<p>UCLA</a> Department of Economics</p>
<p>In a nutshell, you have to have 180 units to graduate from UCLA.</p>
<p>So given the assumption that four units are assigned to each class (with the exception of some humanities and writing course that carries five units), you need to take and complete 45 classes for graduation requirement.</p>
<p>Dividing 45 classes into a total of 12 quarters (assuming that you will be vacationing in Cancun for all the summer vacations: ), you need to take at least three but most likely four classes per quarter to graduate in four years, something that should not be too daunting or difficult for anyone with enough intelligence to be admitted to UCLA.</p>
<p>But if you take a look at the biz econ pre major and major requirements, you will find that you will need only 22 classes to complete the major (10 for Pre-Major requirements + 12 for Major requirements). </p>
<p>So your next logical question may be, "Then what do I do with other 23 classes I am required to complete????) This is something I will address later in the bottom portion of this thread, and every prospective freshman should read what I will write later at least twice or even three times for your future evaluation.</p>
<p>So getting back to the major requirements, let's walk this through one by one.</p>
<p>In pre-major requirement, there are ten classes you have to take before you can formally apply to biz econ major.</p>
<p>Pre-Major
• Class
• Economics 1
• Economics 2
• Economics 41
• Math 31A
• Math 31B
• Management 1A
• Management 1B
• Economics 11
• Economics 101
• Any L&S Writing II Requirement
• Grade/Qtr. Satisfied</p>
<p>Econ 1 and 2 are the introduction to micro and macroeconomics, equivalent to AP Micro and Macros subjects.</p>
<p>Math 31A and 31B are basically calculus BC class divided into two classes. But the pace is definitely faster here at UCLA. Since they cover most of the material in 10 weeks for each quarter, expect professors cover the material worthy about one chapter per week.</p>
<p>As for me, I got 5 on AP Cal BC test, and I was exempted from taking Math 31A and 31B, but I nevertheless decided to take Math 33A?, which was Multivariable Calculus. </p>
<p>At the time, I was fortunate that someone advised me to take as many math clases as possible to enhance my personal profile and resume, and heeding on the advice, I decided to venture into the higher and more advanced math class.</p>
<p>The median grade for the midterm was something like 67, and whoever got above 75 got A for the exam. So the class is not that easy, but since the test are graded on the curve, it is not that difficult to get at least B grade.</p>
<p>Now if you scroll down, you will see Management 1A and 1B, both accounting classes.</p>
<p>No matter what you major, I strongly urge you to take these courses, as these courses will give you the overview of the accounting method, the very language associated with the world of business, and teach you the basic tools of comprehending balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow, etc.
Ideally, you should get no less than B or B+ for each of the ten classes described in the pre-major requirement. </p>
<p>Usually, the curve "guideline" at UCLA is that the top 10-15% of students get A+, A, and A-, the next 30% get Bs, the next 40% get Cs, and the rest will get Ds and Fs. I mentioned the word "guideline", not "rule", since you will find many professors who exercise different grading system. It really depends on the individual preference by each professor and the rigor of class materials taught in the classroom.</p>
<p>For instance, the last econ course I took in my senior year was Econ 110. The professor mentioned that the class was designed for graduate students, and as such, he would grade students based on the graduate school system: 30% A, 40% B, and others C.</p>
<p>While the classes were difficult, the grading system was pretty much lenient, relieving the students of stressful burden of trying to navigate through the class for ten weeks. </p>
<p>Now let's move to the major requirement section.</p>
<p>Before I start off with the major requirements, I want to make one very clear point here. Whoever mentioned that "UCLA Biz Econ is like accounting major", he or she is wrong. Deadwrong.</p>
<p>While I was finishing off biz econ major, I took about five accounting classes, at the most. If you want to argue that taking five accounting classes out of a total of 45 classes for undergraduate education would constitute "accounting major", then I have nothing to say in reply.</p>
