at CC then he is technically done with lower division math. If those courses are not transferable, then he will start with Math 32A. Chemistry is not needed for CS so that is empty units. English language/ english literature will count for English Comp 3 so his writing 1 requirement is taken care of. All the other AP classes won't count but will be empty units to help him get to the 180 needed to graduate (moot point for engineering since we take 182 required units in our major). Only UCLA classes count towards units for registration so he will register with the rest of the freshman. At orientation, the counselors will meet with each student and evaluate course scheduling. For his first quarter you are restricted to 3 classes and only 2 can be stem. I would do CS31 (intro cs), Physics 1A (mechanics only if he gets out of all his math from dual enrollment otherwise I would do whatever is the next Math he needs), and a GE (we take 5 ge courses that are randomly spread throughout the four years).
- Most people leave CSE for CS since CSE only takes a handful of EE courses and they are only basic circuits ones so they aren't that useful in the long run. There is no "double majoring" in another engineering field. If he wants more hardware exposure I would recommend switching to Computer Engineering. That will be more of a 60/40 SW/HW split. Otherwise he can also declare his "technical breadth" in EE. A technical breadth is a mandatory 3 course sequence that engineering students must declare outside of their own major. UCLA Engineering has a ton of options from all the engineering fields to Pre Med (so students can do pre med courses without taking additional classes). The most popular option is technology management which allows you to take Anderson Business School Courses. Computer Engineering with a EE tech breadth will result in a roughly 50/50 hardware sw split.
- He can take higher level math classes. If he is pure CS he can do math as his tech breadth which is 3 courses. He can also use his "Sci Tech" which is another 3 course sequence, as math courses. It is highly recommended to not declare a second major in L&S due to the rigor of the CS curriculum. Even the brightest students at UCLA will find engineering to be not only challenging but also time consuming. It is better to use the sci tech and technical breadth options to fulfill outside interests. All our majors are designed to be completed in 4 years but adding a double major makes that really hard unless you do 5 courses a quarter. (4 is normal while careful planning can allow 3). Most companies don't care about double majoring and in the CS field just plain CS is fine, a math degree too won't give you an edge in recruiting since it all comes down to how well you can whiteboard.
@10s4life
Not sure if this is the place to ask my question. Apologize if not. I plan on taking physics 1c fall quarter. There are 5 lectures posted but 3 lectured are noted with no assigned professor. I was looking at physics 1c for fall 2019. It is similar to the fall 2020 in that there were 3 lectures with no professor assigned. However, for fall 2019, 2 of the lectures were cancelled. My concern is if I enroll into a lecture for fall 2020 with no assigned professor, and they cant find a professor, what happens to the students that initially signed up for that particular lecture?
Also, what does it mean when a lecture is noted as "closed by department " but still is on the schedule?
@Jojo71 Enroll in any classes that says the staff or have a prof. Closed by Dept means the class is closed unless they need to open overflow sections.
@10s4life
Thank you. My concern is if I enroll into a lecture with no assigned professor, and they cant find a professor, what happens to the students that initially signed up for that particular lecture? Thanks again really appreciate your feedback.
@Jojo71 If the lecture says the staff then there will be a professor eventually. If they cancel a lecture you’ll be able to move to another section.
Ok. That’s what I was afraid of. If I signup for a lecture and it gets cancelled it’s not that easy to switch to another lecture with a different time bc of the other classes I already have signup for.
Thank you