<p>how was it a pain? be more specific!</p>
<p>Ok, give me sometime, I’ll post about my experience tonight.</p>
<p>I’m interested in hearing too. Going to orientation on the 19th, and my personal peeve is that they make the transfer sessions so long. I have to stay the night before AND the night after, and it’s a 14 hour day.</p>
<p>I hate how we can’t enroll in classes until orientation, I already know exactly what I have to take, I’ve been researching for a while now…argh, the phy sci advisor says I won’t have a problem but the classes I need are filling up quick. Anyone else not going until aug 3?</p>
<p>FIRST: Bring your unofficial transcripts to orientation to speed up the articulation process.</p>
<p>To begin, parking for orientation is $8.00 for the day-permit (I recommend Lot 7), unless you already have a UCLA parking permit for summer (as I do). So orientation checkin was at 7:30AM at Royce Quad. People were already lined up by last name when I arrived at around 7:25PM. A light breakfast was served and they gave us a pen, a UCLA pin, a thick UCLA Catalog of courses, and a little backpack to hold our stuff.</p>
<p>Then we had to meet in Moore 1000 for a lecture, a video on plagiarism (which was REALLY, really good), and a presentation on what URSA, my.ucla.edu, and BOL is. Then we met up with our Orientation Counselors (OC), which can be anyone from a 2nd year student to a UCLA graduate. What I didn’t like was the orientation counselors did not know much about transferring since the majority of them got in as freshman.</p>
<p>They put $8.00 for lunch on everyone’s activated BruinCard. If you dont have an activated bruincard, you had to obtain a $7.00 voucher from your OC. I think all the restaurants on campus accept BruinCards as a form of payment; I ate at the bombshelter. If you don’t have your bruin card yet, you can take a picture and get it at Kerckhoff 123. Expect long lines.</p>
<p>After lunch, you were given an oppurtunity to talk to a counselor in your department. I was able to meet mine in Covell Commons. Your check-in sheet will list the name of, time, and place you can your academic counselor.</p>
<p>There are several workshops you can attend after talking to your counselor. The workshops run from 1:30PM to 7:00PM. Workshops I attended were the Undergraduate Research one, and the Graduate School one. There was also one in Networking, where they teach you how to make friends, LOL.</p>
<p>In addition to talking to your academic counselor and workshops, you were to schedule an appointment to meet with your OC to articulate which transfer courses you have completed (under division major prep) and plan out which classes you will register for at 8:00PM. (DO NOT leave orientation early to register at home: if you have problems adding courses somewhere away from your OC, you will be screwed!)</p>
<p>I recommend scheduling an appointment with your OC as early as possible. My OC made me go last, since my situation was very complicated. I sat around for about 3 hours while everyone talked to their OC. And finally, after i was done articulating my courses with my OC at 6:45PM, I didn’t have much time to plan what classes to register for! I didn’t have much time for dinner either!</p>
<p>Planning to register for classes has its restrictions for first time transfer students. We were advised to sign up for no more than 3 classes, and all 3 classes cannot have a final exam date on the same day. Also, for science majors, you were forced to take no more than 2 science classes and one “easier” GE class. </p>
<p>I didn’t have time to eat dinner. Instead, I took the voucher and saved it. It’s valid from 6/24/2007 - 9/30/2007 in any dining hall!</p>
<p>At around 7:30PM, after dinner, we went up to the OCs’ dorm at Rieber Hall, to talk about URSA, my.ucla.edu, BOL, and other stuff at UCLA. When 8:00PM struck, we drew cards to see who would use the computers first to enroll.</p>
<p>I drew a 2 of hearts. I had to go last. The worst part of that was everyone that enrolled before me was slow! It took each of them about 30 mins to enroll! I was so frustrated. When it was finally my turn to enroll, I was blocked from enrolling, since UCLA didn’t know I fulfilled the prereqs for the class. This is why you should enroll in courses with your OC! My OC had to make phone calls to “force” us into our classes. DO NOT LEAVE ORIENTATION EARLY TO ENROLL YOURSELF. Make sure your final exams don’t fall on the same day, because the OC might check and will not let you leave orientation.</p>
<p>Classes weren’t too filled since we were the first session. I know Yams on this forum was complaining to me about how classes were filled already for her IDS major. I wish you all in later orientations luck in scheduling classes. I was forced into some classes, which made my schedule scattered. But at home, I was able to switch them through URSA, which makes my schedule so much more beautiful :].</p>
<p>It was a long day. I think it was my worst experience at UCLA. However, my OC was really nice about everything, and that made the day a lot easier. I’m glad its all over with.</p>
<p>I did not proofread this and if anything, anything at all, doesn’t make sense, feel free to ask questions.</p>
<p>Goodluck to everyone attending orientation soon (especially to August-ers).</p>
<p>kevintech, thanks for the post, good info here. I’m really worried now cuz I was asking around on this forum about whether I should just leave early and register at home. Everyone said it was ok so I booked a flight out for that night. Now it’s too late to change flight, find a place to stay and such.</p>
<p>Were you able to register for classes w/ no prereqs, such as GE, without any trouble? Also, for the class you had trouble registering with, was the pre-req cleared on your DPR on URSA? What was the class, if you don’t mind me asking?</p>
<p>Actually pppeachykeen, I know someone that left early last year and was able to register for classes at his home. Personally, I don’t think its worth the risk. But goodluck anyway.</p>
<p>Yes, I was able to register for GE’s with no problems. I was even able to register for Upper div courses, such as CHEM153A and EEB109 (Ecological and Evolutionary Biology) for this summer. Right when fall registration comes, restrictions pop out of no where.</p>
