UCLA Engineering Q&A

Colleges & Universities University of California - Los Angeles
21

<p>

  1. I’ve never heard of anyone double-majoring in two engineering majors – it is forbidden by the HSSEAS OASA. I know one prodigy, though, who double-majored in Computer Science and Business Economics and now works at Microsoft.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>There are no pre-determined cutoffs for grades; the classes are mostly curved to a B- median. For example, a 90% can be an A in EE 1 but a 60% can be an A in EE 2.</p></li>
<li><p>Approximately 5%. It’s difficult to get in though, because the high-profile research (mostly Electrical Engineering) require being an upperclassman with a 3.50 GPA. All I had to do to get involved with research, luckily, was e-mail a graduate student in my major and ask him to hook me up with some research that’s within the scope of my knowledge.</p></li>
<li><p>It’s hard to answer this question explicitly because I can’t exactly go up and ask employers, but I can say that UCLA Engineers are sought after by all the big-name defense contractors and consulting firms in Southern California. One of the interesting things I noticed at career fairs is that some employers actually know the engineering faculty by name.</p></li>
</ol>

22

<p>Flopsy: EE- is it one of the better eng programs at UCLA? What do you think are the top three eng programs?</p>

23

<p>

The top three engineering programs at UCLA are Electrical Engineering (11th), Aerospace Engineering (12th) and Computer Science (14th).</p>

24

<p>flopsy–</p>

<p>if you end up going to the engineering open house on april 9th, will you agree to wear a t-shirt that says “I AM FLOPSY” in block letters?</p>

25

<p>

Yeah, sure, why not.
Don’t expect me to follow you guys around for the whole day, though… :rolleyes:</p>

26

<p>Flopsy - I appreciate you taking the time to answer questions. </p>

<p>I have a dilema, that I am confident that you can clear up. On the one hand, UCLA’s Engineering programs are highly rated (USNEWS, and other sources). Yet, when we took the student led tour, not much at all was said about the Engineering programs. And, when we walked past the Engineering Building(s), frankly they looked very drab. And, the tour did not take us inside. </p>

<p>I am certain that it was a bad combination of circumstances (student tour guide with minimal knowlege of the Engineering programs, and the reality of a few older buildings). I am confident that inside, there must be great things going on. Otherwise, UCLA would not have the reputation that it has. </p>

<p>What makes the above circumstances even more discouraging was the fact that your neighbor (USC), did put on a very good tour. I am not saying this to put down UCLA. It is just the way the circumstances played out during our trip to SoCal. They took us inside, and one of the Engineering Admissions Officers spent an hour with a small group of us (students and parents). It didn’t hurt that the bulding that we were in was only a couple of years old, and very state of the art. This aspect of the school tour made their Engineering program very attractive. Again, I do not say any of this to put down UCLA or raise up USC. It is just the way the two tours played out. Frankly, I wish that UCLA had done a similar type of tour, so that I could compare apples with apples.</p>

<p>I ask you to enlighten me/us. Tell me/us of the wonderful things that go on inside the building. Tell me of the Labs. Tell me of the projects that you have worked on. The access to lab materials. Do you have access to Grad Labs? Are Engineering Lower division taught by Profs or TA/GSs?</p>

<p>I realize that if/when we come down for the April 9th tour, that we will see a completely different and better picture. I am just hoping that you can enlighten us beforehand. </p>

<p>Thanks much</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

27

<p>“Don’t expect me to follow you guys around for the whole day, though… :rolleyes:”</p>

<p>I would expect nothing less.</p>

<p>No, just kidding. I only want to put a face to the name. Then you’re free to go.</p>

28

<p>lovetocamp, usc is a private school that needs to attract students willing to pay $47K a year to attend when you can get the pretty much the same thing across town for about $23K. Second, the UC schools are flooded with top applicants and have to turn away well-qualified students. So they don’t have to work too hard to convince people to apply. This isn’t to say they shouldn’t do a better job during the tours.</p>

29

<p>mikemac - Yes, i do realize all that you typed (before you even typed it). But, I appreciate the thoughts. </p>

<p>I guess part of what i am asking is for someone to tell me what goes on inside - that i unfortunately did not get a chance to see. I am not doubting you. But, I need to hear some of it. </p>