<p>The point I am making here is that you can NAVIGATE through the major requirements so that you can complete your biz econ major with a slew of finance, seminar, and pragmatic econ courses without overdosing yourself with a string of accounting classes.</p>
<p>The important key word here is the very term, "Navigate". If you are not determined to personally and individually navigate the courses that will suit your professional and academic needs for the long term and simply decide to "coast through" your major requirements as prescribed by your professors and peers, you will join a handful of those cynical graduates who constantly scream, whine, and moan about "I did not learn anything at UCLA."</p>
<p>I am sure you heard of the famous and notorious phrase, "The sink or swim mentality", often referred to a large public school system such as UCLA or Berkeley. One stigma often associated with such a large public education system is that there is no safety net if you decide to coast through your major requirements. You can literally select all the classes with those huge lecture classes that do not check attendance (thus you can party hard every day till the break of dawn), that only grade students based on final and midterm exams (hence, you can get Bs simply by pulling all-nighters for three days straight right before the exams), and that require no presentation, thesis paper, speech, or group discussion (thus, you can avoid the dreadful peer evaluation and faculty evaluation in the end of the term).</p>
<p>At UCLA, there is no safety net. No counselor will approach you with a warning that your undergraduate education will be wasted with this set of lecture classes. No senior mentor will hold your hand and pull you aside to give you a pep talk. You should not expect this sort of merry-go-around relationship at UCLA.</p>
<p>When people say UCLA is not for everyone, this is precisely the paradigm synonymous with my argument.</p>
<p>I am saying that people at UCLA are rude, individualistic, selfish, and not a group-oriented. I am saying that at UCLA you have to delicately and shrewdly balance your priorities and your personal agenda by constantly negotiating through an assortments of temptations, both academically and socially, navigating through various obstacles, and finding enough time to do some legwork for your internships, career center, resume editing, one-to-one professor lunch meeting, and so forth.</p>
<p>At first, you will be a face in the crowd. There is no doubt about it. At first, there will be no support system at UCLA. I can guarantee you that much.
But with right attitude charged with a sense of conviction, a purpose of agenda, and a heart of humbleness, you will find many people and support system that will push you over the threshold of your all-too-familiar family and social network environment.</p>
<p>In the end, you will be given the most rewarding experience of having successfully managed the four hectic, sometimes irritating, but nevertheless four sweet and productive years of your life, now surrounded by a group of lifelong friends who will tolerate "no non-sense" approach to life for themselves and for you.</p>
<p>You may argue, "No, no. This is not what I want for my collegiate education. I come from prep school system, and I have always been managed and advised by a group of highly trained academic advising professionals. I want my education cut, clean, mint-condition, and nice and smooth. I don't want to deal with the stress of checking out the catalog, talking to some people who took other courses, marching into professor's office demanding petition number, and wondering about my graduation requirement. I want some sort of institutional system. I want others to schedule my appointments to talk to advisors. I want to be catered to."</p>
<p>If this is you, then by all means go to a small LAC or private schools. You will be happy and appreciated. You will get a nice diploma sophisticatedly stamped and signed off by your dean of academics. </p>
<p>Oh, also, good luck to you in the real world. You may find the condition of the real world quite different than that of your cozy classroom environment. Also, you will find the demeanor of your boss quite, starkly different from that of your favorite professor at your alma mater college. And then you might wonder when you will be required to use all the analytical tools you learned in your calculus class or that fascinating scope of knowledge and breath of perspectives you wrote for your English humanities class...</p>
<p>Anyway, here we go with the major requirements for the third time now LOL.
