Choosing UCLA or CSULB? + Can I change my UCLA Major? + UCLA Anderson Grad School Que

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Los Angeles
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<p>Hello,</p>

<p>I am currently a high school senior, and I need help deciding which university to go to; I applied to three schools, and got into two (so far): University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA), California State University - Long Beach (CSULB), and the one I haven't heard from, University of California-Irvine (UCI).</p>

<p>I'm having a hard time choosing UCLA because I have some major/careers issues that I need to figure out. CSULB would be much easier to choose because it has less issues/conerns.</p>

<p>One of the reasons I'd like to go to UCLA is for its prestige. Its much more well-known then CSULB and UCI. Plus I've heard that prestige looks good on job applications + life in general (If you can answer me how true that is, that'll help too).</p>

<p>The bad side to UCLA is that I applied for pre-Psychology, and 2nd choice Sociology. I got into Psychology, but now, I feel like it's a field that I don't want to study. I've read that the Psychology UCLA offers are Cognitive, Neuro-something, and Clinical. I don't want to get too deep in the research field, nor health field (I don't think I can deal with stress of a psychologist/counselor--dealing with depressed/suicidal people; nor am I confident in giving relationship/future advice). I really would prefer Industrial/Organizational Psychology, but UCLA just doesn't offer.</p>

<p>The 2nd ucla major choice, Sociology, looks just like the Psychology, so I don't want to change into that major. I was looking into Communication because communicating-in-general is something that I want to be good at. If I want to change my majors, how hard/probable is it? I've read that you can change majors only during the Summer Orientation.</p>

<p>Either way, I wanted to go into the business-like field, most likely Human Resources or some sort of Management job. I've heard that you can get into the Human Resource field with a Psychology degree still, but would a Communications degree be better for such jobs. Also, can anyone tell me if Psychology degrees or Communications pay better in general?</p>

<p>An alternative is to try getting a double-major in Psychology and Communications at UCLA, however, I do not know the difficulty of that. How do I double-major, and what is the difficulty of it? If some of two majors have similar classes, would double majoring be easier? And would double-majoring in Communications/Psychology be a good idea? Especially for careers in the Human Resource/business fields?</p>

<p>The main reason why I'm considering CSULB is that I've already applied for the Human Resources major there, so maybe going into the business/Human Resources career would be easier.</p>

<p>Now onto the Grad School Question: Would the UCLA Anderson school of Business accept a UCLA Communication/Psychology major or a CSULB HR major? Does being in UCLA have an effect in getting accepted to the UCLA Grad school? Or is it the same if I tried applying with a CSULB?</p>

<p>These are my thoughts/questions for now. I'm sorry if they are jumbled up, but I guess I'm sort of confused right now. If you can answer any question or respond with anything, I'll greatly appreciate it.</p>

<p>-Thank you
Luxniom</p>

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<p>i didn’t even have to read the details of this question… dude, you gotta be kidding me, choose UCLA. better than CSULB in almost every way possible. UCLA is some people’s DREAM SCHOOL. Plus, you can EASILY switch majors once you matriculate in the school.</p>

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<p>Prestige will trump major in almost any situation, unless you are in a career specific field like engineering.</p>

<p>My example is for Berkeley, but it works for UCLA as well (my husband went to UCLA for undergrad and then UCLA Law School; no one ever asks him what he majored in college):</p>

<p>I got my degree in Landscape Architecture from Berkeley and it’s not even an accredited professional degree (not recognized by the American Society of Landscape Architects). Not that it matters too much since I’m not a practicing landscape architect.</p>

<p>Usually the conversation goes “I went to Berkeley” and then moves onto what I do (“I’m a college admission consultant”). People are generally impressed by the school name and forget to ask what I majored. I bring it up occasionally for a laugh (makes interesting small talk, “how did you go from landscape architecture to college admission consulting?”). But this is pretty typical for most alums I know (I attend and organize a few alum functions each year and I’ve heard of all sorts of bizarre career paths).</p>

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<p>I’m actually in the exact same situation as you in terms of choosing major/career path. I applied for pre-psych but I’m considering to change my major to sociology or communication studies since I want to work in the marketing field. I would definitely choose UCLA over CSULB thou, I personally like the broader theory-based education that UCs provide rather than the skill-based education of the Cal States. I think it’s the prestige of college & internship experience that get you the job, not the specific major.
I am going to LA this fall (it’s my dream school so it’s not a tough decision for me hehe), and I’m planning on taking classes that overlap in all 3 majors and decide which major I want to apply in sophomore year (I’m leaning towards Comm studies as of now). I think in the humanities department it’s not a problem to switch major, you just need to complete the requirements and apply.</p>