<p>Did anyone attend Bruin Day or departmental (like engineering) open house this weekend and have any thoughts on it? Did it influence you to go or not go to UCLA? Were you impressed (or not impressed) with anything specifically?</p>
<p>I was very impressed by the overall strength of the faculty. UCLA really cares for its Engineering student and Dean Dhir and Professor Wesel really made that clear.</p>
<p>Ya, that’s what S got out of it too, overall was impressed. Easy to like the campus that’s for sure. Talked to head of advising and liked what he heard, like you said they seem to take care of their engineering students.</p>
<p>I was very impressed overall. Despite the down weather (by socal standards), UCLA was as beautiful as ever. I love the campus vibe and am big into following basketball and football, so I was already high on UCLA as a complete university. The only thing holding me back were some reservations about the quality of the bioengineering department, but all my worries were put to rest after the open house. I loved the small department and the heavy research focus (>80% of bioengineers do at least one year of research before they graduate), and I had a great time speaking with current undergraduates in the program. They were all friendly and excited about bioengineering, and none of them seemed one dimensional; they all had unique passions and weren’t trying to focus narrowly on studies. The environment was much more collaborative than I expected from such a rigorous program, and I could definitely see myself fitting in there. I committed as soon as I got home and am very excited to start next year. Bruin Day and the open house had a ton to do with that; it was a worthwhile trip to make.</p>
<p>Unfortunately my son could not attend but my wife and I did and we were both very impressed, particularly with the Bioengineering Department to which my son has been admitted. As Ryanthestout has noted, they dd seem to have quite a collaborative environment and I asked several upper classmen about it; most concurred that even though there are some premeds in the department (i.e. cut throat attitude), the majority of the students seemed to be willing to help when needed (i.e. getting notes if you’ve missed a class due to illness). Not sure what the other engineering departments were like for the breakouts, but perhaps the small size of bioengineering gives them that “one for all and all for one” attitude; who knows.</p>
<p>Anyway, my son had already made up his mind to attend but we wanted to gather any tidbits of info that may end up being helpful during his first quarter/year. Congratulations Ryanthestout, I think you’ve made an excellent choice.</p>
<p>We also got a consistent message about a concern of ours which is being able to change majors within engineering. The acknowledged this has been a problem for them and they want to change that perception. We have an EE, maybe CS wannabe and we now feel comfortable that he can change. Obviously grades have to be hit especially in the classes of your desired emphasis area, but it can be done. Good news indeed. Nice to hear about a collaborative environment, hoping for that too!</p>
<p>I was talking to a friend of mine who graduated from the BE program last year and is currently a M.S. student at UCLA (and leaving for a Ph.D. program next year). I asked him what percent of his classmates he knew by the time he graduated, and without hesitation he said 100%. And then I asked him how many of the people a year older and a year younger he knew, and he estimated that he knew 75% of those within one year of him. That really impressed me. He said that between the small classes, plus the fact that nearly everyone in the program is involved in research, you meet people through those avenues.</p>