If you scroll down the Management Section, you will notice that you have to pick four from the list.</p>
<p>Catalog:</a> Current Course Descriptions</p>
<p>Here is the course catalog.</p>
<p>Do you see MGMT 19 on the description? Fiat Lux Freshman Seminars (1)
Do you often hear that there are so many students in the classroom and that it is so hard to get classes that you want?</p>
<p>Ok, now that you have checked it out, let's see how many students enrolled in that class for Fall 2009.</p>
<p>Schedule</a> of Classes: Class Listing</p>
<p>Do you see how many students are enrolled and how many students are capped?</p>
<p>Yup. That's right. Designed for a class size of 20 students, only 15 students decided to stick to this class.</p>
<p>15 students. Just 15 students!</p>
<p>This is a shame. This is an utter shame for those students who failed to seriously explore their academic agenda. Shunning this sort of small-class and intense seminar programs in lieu of "more relaxing and less demanding" huge lecture type of classes, students complain that UCLA does not offer any small size classroom? Are you serious?</p>
<p>Whenever I meet people that they have not learned anything at UCLA, I make sure to ask what sort of classes they took. And often, they usually pause and think, trying to recite the huge lecture course they took.</p>
<p>And after they finish giving me all-too-general answers, "You know, the accounting classes and econ courses", I ask them one more time.</p>
<p>"What about internships? Have you been to one of those internship forums over there at UCLA Career Center? They actually offer some resume and coverletter editing services."</p>
<p>"They do? How come no one told me that?"</p>
<p>"....Because you have not asked anyone seriously enough."</p>
<p>• Economics 102
• Economics 103</p>
<p>• Economics Elective #1
• Economics Elective #2
• Economics Elective #3</p>
<p>Economics electives must be from at least two different fields of Economics (see explanation below). </p>
<p>• Two of:
• Economics 106E
• Economics 106F
• Economics 106G
• Economics 106H
• Economics 106I
• Economics 106P
• Economics 106V</p>
<p>Four of:
• Management 108
• Management 120A
• Management 120B
• Management 122
• Management 123
• Management 124
• Management 126
• Management 127A
• Management 127B
• Management 130A
• Management 140</p>
<p>**** Classes I strong recommend each of you to seriously consider:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Fiat Lux Freshman Seminars (1)
Seminar, one hour. Discussion of and critical thinking about topics of current intellectual importance, taught by faculty members in their areas of expertise and illuminating many paths of discovery at UCLA. P/NP grading.</p></li>
<li><p>Lower Division Seminar: Special Topics in Management (1 to 4)
Seminar, three hours; outside study, nine hours. Requisite: satisfaction of Entry-Level Writing requirement. Variable topics seminar that examines specific issues or problems and ways that professionals in management approach study of them. Students define, prepare, and present their own research projects with guidance of professional school faculty member. Letter grading.</p></li>
<li><p>Business Communications (4)
Process and discipline of effective spoken presentations. Examination and application of classical and contemporary thinking on substance, structure, and delivery of messages. Elements of graphic presentation of data and presentation technology. Students design and deliver informative and persuasive presentations on key management issues. Critique of all efforts; certain efforts to be videotaped for review. P/NP or letter grading</p></li>
</ol>
<p>M118A. Complexity Science for Social Systems (4)
(Formerly numbered 118A.) (Same as Human Complex Systems M130.) Lecture, four hours. Limited to juniors/seniors. Introduction to (1) complexity science as applied to social behavior and (2) agent-based computational modeling. Use of complexity science to bridge old and new conceptions of social science. Newtonian science, neoclassical economics, and old-style approaches to social science all build on assumptions that all basic agents comprising phenomena (atomic particles, atoms, molecules, organisms, people, groups, firms) are homogeneous and go forward in time under equilibrium conditions interspersed with occasional disequilibrium periods. Letter grading.</p>
<p>130A. Basic Managerial Finance (4)
Lecture, three hours. Requisites: course 1B, one statistics course. Study of financial decision making by business firms, with emphasis on applications of economic and accounting principles in financial analysis, planning, and control. Extensive use of problems and cases to illustrate varied analytical techniques employed in decision making. P/NP or letter grading.</p>
<p>130B. Advanced Managerial Finance (4)
Lecture, three hours. Requisite: course 130A. Analysis of capital budgeting and working capital management. Review of long-term financing through security markets and lease contracts. Management of financial risk using options, futures, and forward contracts. Study of merger and acquisition processes and reorganization under bankruptcy laws. P/NP or letter grading.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Investment Principles and Policies (4)
Lecture, three hours. Requisite: course 130A. Principles underlying investment analysis and policy; salient characteristics of governmental and corporate securities; policies of investment companies and investing institutions; relation of investment policy to money markets and business fluctuations; security price-making forces; construction of personal investment programs.</p></li>
<li><p>Community or Corporate Internships in Management (2 to 4)
Tutorial, to be arranged. Limited to juniors/seniors. Internship in supervised setting in community agency or business. Students meet on regular basis with instructor and provide periodic reports of their experience. May be repeated for maximum of 8 units. Individual contract with supervising faculty member required. P/NP or letter grading.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>****Notice that there is no such word as "accounting" in the course decriptions.
:)</p>
<p>To be continued: WHAT TO DO WITH THE OTHER REMAINING 23 CLASSES I AM REQUIRED TO TAKE OUTSIDE MY MAJOR?</p>