<p>From experience and here-say, which cluster is considered the easiest?</p>
<p>No cluster :P. That's what I did!</p>
<p>is it more strategic to NOT take a cluster, to get a good gpa?</p>
<p>sweetie... take what you want to take</p>
<p>No I don't think cluster/no cluster will have that significant of an impact on your GPA. My orientation counselor didn't really stress clusters so I didn't know that so many people take them... but I don't regret not taking one. It allowed me to take a large variety of classes, although focusing on one topic sounds cool as well. It's really a matter of personal preference.</p>
<p>why are clusters considered hard?</p>
<p>The IRD cluster was very easy IMO from personal experience. You do about as much writing the entire year as you would in some of those writing II courses (depending on the writing II professor). It would have been much easier than to have taken (I'm a science major) those 3 separate north campus GE courses and have to do all the reading and individual essays and all the midterms and finals for those classes at least for me (taking 3 separate classes, you're probably looking at at least 3 midterms, at least 3 finals, and countless numbers of essays compared to the IRD which has for the entire year only 1 midterm that is only a vocabulary test (yes just like in high school english almost) and only 1 final and I think 7 essays give or take). Even though there was a lot of reading assigned in the IRD course, you hardly had to do any of it if you paid close enough attention in class- I doubt most of the people in my discussion ever did the reading (from all the blank stares we give each other when our TA puts a question out there for discussion, which someone ends up deciding to BS about until she just gives us the right answer she was looking for). Not to mention the requirements it takes care of (a seminar requirement, as well as 15 honors units where 5 of those is from the honors collegium requirements)</p>
<p>if you're in honors, you get honors credit for taking a cluster. non-honors people do the same work and dont get honors credit. so thatsone of the reasons why its 'hard'.</p>
<p>its not really that bad. they all involve a lot of reading and critical analysis. i didnt really mind the first two quarters, but i'm really hating the seminar part. oh how i abhor the humanities/social science. :rolleyes: :(</p>
<p>The "honors" credit is just a bonus, you'll still get 3 ges done w/ or w/o being in honors, as well as the seminar requirement for L&S majors. Plus most people only sign up early on for the honors program to get the priority enrollment and just wait until they're kicked out of it for not getting any honors units along the way (which is sad because its not hard at all to fulfill the honors requirements, unless of course you're the dedicated type that wants to actually take real honors classes to get those credit and challenge yourself along the way).</p>
<p>Some of the seminars for the IRD class sounded terrible, but there were others where you got to go bowling at some racially significant bowling alley location, another one where you got to watch films/tv sitcoms that touched on racial topics, etc.</p>
<p>What cluster are you taking btw VTECaddict?</p>
<p>i actually hated my first two quarters and love my seminar. haha.</p>
<p>the 1960's cluster</p>
<p>how was the IRD cluster? like what do u guys do and whats it all about? also anyone know about the cluster that deals with evolution of life or something?</p>
<p>why don't you look at that brochure they gave you.</p>
<p>yeah i know what the gist of whats it about, but i want a more indepth view. like what specifically do they talk about and such, and what kinds of things you do in the class, whats for hw, etc. thanks</p>
<p>what's for homework? </p>
<p>why don't you ask for the professor's blood type, while you're at it.</p>
<p>how about finding out when you get there? there's nothing you can do now about it!!!</p>
<p>If you want to know about the topics they talk about, I'd look at the brochure someone said earlier to look at that they sent out. It's a year long course so they go over a lot of different concepts. The hw is basically reading (and essays when they're assigned), and posting "insightful questions" on the class message board that's graded. Oh and essays when they're assigned. </p>
<p>I think how well you enjoy a cluster will also depend on the TA you have, since the TAs grade all the postings and all the essays (the professors will only lecture, and I guess give advice on essays if you ever decide to go to their office hours). </p>
<p>Unlike the other clusters, the IRD one actually has mandatory movie screenings during the evenings (I think we had 4 or 5 for the year)- other clusters usually have optional screenings, if any at all. It wasn't so bad though because the movies they showed were interesting like The Siege that had Denzel Washington in it and American History X, and this year they showed Crash)</p>
<p>so who are the TAs? are they other college students, graduates or something?</p>
<p>TAs are graduate students, and they change every year</p>
<p>i have another question about clusters. does a cluster count for 3 or your GEs AND the writing ii requirement, or does the writing course only count as either a GE or writing ii? I was confused by the ucla website where I saw conflicting information about this. thanks for your help.</p>