<p>I saw, at USC, undergrad students in very sophisticated Engineering labs, working side by side with Grad students. I’m not saying that it doesn’t happen at UCLA and Berkeley. I am just hopeful that someone can tell me about it. </p>

<p>I am the dad, who will soon by writing some very large checks, for either school. I have seen the ratings and rankings. I subscribe to USNEWS paid College statistics, and i DO know that Berkeley and UCLA are rated higher. I am mildly dissapointed that UCLA did not put on a better tour. </p>

<p>I guess you would have to “feel my pocketbook pain” to truly understand why i am interested more - than a putdown of USC. In fact, ironically, a good portion of the tour of UCLA was just that. The UCLA student tour-guide put down USC’s athletics, put down USC Medical Program, put down USC’s vicinity, put down USC’s money, etc. He went into great details about how they dump paint on Tommy Trojan during the football and basketball games. That may have been comical to the touring high school seniors, but i am soon going to be writing some large checks, and I was more interested in substance, not in humor. Not sure of your age, but there used to be a hamburger commercial with an old woman who would say “show me the beef”. </p>

<p>I AM a believer of UCLA. But, I would like to hear a few details.</p>

30

<p>well, since my double engineering major question has already been answered in this thread,</p>

<p>1) how hard is it to major in both engineering and business?
2) i was accepted for computer science and engineering, what’s the diff btwn that and regular computer science?
3) is there a program similar to cal’s EECS? i want both hardware and software
4) is it hard to change from CS&E to EE? i sorta just alternated btwn CS and EE for all the UC’s, not sure which one i’d rather do yet (wanted to do both but i guess they don’t allow it)</p>

31

<p>

If you went on the general walking tour of UCLA then I can understand that; a typical tour simply isn’t long enough to explore every building on campus. The Engineering Open House walking tour is intended to offer such an exploration. As for the engineering buildings looking drab, keep in mind that the interior of the buildings get far more refurbishing than the exterior. It’s a shame you didn’t get a look inside Boelter/Engineering I/Engineering IV/CNSI/etc. or you wouldn’t have to judge a book by its cover.</p>

<p>

I understand; I’ve eavesdropped on USC guided tours while hanging around South LA and I think the tour guides put more effort into getting to know the visitors. However, keep in mind that the UCLA campus has twice the area of USC; it’s simply not feasible to go into all the buildings on campus in the same amount of time.</p>

<p>

Research happens behind every fourth door in Boelter. Next quarter I am working with a EE Ph.D. student in graph-modeling of USPTO citations using XML parsing and/or BerkeleyDB. One of my fourth-year ACM partners works in the CENS to write assembly code for low-power traffic motes to be deployed in Los Angeles. (I also have another project, which remains secret until it is approved by the Engineering Alumni Association.) Hmmm… Last year’s lab classes were Physics 4AL and Physics 4BL, which involved veryifying laws of mechanics, electrostatics, DC/AC currents, magnetism, the speed/duality of light and geometric optics. This year’s lab classes are CS 35 and CS M152A, which involve learning the Linux shell and implementing digital logic circuits with computer simulation, respectively. All engineering lectures are taught by professors, and all engineering discussion sections are led by teaching assistants who are M.S./Ph.D. graduate students.</p>

<p>

I couldn’t agree more. :rolleyes:</p>

32

<p>

  1. UCLA doesn’t offer an undergraduate business major… As I already mentioned, though, Economics/Business Economics is possible, though improbable.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Computer Science and Engineering has additional Electrical Engineering/Computer Engineering requirements (e.g. EE 10: Circuit Analysis I) and fewer Computer Science requirements (e.g. CS 161: Fundamentals of Artificial Intelligence) than straight Computer Science. Also, CS majors have to choose a “technical support group” consisting of a field of specialization in a separate department at UCLA, whereas CSE majors aren’t required.</p></li>
<li><p>The closest engineering undergraduate program UCLA offers to EECS is EECE (Electrical Engineering - Computer Engineering option).</p></li>
<li><p>It is very hard to change from CS&E to EE or vice versa… Last time I checked, the Office of Academic and Student Affairs doesn’t give special preference to major-transfer applicants who are already engineering majors.</p></li>
</ol>

33

<p>thanks for answering my questions flopsy.</p>

<p>jw, what major are you doing @ UCLA?</p>

<p>also, how many people double major w/ engineering and economics/business economics? if its too hard to double major like that i was thinking of majoring in engineering then attaining a minor in international relations or some form of a business related field. is that more plausible?</p>

<p>and should i just stick with CS&E? what are the opinions on CS vs. CS&E?</p>

<p>sorry for all the questions hahaha</p>

34

<p>

Computer Science.

