Go to office hours and do well in class. Talk to your professor about your interests if he’s free. Make sure the professor knows you well.</p>
<p>
It’s somewhat uncommon, but not unheard of. The challenge is that it would be difficult for a professor to get to know you in 1-2 months’ time. You can certainly try.</p>
<p>
It’s not out of the question, but the professor would have a tough time determining what to write. Again, you can give it a shot.</p>
<p>As is the case for graduate admissions in general, expectations for letters of recommendation vary by school. If you are targeting MIT, CMU, Stanford, or Berkeley, you would be best served having professors you’ve done research with, managers from internships, or professors who know you quite well for some other reason (not necessarily CS professors, but that would be ideal). Those schools expect to see concrete examples of interaction in order for a letter to be considered strong.</p>
<p>They will tell you which classes to sign up for at orientation - no need to figure things out ahead of time unless you want to.</p>
<p>Your 5 on the AB Calc can get you out of Math 31A (you have to option to start in either 31A or 31B), and your 4 on AP Chem can get you out of Chem 20A.</p>
<p>As an EE major, since Chem 20A is the only chem class you have to take (unless you are doing the biomed option), you probably will be fine skipping it. But in general, if you are in a major that requires Chem 20B, you should not skip 20A. Your 3 on the English AP will not let you skip English Comp 3.</p>
<p>In the fall, you’ll probably take Math (31A or 31B), CS 31, and Eng Comp 3. That’s 13 units (12 is the minimum), and they usually recommend to start off with the minimum and then work up to taking 4 classes in the winter.</p>
<p>As for research, I probably wouldn’t worry about it right away. Just get used to college for the first quarter or two and then maybe in the Spring start inquiring about opportunities that you can hopefully take advantage of as a sophomore.</p>
<p>Thanks alicantekid, you really cleared it up for me. I want to do a biomed option, but I’m worried that i won’t like it and i’ll be unable to focus on EE itself and waste time and money on courses. </p>
<p>Also, say i don’t want to skip my math course since i haven’t done calculus since last year and i probably don’t remember much, would i still the credit from my ap exam? Same for chemistry, if i decide to do biomed option, i’ll probably need it and retake it at UCLA.</p>
<p>If you don’t skip Math 31A, you’ll still get the 4.0 units from passing the test. Even your 3 on the AP English will give you 8.0 units of excess credit.</p>
<p>That plan has you taking Math 31A, Chem 20A, and CS 31 in the fall (basically what I suggested before except we’re swapping out English Comp 3 for Chem 20A). Of course, that is just one sample plan and in reality you probably won’t be following it exactly. You may take a couple of things in a slightly different order, but everything on that sheet is required for that option of the EE major. You can look at the requirements for all of the other majors/options here:
[Curricular</a> Requirements & Department Information — UCLA Engineering Office of Academic and Student Affairs](<a href=“http://www.seasoasa.ucla.edu/undergraduates/curricular-requirements-department-information]Curricular”>http://www.seasoasa.ucla.edu/undergraduates/curricular-requirements-department-information)</p>
<p>Also, I have heard that HSSEAS will NOT be giving GE credits for AP exams anymore starting with the incoming class this Fall.</p>
<p>My son will be entering this fall as CS major and he’s thinking about taking summer session courses to get a head start as he’s coming from an international school. Would it be smart to take CS31 over the summer session and wait until winter to take CS32 (from other postings, it seems like CS32 is not offered in the fall quarter?<br>
Also he has no programing knowledge as his high school course was really weak even though he took AP. The school tried an AP CS last year and everyone in the class basically failed the AP exam, I heard. I really want to have him on a sound footing as I know that UCLA CS courses are really tough and my son has been away from the states for all his school years. </p>
<p>A couple of more questions.</p>
<ol>
<li>If CS32 indeed is not offered in fall, is it worth to take CS31 no credit (is it allowed) over summer so that he can gain confidence and retake CS31 along with his new classmates? I want him to get a taste of what he will be facing.</li>
<li>If it is not wise to take CS31 over summer, are there courses that you would recommend for an incoming freshman within the engineering school? Or would you simply recommend taking care of GE classes?</li>
</ol>