<p>For fall 2007, I had problems with enrolling in EEB100, and EEB122. I don’t think the prereq was cleared on my DPR, since it was pretty much blank, lol. If your DPR on URSA is filled and complete with all your courses, you might be ok registering for classes at home. Again, I personally don’t suggest it, but if you have a flight going home, you should talk to your OC about clearing any blockage from registering before you go home.</p>
<p>I went on the 6th as well. My experience wasn’t nearly as bad as I think kevintech’s was, im sure all the experiences will differ though. </p>
<p>one thing that you get to do that wasn’t mentioned by kevintech is go to your department (major) orientation, and talk to people in your actual major. Very cool, you get to see the people in charge and they talk to you first hand. I got to sit down with my department chair and she showed me all the classes I need to take, what I have cleared through CC credit, etc. </p>
<p>I think that it’ll be pretty hit or miss with your orientation councilor and your group. I had a small group, only 7 people including myself and my orientation councilor so when it came time to register, we were all done in less then 10 minutes (also because our OC did a fantastic job getting our classes all in order with us.)</p>
<p>if I had to suggest a few things for your day it would be…</p>
<p>you will be looking at all your classes throughout the day. the most important thing to do with a class you want to take is WRITE DOWN THE 9 DIGIT course numbers. these will be a life saver when it comes time to register. with this number, instead of going through four or five pages before you can actually find and add the class, you just enter the number, submit, and confirm. super fast and easy.</p>
<p>secondly, bring a snack or eat a good breakfast because you wont be eating a whole lot and the campus is very hilly. as a side note, wear comfortable shoes.</p>
<p>thirdly, its a long day, but use your time wisely. it seems like you have a lot more time than you do, and make sure if you want to pick up stuff from the ucla store (clothing, stickers, etc) that you go before they close. I didnt get any memorabilia :(</p>
<p>Yes, thank you godzilla for adding your thoughts as well.</p>
<p>I don’t want anyone thinking that since I had a bad experience, that all of you will too. Experiences at orientation will differ, as mine did from godzillas. And I’m sure a lot of other people had a GREAT experience.</p>
<p>Pros:
-The orientation counselours were really helpful and very nice. Do not hesitate -to ask any questions!
-Meet new people.
-Breakfast, lunch and dinner were all provided.
-Some small freebies: orientation bag and a button
-Lots of booklets and handouts
-Vey informational, they tell you everything about the quarter system and how to enroll in classes, etc.</p>
<p>Cons:
A lot of the classes I want were closed already, and this was the first orientation. I was so stressed out the whole day in terms of planning out my classes. And during enrollment, I only managed to enroll in 8 units because the ones I jot down were already closed. Making me even more worried and stressed. But once I got home, I figured it all out(took me two more hours), and now I have my schedule good to go. I think it’s kinda stressful figuring our your schedule there. But that’s just me. It was easier and a lot more relaxing figuring out the schedule at the comfort of my own house, which was what I did once I got home.</p>
<p>kevintech, did you register for those summer courses online by yourself? I enrolled in summer session C (LS4) by myself without any problems; and all my transcripts in and prereqs cleared on my DPR. So If you were able to do summer enrollment yourself, I’m surprised that you still had trouble for the fall.</p>
<p>Summer doesn’t have restrictions with prerequisites. Also, I registered for summer as a non-UCLA student. So maybe that’s why I enrolled in a 109 class.</p>
<p>what do you mean summer doesn’t have restrictions with prereqs? They can’t just let anyone take a class if they haven’t taken the prereq…right?</p>
<p>i think its the students responsibility to make sure they’ve done the pre-reqs. even for a summer classs. although i dont know about UCLA</p>
<p>kevintech and strongergodzilla:</p>
<p>Thank you very much for your posts! They were very informative! My orientation isn’t until the 3rd of August, but I’ve already drafted my fall schedule - I’ll now have to make several changes in light of the information you provided.</p>
<p>Update: OMG. After five days of my draft, all of the classes are now closed. WTH.</p>
<p>kevintech, strongergodzilla, and yams, thanks for your posts. They were really helpful and informative. Now I know what to do during orientation.</p>
<p>I know how you feel kaymoua. I don’t have orientation until july 19 and the classes i want are filling up really fast. I think by the time i go to orientation ls 3 is going to close. If i don’t get into ls 3 i’m pretty much screwed bc my upperdivision classes are only offered once a year and they all required ls 3 and 4 done before I take them. So I’m hanging by the thread right now praying that it doesn’t fill up or that ucla will open up more seats.</p>
<p>kaymoua and sakura:
don’t forget that some of these people in these classes are just registering to register, and waiting for their classes to maybe open up too. my orientation councilor said on average 15 percent of a classes wait list will get into the class.
if that doesn’t work then you can always go straight to the professor to ask to be in the class and if they sympathize, they can issue you an override code to register with that will let you be in the class regardless of its enrollment cap.</p>
<p>kaymoua: that’s what I tried doing too, I drafted my schedule ahead of time, actually, two days before orientation. but when I checked the schedule online during the day of orientation, they were mostly closed. So my suggestion here is, after you draft your classes, consider what other classes you will also take because most likely, some of the classes you have originally wanted may already be closed.</p>
<p>Sakura: I hope you get LS 3! But don’t you start off at LS 4? I am confused. My friend from GCC is also a bio major and she is also starting off at LS 3.</p>
<p>Did anyone show up without filling out and sending the bruincard form and photo? I was wondering if it is even worth trying to send the stuff, I have orientation on the 19th.</p>