<p>My son has been accepted to UCLA and Wake Forest. UCLA has a student to faculty ratio of 17/1 - Wake Forest is 9/1. US News ranks both schools right next to each other - 27 and 28. My son is really torn. His biggest concern about UCLA is class size. Can anyone on this thread who is a current student please comment on class size? Also, on his visit to UCLA - he did the campus tour and spent two days on campus, a Sunday and Monday - he thought a lot of people on campus looked depressed/unenthusiastic.</p>
<p>P.S. He plans to major in either Biology or Bioengineering.</p>
<p>I'll be blunt - lecture sizes are very large. My lectures so far for lower-division courses, both for my major and GE requirements, have averaged about 125 in each lecture hall, with the discussion sections being about 20 in each classroom. Being a biology/bioengineering major will just compound the problem. If class sizes are very important to your son, then he shouldn't choose UCLA. He just might get crowded out.</p>
<p>Aim78: Class size is a factor; some students need that one-on-one discourse and a large class size can be detrimental. Some students prefer large class sizes and they excel in that environment.</p>
<p>Classes are large at UCLA; I'm not a student there (yet?), but I did take two classes there over the summer (which may or may not be the same thing). My world politics class was more than 200 students and my English class about 150. </p>
<p>Funny, a friend who refused to UCLA said the same thing about UCLA students; that they appear to not smile. My experience is different with UCLA students and I find them humorous, light-hearted, and serious when appropriate.</p>
<p>A minor correction, UCLA ranks 25 with Georgetown University in 2005 US News rankings.</p>
<p>Thanks, Eiffelguy - sorry about getting the rankings wrong but only by a few - but you can see how difficult the decision is for my son given that Wake Forest is only one notch below UCLA in the rankings.</p>
<p>yeah in my mind UCLA is perfect, <em>except</em> in terms of class sizes. I am somebody that loves to speak my mind in class and have active debates with people. i'm worried that it'd be impossible to do that in such large class settings.</p>
<p>discussion groups vary... some are good and some aren't worth your time going to. all depends on the TA. </p>
<p>intro and lower-division courses are usually in large lecture halls... ranging from 100-300 students. and dont believe people who say ucla has like 800 students in the lecture hall or whatever. i believe Moore100 is the largest lecture hall and it only holds 300 something. </p>
<p>but i heard it gets better when you reach upper-division, which are the courses that matter more. </p>
<p>meanwhile, you can take freshmen fiat lux seminars, which are one unit classes that is just the professor and 20 students, usually on a topic of the professor's interest. i recommend taking several of these.</p>
<p>Yeah I tend to agree that class size doesn't matter, but I guess it is a matter of personal preference. Personally, I like the huge class setting.
It goes along with what has been said before, that UCLA is a huge school, and there is no hand-holding. You have to be very self-motivated, and if you want something (academic counseling, help with classes, etc.), you have to go get it yourself. I absolutely love it, but I understand that some students excell in a smaller setting. The best thing would be to try to experience both - sit in on a big class at UCLA and a smaller class at a smaller university (obviously, Wake Forest probably isn't an option, but perhaps LMU), and see which he prefers.</p>
<p>As for people looking depressed, did he come during 10th or finals week? ;)</p>
<p>I go there every friday for immunopathology research</p>
<p>the lab is cramped and awkward, the campus seems like a series of tenement housing with a few "older" building which look nicer in the middle. There isnt a lot of affordable housing and there is always traffic. most students have to commute 30-45 minutes to get to the campus, then find parking space(very limited, often sold out!) and then make their way to the crowded lecture auditoriums</p>
<p>each friday I go, I am happier that I didn't decide to apply</p>
<p>actually, most students either live on campus or immediately adjacent to it in apartments, so no, there is no "30-45 minute commute". I'll grant you that housing is expensive around here (but sure as hell not any more expensive than where I come from), and parking is in short supply, but its a big city, what do you expect?</p>
<p>And which labs are you in? Personally, I think labs are designed to be cramped haha, but what do I know, I don't want to do research. Out of curiosity, are you in Gonda or MRL?</p>
<p>I'm doing research in the Factor building, floor 10</p>
<p>the 30-45 minute commute is what the grad student who I work with told me she has to do to get to her classes, she lives in university apartments and thus has to commute</p>
<p>but even if there is no necessity for the commute, all the apartments I've seen around hilgard, le conde, etc and the northwest corner seem like tenements</p>
<p>i'm just relating the frustration of one grad student</p>
<p>haha indeed - well, that does suck that you are in factor - I have to admit, those labs don't look all that appealing...but like i said, research doesn't interest me
yeah the apartments can be hit or miss - some of my upperclassmen friends really like their apartments. But one thing is guaranteed - they are all very expensive ;)</p>
<p>location is a huge factor in how expensive housing is here as well. There are houses by me (where i live, not my UCLA home) that go for in excess of $13 million. And while these aren't small houses by any means, if you took the same house and put it somewhere else, it wouldn't be worth nearly as much.
I suspect the same goes for westwood - its relatively close to the ocean, in LA, near a big university, and right next door to brentwood, bel air, hollywood, beverly hills, etc.</p>
<p>My son's class sizes are not large, but he's in a specialized program. Something else to consider: he spent a summer at the North Carolina School of the Arts (we're Virginians), and he hated Winston-Salem, where Wake Forest is located. He found nothing whatsoever to do there. He loves L.A. There's a tremendous difference in the two schools' surroundings: which does your son prefer?</p>