The only really good reason for taking it in the summer is to be able to take something else in the Fall, and decrease the number of courses left to complete. I don’t really think it’s worth it because the material is designed for people with no programming experience and as long as he starts assignments early and works hard, he’ll be fine.</p>
<p>
CS 32 is only offered during Winter and Spring quarters.</p>
<ol>
<li>What you’re suggesting is an official audit. I don’t believe CS 31 instructors accomodate audits, but you can check with them. He can certainly sit in on lectures, but he wouldn’t have access to any course materials. Also, taking no units means that he cannot live on campus during the summer session, so he would need to live in an off-campus apartment.</li>
<li>The typical fall quarter schedule for a first-year CS major is CS 1 (a seminar), CS 31, Chem 20A, and a math class. If your son has AP credit to skip the chemistry class, either substitute Chem 20A with a GE or Physics 1A.</li>
</ol>
<p>Thank you very much for answering every question in my rather long inquiry. It seems a chem/biochem class and a humanities class for the summer are more appropriate.</p>
<p>I also want to thank grapesoda for the helpful response to my questions. Obtaining letters of rec is definitely going to be challenging for me because I didn’t get to know my professors early on, but like grapesoda said, I will still give it a shot! :)</p>
<p>Thanks you especially grapesode, much appreciated. S2 will have similar issue with letters of rec as well. It seems the new GRE suppose to be longer and it will provide an online calculator. I guess he will study in summer and take that test in Fall.</p>
<p>Hi, I’m a student planning to enter UCLA’s Bioengineering undergrad this fall and I have a few questions.</p>
<p>I know the UCLA Bioengineering program is relatively new but how does the program stack compared to the other engineering dept. For example, I know its pretty small ~ 260 kids but how competitive, rigorous, prestigious, difficult etc is it?</p>
<p>And what would an example BIoengineering Courseload look like?</p>
<p>Any insight into the materials engineering program? Was not D’s first choice, and we were not able to attend open house. Understand it is a small program, which could be good for getting to know people - but how are the faculty? She’s visiting another school this week, but hasn’t given up attending UCLA.</p>
<p>Well I was approved for my change of major with a GPA of 3.479 in case any of you guys need a guideline for what kind of grades you need in order to switch into engineering.</p>
<p>I was planning to take
CS 1
CS 35L
EE 1
Math 32B
Math 33B
Physics 4BL</p>
<p>It’s only 17 units but it seems like a lot more to me. Am I crazy? Should I tone it down?</p>
<p>The hard and/or time-consuming classes from that list are Math 32B and Physics 4BL. I don’t recommend taking 4BL with such so many other classes since you have to dedicate hours a week to writing pretty long lab reports.</p>
<p>In any case, regardless of unit count, taking 6 classes in a quarter is rarely a good idea, but you can see how it goes for a couple weeks and drop one if it ends up being too much.</p>
<p>If you didn’t come in as CS, petition to waive CS 1 and it will get approved. That sounds like an unnecessarily tough quarter. It’s definitely doable, but there’s no reason unless its the only way for you to graduate on time. Get rid of EE 1 or Physics 4BL since they’re not pre reqs for anything, assuming you’re CS and not CSE</p>
<p>@sunc92 Bioengineering is probably the most difficult major to get in to in terms of average GPA, SAT, etc. So I guess my point is that the kids are all pretty bright in that major.</p>
<p>I think Professor Kamei’s classes (BE 100 and 110) are notoriously hard, but he’s also pretty universally loved by the students. That’s how you know he’s a good teacher - his classes are hard but the kids don’t hate him. He’s willing to work with you if you’re willing to ask for the help. </p>
<p>I also know that the BE department will let you substitute up to 2 quarters of BE 199 research for 2 of the 3 required major elective courses. So they are basically encouraging you to do research and are willing to lighten your coursework to help you do that.</p>
<p>Normal fall quarter will be:</p>
<p>BE 10 (2 units)
Math 31A (4)
Chem 20A (4)
Eng Comp 3 (5)</p>
<p>If you have a 4 on either of the English AP exams then you don’t need to take Eng Comp 3 so you can probably substitute a GE in its place. If you are skipping Math 31A with AP, then you can start in 31B (or 32A if you are skipping 31A & B).</p>
<p>Hi flospy,I saw most of the questions and discussions are about EE,computer science.But I am actually going to major in chemical enginnering.Is Chem E really small like I heard from someone?How is the chemical enginerring program anyway?THX!!!</p>