Answering questions about being a first year @ UCLA!

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Los Angeles
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hello @ucla2021. I have several questions :slight_smile:

what a four year plan (or at least a freshman year schedule) would look like for a premed student at UCLA?
what are several places to get INTERNSHIPS and RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES?
does UCLA have a specific office/position that serves as a career center?
how useful is UCLA’s alumni network when it comes to opportunities?
what hospitals/research centers are most accepting/open to undergraduate students?

thank you so much! I really appreciate it!

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@biologyandbooks

  1. I posted a link somewhere in this thread with example four year plans by major. The track depends on what major you decide to pursue.
  2. Research opportunities can be found on campus! Email professors/graduate students. There’s also a Student Research Program that you can get one or two units of credits for working in a lab. There’s also research in the UCLA medical school area.
  3. There is a career center on Strathmore I believe, but you can easily look up the address. There’s tons of counseling services varying in department (Life science, honors, english etc)
  4. I’m not quite sure about the alumni network, but we have a website called uclaone.com that allows alumni to connect and whatnot.
  5. Many premed students volunteer at Ronald Reagan Medical Center (just a ten minute walk from the dorms) and Santa Monica Hospital. There are tons of clinics in the area too, but because of convenience, RRMC and SMH are most popular. Research is harder to find just because there isn’t a super general program. Most would get it through emailing/contacting professors and labs on your own.
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@ericbadmon I believe you asked about bell shaped curve, and 10s4, being that he’s in engineering, might not realize that for LS classes specifically (courses within life sci. department), they generally AREn’t curved.(Well, I’m only a Sophomore, so not sure about upper division …) So/but for ex., if one takes calculus LS-30 series, its not curved grade with B- average. Its a point-based system instead. So, in actuality, whether or not the grades are curved depends on what professor, and even more so, which department the course is in.

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Generally, classes are curved because people don’t get 90%. In some really hard engineering courses, someone getting 70% might be top of the class, so that person will get an A.