<p>Hey guys! Well, I've almost been at UCLA for a full quarter, and I remember how useful it was when I had questions last year to talk to someone who went through the same thing I did. I had to figure out everything on my own since the college counselors were basically useless, so if you have any questions about the admissions process or life at UCLA as a transfer, shoot!</p>
<p>My stats:
GPA: 4.0
Major: Communication Studies
Prereqs: Missing 2, neither offered at my school or the schools in my area
ECs: Community service club, various community service events, newspaper, PTK, deans/presidents honors
Essays: Pretty stellar, if I do say so myself.</p>
<p>@Ferrari4XD: FACT. Fact is, the vast majority of the people you see walking down Bruinwalk are rediculously attractive, and it will make you feel bad about yourself until you eventually undergo the UCLA transformation that will make you one of those attractive people. Don’t try to fight it; you will start working out and exfoliating your skin every day after a quarter or so.</p>
<p>@altruition: I’m still adjusting personally, as it’s a huge change to go from a small community college to one of the largest public universities in the country. Academically, it may be a fluke from the classes I’m taking, but I’m not having much trouble and neither are my transfer friends. The only difference is that you actually HAVE to read what the teachers assign. No more dusty textbooks.</p>
<p>@strive101: In my experience, none at all. There are so many more transfers here than you expect, and if you live in one of the mostly transfer dorms or even the apartments, you’ll meet other transfers all the time. The main student organization that I’m a part of here, Bruin AdTeam, has like 7/30 transfer students, which I was pretty surprised by. But yeah, I’ve never had anyone comment on the fact that I’m a transfer beyond “where’d you transfer from?” Most of them are just jealous that we saved so much money and don’t have to kill ourselves in UC-level GE classes.</p>
<p>How many classes do you/other transfers take a quarter on average? Is it possible to graduate within two years? Do you feel overwhelmed transitioning from the semester system to the quarter system? Is it easy to get in the class you need, and do they offer some core classes more than once a year?</p>
<p>@sparkyboy Not at all, I made this thread to answer questions! For our first quarter, they limit you to registering for 3 classes initially and frown on signing up for more, but it is possible if you wait until the end of summer. I’m taking 3, and because it’s the quarter system, the load feels alot like taking 4 classes per semester.
It’s definitely possible to graduate within two years, and they really want you to! I’m taking a computing specialization which entails about as many classes as a minor and I didn’t have all my prereqs done, and I plan to finish in two years (though I’m going to have to take 3 quarters of 4 classes).
I really didn’t feel overwhelmed at all. I love the quarter system-less time if you don’t like the class, and you still feel like you’re getting a grasp on the subject. It just feels right to me. It is a bit weird to have midterms so soon, though.
Classes are tricky. I’ve been able to get classes that fit what I need to get done, but I guess it isn’t all that hard to get comms classes, so that may be why. It is difficult to get a good schedule - it’s sort of a matter of deciding whether you’d rather have a nice schedule and a mixed bag of professors/classes that are interesting to you, or tailoring your schedule to good professors and interesting topics but having a horrible schedule time-wise. They offer classes purely based on how much demand there was in previous quarters from my experience. I’ve heard it’s difficult to get some core classes for some majors (psych and poly sci, especially), but the 3 main core classes for comms are going to be offered all three terms this year as far as I know.</p>
<p>Any advice for those who are transferring as an East Asian language major?<br>
Scholarships we should consider applying for?<br>
What can I do while I wait for 5 months for the results?
What should we expect after being accepted?
Most importantly… What are my chances of getting in?!
I am a Chinese major. My GPA is 3.63. Prerequisites blah blah blah~
<em>sigh</em> T_________________________________T</p>
<p>@strive101 To put it simply: yes. Haha. I was in the library most of the day, so I felt like I could justify messing around tonight. PROTIP: Collins Library at the business school is by far the nicest and least crowded on campus. I avoid Powell like the plague.</p>
<p>@altruition Good question! I applied to UCSD, UCSB, UCLA and Berkeley, and I was accepted to all of them. I was basically glued to the forums for the 3 months leading up to decisions, and I tried all of the exploits that were posted (though I’m fairly confident those are all bull). I got my first acceptance from UCSB, and just seeing the “Congratulations!” made me start crying (I’ve had kinda a weird road to UCLA, so it’s really emotional for me). UCSD was more like meh, I knew I was getting in here, I had TAG. I got UCLA’s before Berkeley, and I freaked out, started crying, called all my friends, and went to ihop in celebration. Honestly, it was the most exciting moment of my life. I must have stared at the button for about ten minutes before I worked up the courage to look. And I got Berkley’s about a week later, which was cool - I knew I was going to UCLA, so it was more just confirmation that I worked my ass off. Made me feel awesome.
