<p>Hello,</p>
<p>I graduated in March 2012 and have worked full time for a large financial consulting firm since September. My major required me to take classes in both South Campus and North Campus. I lived in the dorms for two years and in apartments for two years.</p>
<p>I'm happy to answer any questions, provide opinions, etc. in this space. Thanks</p>
<p>Can you talk about your major and classes in general?</p>
<p>How hard is it to switch dorms? (inc student)</p>
<p>@xyzabc44:</p>
<p>The majority of my classes were either math or econ. For my first two years, I took some combination of 3 math/econ classes and one ge. For my last two years, I took one math, one econ, and one elective. Many of the stereotypes held true (big lower div classes, mediocre profs, etc) but I chose to take classes that were interesting to me to a point where it didn’t matter to me if the class was huge or I had a crappy prof. </p>
<p>I had enough flexibility outside of my major to take numerous classes in the arts and humanities (anthro, american indian studies, public policy, etc) just because I was interested in the topics…while I knew it would contribute almost 0 to my career lol.</p>
<p>@HopingToXfer:</p>
<p>I’m not the best person to answer that question, but I do know there are nights at the beginning of the quarter where they host events for people looking for new roommates, living arrangements, etc.</p>
<p>My guess would be that it’s easier to switch from a res hall to a res plaza than vice versa, but I’m not 100%. Care to be more specific? </p>
<p>I’ve seen it done, but I guess the short answer is that they only have so many rooms for thousands of students so it’s probably not very easy to switch.</p>
<p>1) I am expected to pay around 25k per year. Is there any way I can get scholarships at UCLA to make the cost of attendance cheaper?
2) How hard is Computer Science and Engineering? How hard would it be to add a math minor?
3) How much time would intramural tennis and/or becoming team manager for the Div I Men’s Team take?</p>
<p>@Darthpwner –> sweet name lol</p>
<p>(1) If you’re in College of L&S, then the College Honors program is your best bet to find $ to help out. Based on your second q, you’re in HSSEAS so the best route to take would be the usual routes of looking into possible department awards, looking online, etc</p>
<p>I would suggest going here first – [UCLA</a> Scholarship Resource Center](<a href=“http://www.ugeducation.ucla.edu/src/]UCLA”>Scholarship Resource Center | University of California, Los Angeles)
It is always better to go to these things in person to speak with a human being.</p>
<p>(2) CS is tough but people who love it always (most of the time) are able push through. I for one am not sure why anybody would subject themselves to that, when Java, C++, etc can be learned on your own time and there is the option to do the less rigorous ‘Specialization in Computing.’ Ultimately it depends on what your goals are for post-grad.</p>
<p>A lot of people come into school thinking ‘I’ll major in A and B, minor in C, and join 5 clubs’ and I don’t think that’s the right way to approach college. It becomes high school 2.0 if you look yourself down with too many random time commitments.</p>
<p>In your case, I would take a math class here or there if you see something that interests you but programming a math minor into your course plan adds little to nothing to employers and creates another layer of stress for you, so…</p>
<p>(3) Getting back to my answer to (2), ambition is a great thing but don’t go overboard. </p>
<p>For reference, the managers that I knew dedicated most of their time to that activity and were barely scraping by just doing one major…and for the most part in majors not seen as difficult as CS…and didn’t add minors…and…</p>
<p>How hard is Civil Engineering with a 15-16 unit workload (as a junior/ senior)? I’m planning to switch from a plaza to another plaza.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t advise taking 4 CE classes in your first quarter at UCLA. I’ll just leave it at that because it’s tough for me to comment further w/o knowing more of your background.</p>
<p>As far as switching from a plaza to a plaza, again I don’t think it’s likely but you can pursue the avenues I mentioned previously and also take comfort in knowing that it’s financially an even trade so it wont be an administrative headache.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>How difficult would it be to double major in biochem and BME? I want to do biochem for sure but was looking at possible double majors or minors. Would the workload be too much to handle in terms to maintaining good grades and having time for extracurriculars?</p></li>
<li><p>Do you have any information or knowledge on the difficulty of Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Bio (MCDB); Microbiology, Immunoloy, and Molecular Genetics (MIMG), or Neuroscience?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>When should I activate my degree expected term or whatever? I’ll be heading into my senior year in the Fall. I’ll be done in 2014 Spring.</p>
<p>@ TheEarlyBird</p>
<p>(1) Biochem and BME is way, way too much. If I were you, I would stick to biochem, see how that works out for the first quarter or so, and then consider adding a biomed research minor. Those two together are plenty rigorous enough by any reasonable standard.</p>
