I’m a UCLA grad who attends one of those four for graduate school.</p>
<p>UCLA’s not at the same level, but as an undergrad, the curriculum is roughly the same, so you wouldn’t be at a disadvantage from a knowledge standpoint, and most UCLA grads in CS don’t have a problem finding a job. The catalog for graduate-level courses is pretty barren, though.</p>
<p>Where does it fall short? It lacks somewhat in multidisciplinary offerings, there’s not much entrepreneurial spirit and recruiting from hot startups (likely because it’s far enough away from Silicon Valley), and large companies recruit more heavily and for cooler positions at the top schools. The budget is also somewhat lower, so there are only a few specific areas where UCLA has large labs: networking, graphics, and maybe a couple others.</p>
<p>That’s not to say UCLA doesn’t have a solid CS program. Basically every large company attends career fairs and holds infosessions, the best CS courses are just as rigorous as they are in the top 4, and there are plenty of talented professors. It’s just that the top 4 really do stand apart from the rest.</p>
<p>
You probably have strong recommendations and perhaps have published somewhere. Those are both more valuable than GPA for grad school, but a strong GPA can (at least partially) make up for lacking those things.</p>
<p>hi floppy,
i am an environmental engineer and want to pursue my career in the field of environment at graduate level from America now what should i do to get an admission as i secured 2.96 CGPA in undergraduate level. Currently i am doing job and how much experience i need to get an admission in university of California.</p>
<p>hey, I just wanted to know, applied to UCLA for a major in ME and then since submitting my application, I realised I want to go into another field of engineering. Is it easy to switch majors within the same school in freshman year?</p>
<p>You have to wait at least 2 quarters. The “ease” of switching depends on what you are hoping to switch to. Some of the majors are very impacted (esp. Bioengr and Mechanical, and sometimes CS). But in general, you should be able to switch within HSSEAS as long as you are not totally crapping the bed grade-wise.</p>
<p>Should I go to UCLA for Computer Science and Engineering or should I go to CMU for Mechanical Engineering with the intention of transferring to SCS?</p>
<p>Does UCLA Computer Science and Engineering prepare students well for grad schools? I really want to get into Stanford grad school. That would be awesome.</p>
<ol>
<li>Do internships or research in the summer.</li>
<li>Get to know professors so that they can discuss your work in recommendations</li>
<li>Maintain a solid (i.e. 3.7+) GPA – possibly optional if you do a good job with #2</li>
</ol>
<p>If you’re aiming for a PhD, then you need to focus on research, perhaps getting your name on a couple workshop papers or something like that.</p>
<p>It’s awesome. The research labs are all well-funded and publish at incredible rates, the job recruitment is unmatched (for both large companies and startups) because of the Silicon Valley location, and there’s a general entrepreneurial spirit that’s very unique.</p>
<p>That’s not to take anything away from UCLA, though, and most people don’t actually go to grad school because it’s pretty easy to find a job as a software engineer.</p>
<p>One more thing, is there any point in minoring? I would be interested in minoring in Mathematics but I don’t want to do that if it takes longer to graduate.</p>
<p>What’s the deal with UCLA’s bioengineering program not being ABET accredited, and how is the program itself overall? I really want to go to UCLA, but if accreditation is an issue or the department is ehh I might go UCSD. Please help!</p>
<p>A recurring theme that prevents S from committing to UCLA EE is a perception that the professors there only care about their research not the students, and that virtually all classes are taught by TAs. Overall we keep hearing the teachers just aren’t good. While I realize it can’t be 100% that way, it keeps coming up from various sources and causes concern. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>Very true. These opinions which surface from various sources prevent prospective EE majors from committing to UCLA. Could any current EE Major at UCLA please give a genuine response?</p>
Without mind-reading ability I can’t tell what the profs “really care about”. However it is commonly understood that at large research U’s the faculty promotion and tenure decision is predicated on, not surprisingly, research. They may care about undergrads, but if you are looking for an undergrad focus a large public U is not the place to find it.</p>
<p>It is false that classes are taught by TAs. They are taught by profs. Classes tend to be large lectures, especially in the lower-division level, so they have a separate 1x week meeting with a TA in a group of 20-30.</p>