Only one student has double-majored in Engineering and Business Economics. I think you should experience the difficulty of a CS/CSE major’s weeder classes before committing to a minor, no matter which school you go to. (One thing I loved about my orientation session was how so many naive people planned on double majoring in Computer Science and Japanese, then got soul-skewered by CS 32/33, and to this day never bring it up again.)

Stick with CSE… Someone at this quarter’s CS Town Hall quipped that CSE was essentially CS + “circuit classes thrown in”. Taking one major or the other will not prevent you from taking the courses in either major without going out of your way, curriculum-wise.</p>

35

<p>sorry for my n00bness… but what’s a “weeder class”? as in core classes?</p>

36

<p>

A tough class where an unusually high percentage fails. :rolleyes:</p>

37

<p>is EECE a seperate major? is it a lot harder than lets say EE or CS? is it harder to get into?</p>

<p>last set of questions for today, i promise.</p>

38

<p>Flopsy - thank you for the reply. Greatly appreciated. We have registered for the 9th.</p>

39

<p>Besides doing a good job answering questions, flopsy proved one thing lovetocamp was right: UCLA students are willing to take chance to put down USC. I don’t quite understand this attitude, but can we all be proud of ourselves, and respect other people’s efforts. </p>

<p>Lab exercises are certainly not research projects, however typical student projects differs from research projects too. Well, they both can elevate participants’ profiles, but they train you different skills. </p>

<p>Working with top researchers can help you in a lot of ways, which I think more than just doing an implementation project. But frankly NO professors (in top research universities) want to take undergraduate students in their labs unless you really show the exceptional potentials, RESEARCH potentials. First, the professor has to put in efforts to define a meaningful research project suitable for UNDERGRADUATEs. Not easy, especially if you want to keep competitive in your field. Second, you have to take care of the student’s mental and emotional development. Undergraduate student are comparatively immature, and professors are afraid to treat them in a normal sweat shop way as they do to grads:) Third, Undergraduates have a lot more courseworks and parties than graduate students, therefore less time for the project; And they usually don’t share the same career goal as the supervisor envisions, make it unattractive for professors to invest time in. </p>

<p>What USC does different is the school makes undergraduate research an institutional one, and invests money in the projects and postions in research lab. Some of the positions are merit-based due to two major reasons: 1. Position shortage, and professors want to produce while working with better students; 2. Students have to be good enough to keep up with course load and spend time in labs. But there are some need-based actually. I am not in Engineering school, but our lab take one or two unders all the time (I talked about this in some other posts). My supervisor is not a good one to define easy projects for them (honestly), but she takes care of everything other things. Since we are pretty adequate in funding, she pays the students. You know what, all of them are going to medical schools. Incredible recommendations can do a lot of good things! </p>

<p>I believe UCLA also offers the similar access to research labs (maybe for some regent scholar? I am not sure, but I know some students working with professors there), but in light of UC culture, you have to be really competitive, and take tremendous initiatives yourself. CENS mentioned in flopsy’s post is nice one. The director was a USC professor, then moved to UCLA to found this center. It was quite a loss of USC, and gain of UCLA. Here I have to question one of flopsy’s statement: you’re sure your friend will write assembly code on motes? As far as I’ve known, it is not advised. You may check your facts.</p>

40

<p>Flopsy another CS person. Yay!</p>

<p>1) “CS majors have to choose a “technical support group” consisting of a field of specialization in a separate department at UCLA” What?</p>

<p>2) Exactly how do you rate the people in your CS classes? Uber-geeky, somewhat nerdy, jocks who have no clue wth they are doing there, or something else?</p>

<p>3) You mentioned job recruting on campus. Any chance for us CS undergrads?</p>

<p>4) How would you compare UCLA and UCB’s CS program?</p>

<p>5) If I do end up at UCLA, can I hit you up for a research chance? ;)</p>