<p>Just to clarify, you’re interested in applying to the major pre-economics at UCLA? Not Business Economics or Math Economics?</p>
<p>It really depends on what your goal is whether or not completing the TAP requirements would help. From what I understand, TAP doesn’t really make a significant difference in terms of admission. I didn’t TAP last year and was admitted to the major Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology even though my GPA was very slightly lower (.04) than last year’s average. So in that regard, not having TAPed didn’t make a difference for me. What I understand is that if you TAP, you’re guaranteed to be evaluated for your second choice major, which can be helpful if you’re applying to a really impacted major like bizecon or pre-econ. However, if you’re only interested in one major and wouldn’t be considering UCLA if you didn’t get accepted to that major, it would be pointless to you. It could work to your advantage though if you wanted to apply to say bizecon (avg admitted GPA 3.93) and then choose a less competitive major like Math Econ (avg admitted GPA 3.71) as your alternate as you would have a higher chance of getting in the second time around to the less competitive major. </p>
<p>In all honesty though if you maintain a 4.0 throughout your college career I think you’d be fine without TAP. I think there are a lot of things that get considered before TAP that are really going to be the determining factors of your admission. So if you have a 4.0, you’re going to get accepted or rejected on the basis of pre-reqs, extracurriculars, or your personal statement, not whether you did or didn’t TAP. In my mind having a 4.0 whilst taking 15+ units a semester already proves your successful study habits and that you’re capable of a college workload. </p>
<p>As far as the workload taking honors classes, I took 3 at my CC and I can say I didn’t see a significant difference in difficulty between honors and non-honors classes. In many classes, at least the science courses, honors and non-honors students were mixed into the same lectures/labs with the honors students just having to complete extra readings and assignments that didn’t seem overly difficult. Also for the classes where the honors students were separated into a completely different course, the workload was harder, but the instruction was generally better so it balanced out. I took an honors biology, english comp, and calculus II course and I wouldn’t say that any of them made my 15+ unit schedules significantly more hectic. Sure I may have spent a few more hours a week because of extra assignments, but the difficulty was about the same. All of that said the difficulty of any class, honors or not can vary on many factors like the professor, the CC you take it at, etc. so just be aware of that. Sometimes, the professor teaching honors classes are the best instructors; sometimes, they’re just the most critical graders. </p>
<p>So, it’s completely subjective. If I were in your position, I would start out by taking one honors course next semester and see how it goes. If it seems like too much work with your schedule, don’t worry about TAP and just try to get the highest GPA possible. If it seems manageable stick with honors so that you can transfer with the advantage of TAP.</p>