In terms of getting rejected - just don’t think about it. I have friends from basically all of the other UCs, and each one has its pros and cons. No matter where you go, you’re getting a world class education. I love UCLA, but if UCSC had a comms major I almost think I would have gone there because of the environment. I must have been rejected for about 50 internships down here so far, but because I moved on and didn’t dwell on it, I’m now at an awesome PR firm in Beverly Hills. It’s all about your frame of mind: you’ll do well wherever you go.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the questions guys, this is fun!</p>
<p>@ChenJiaXing I actually don’t have much experience with language majors. The three things I know are 1) you’ll probably have finals on saturday, which kinda sucks, 2) the language majors tend to be a little easier to get in to and easier to get classes in, and 3) there are a ton of asian student groups on campus, so you’ll have no trouble finding your place here.
Scholarships wise, make sure you check all the boxes that are applicable to you on your application (well, I guess you guys already submitted, so never mind). If you get invited to the Regents scholarship program, APPLY! I regret not applying so much. Better registration times and free money. Le sigh.
The 5 months are the worst. You will build it up in your head so much… there’s no avoiding it. Just try to keep yourself busy. Don’t put faith in “exploits” or tricks to see if you got in. Start looking at which classes you’ll be taking for your major at your safety school along with UCLA so you won’t be confused later. Look for internships and a place to live.
After being accepted, UCLA has a really nice list of all the things you need to do and when they need to be done by. That’s one thing UCLA is great at: you’ll never not know when you have a deadline coming up (and if you do, it’s your own fault, because they pound this stuff into your head). You’ll get a pamphlet in the mail about a week later, and it will be amazing and pretty and colorful and get you super excited. Orientation takes place during the summer, and I’d recommend getting the earliest date you can. They say that you have the same chances of getting classes at later sessions, but that’s just not true. I even heard my orientation counselor say something along the lines of “well, they’ll just have to get what they can” in response to a question about how he could add people from our session to a capped class.
The average admitted GPA this year was 3.7 and I’m assuming that your major isn’t very impacted, so I’d say you’re looking at pretty good chances if you have good essays and some ECs.</p>
<p>@ChenJiaXing I would rate it as pretty amazing for college food. In the dining halls, they have around 4 different stations, and each has 3-4 dishes that follow one theme. So in De Neve, which is where I eat most of the time, there’s usually a station with hamburgers and stuff, one with a mexican dish, one with pasta, and one with pizza type stuff. The desert selection is crazy amazing, and if you don’t watch yourself you’ll gain what me and my transfer friends have fondly dubbed the “transfer twenty”. There’s also always a giant salad bar, some soups, cereal, tons of drinks, and bread with peanut butter and butter.
Other than the dining halls, your options are the quick service restaurants and the campus restaurants. The quick service is Cafe 1919 (amazing fatty greasy italian food), Rondevous (half mexican, half chinese), and Bruin Cafe (coffee, smoothies, salads, wraps, soup, pastries, sandwiches… and open almost all the time. My personal favorite) The campus restaurants are the ones up on North Campus and the ones in Ackerman Union (off the top of my head, north campus has a few coffee places, a sandwich place, a taco place, a pizza place, and some other stuff. Ackerman has jamba, carls jr, a coffee place, sbarro, rubios, wetzels pretzels, PANDA EXPRESS!!!, a candy place, a boba place, and some other stuff I can’t think of).
The south campus equivalent of Northern Lights (the north campus restaurants) are the food trucks. I’ve never eaten at them, but I hear good things.</p>
<p>TL;DR There are coffee houses everywhere, and having panda express at your constant disposal will change your life (in both good and bad ways).</p>
<p>@ChenJiaXing I wish I would’ve gone to the apartments, but it’s completely a personal decision. Do you want more up-front social opportunities or more value for your money?</p>