<p>(2) Can’t comment much on the first two except to say that theyre full of, ehhh, “pre-med types” but generally well regarded. I had a roommate that did Neuro and loved the profs. Southern Cal recently poached a couple of top UCLA neuro researchers but whatevs still a good department</p>
<p>I get the sense that you are poking around / early in the process. Just trust that once you get to UCLA you will have research experiences, GEs, lower div chem and bio, etc etc …all of which will help point you in the right direction. Trust the process.</p>
<p>@Philosoup</p>
<p>I was penalized a marginal amount ($20? $30? can’t remember) for not giving enough advance notice of my intent to graduate in March (instead of June, as initially planned). My advice to you would be to declare as early as possible…so for you maybe now if possible, or do so in the summer / fall…but don’t wait until the winter unless you want to pay that fee. Either way, not a huge deal.</p>
<p>@ Everybody reading</p>
<p>Consider that you have resources (Orientation, tour guides, websites, counselors) that can help you ask a lot of these major and admin-type questions. I’m here especially to touch on everything else to help give you a complete picture — clubs, dorms, food, IM sports, TAs, Profs, classes in the majors I mentioned, LA, Westwood, why SC <<< (lol), etc</p>
<p>My D is starting UCLA in the fall and has no idea what she wants to study. Probably something in social sciences but she is also considering pre-med. I am encouraging her to take lots of variety in her classes and get recommendations for interesting classes with great professors, so she can get a better sense of what interests her. Any suggestions for specific classes or professors?</p>
<p>@ codydog</p>
<p>“Probably something in social sciences but she is also considering pre-med.”</p>
<p>^not to pre-judge, but she will likely end up in the social sciences if she’s on that fence. Many people enter UCLA firmly pre-med and then move out but there’s not a lot of movement in the other direction.</p>
<p>Given that background, her first quarter should be 2 social science GEs and 1 science GE.</p>
<p>As for classes, especially GEs, I can suggest any ethnomusicology class, any public policy class, any classics class, econ 1 and 2, anthro 7, … I could go on but using bruinwalk.com for professor ratings and the course catalog together usually paints a pretty accurate picture.</p>
<p>As for professors, I can offer prof garg (chem), brown (math), balmer (math), copic (econ), boyd (anthro), brix (atmospheric and oceanic sciences), kleiman (public policy), and mcdonnell (classics).</p>
<p>Do you have any premed friends? If so how difficult do they find the classes?</p>
<p>What major did you take? What’s the best substitute for a finance major?</p>
<p>@ TeenDream</p>
<p>That’s a pretty vague question, but I’ll just say that it seems like half the people at UCLA are pre-meds…and many find the classes pretty difficult, but there are exceptions. </p>
<p>@ theman95</p>
<p>I was a Math/Econ major, which is a decent substitute for finance. I took a bit of accounting, a class in math finance, and then an investments class in the econ dept. I would recommend any of the econ 106 courses btw (econ106f is finance but in a more applied setting).</p>
<p>If finance is your interest, you’ll probably do either econ, math/econ, or biz econ and a math or accounting minor …but I can’t stress how little majors matter for recruiting as long as you are in the ballpark.</p>
<p>
As with anything else at UCLA there is advice & resources available for premeds but it is going to be on your D’s shoulders to find them and make contact. </p>
<p>An excellent overview of the premed path is online at Amherst and I suggest she read thru it: <a href=“https://www3.amherst.edu/~sageorge/guide1.html[/url]”>https://www3.amherst.edu/~sageorge/guide1.html</a> </p>
<p>A guide from the UCLA career center is at [UCLA</a> Career Center - premed](<a href=“http://career.ucla.edu/students/gradprofschcounseling/PreHealthCareerServices/Medicine.aspx]UCLA”>http://career.ucla.edu/students/gradprofschcounseling/PreHealthCareerServices/Medicine.aspx)</p>
<p>It is probably better to find out as soon as possible whether she has a real interest in medicine. An unofficial requirement to get into med school is exposure thru work or volunteering to the field, and there’s no reason she can’t start this summer. </p>
<p>Also she shouldn’t be too quick to decide that if she wants a career in medicine the way to do it is to be a doctor. There are a gamut of medical jobs with varying levels of patient contact, pay, and training. As a doctor you are looking at 11 years of schooling/training after HS, add up to 5 more on top of that for specialties. Many decide the trek just isn’t worth it. I know one doctor who said that if she was doing it again she would have gone for nursing instead of an MD.</p>
<p>appreciate the AMA dontcha</p>
<p>i want to follow up on your point that majors don’t really matter. i’m currently an econ major thinking of tacking on an accounting minor. would you say this isn’t really necessary then for recruiting purposes?</p>