<p>just watch your stuff. get a laptop lock, and be creative when it comes to other things (put your ipod in a pencil case or altoids tin when you aren’t using it). don’t leave anything valuable out in plain sight.</p>
<p>and faery, yes you should still apply for honors. it takes all of 30 minutes (or however quickly you can write 500 words) and you don’t lose anything by doing it. keep in mind, however, that priority doesn’t start until winter quarter, and that if you’re in a GE cluster you get priority even without honors, for winter and spring quarters.</p>
<p>better question: are they?? because my floormates were apartment hunting and they had apartments at like 600-700 dollars a month range, the lease has to be a whole year so that takes you to about $8000ish a year, plus utilities which can add up to like 500+, seriously cable internet is like at least 30 bucks a month+20 for cable tv+electricity, water, ac… then you have to add in food! if you cook that might be a bit cheaper but i think avg of 4 to 5 takeouts per week should be reasonable for college students so say you get 5 dollar combo from In N Out thats about 100 dollars a month+ food for other meals… if you live far from campus then you’ll need a car, parking=like 280 a quarter and gas prices are about 4 dollars a gallon… add all those up and see if apartments are SO MUCH cheaper or not</p>
<p>Apartments CAN be cheaper if you create a good budget. It all depends on your rent and your choice of living conditions. </p>
<p>It is probably only a few thousand cheaper than dorms, depending on how much you actually “save” living in the apartments.</p>
<p>Living on campus is a bit more expensive because there are hidden maintenance fees, building fees, and other fees that will help run the daily activities on the hill.</p>
<p>At least for the co-op university apartments, everything (mostly) is student led. It is cheap because they don’t have to hire people to clean up, cook, do chores. The money they save there is alloted to create a cheaper rent.</p>
<p>I’ve heard co-ops are pretty gross though (at other schools, maybe UCLA is different?)…i mean diff strokes for diff folks i guess, but make sure you check it out first.</p>
<p>I’m admitted for FALL, does that mean I can’t take summer school?
When am I able to meet with a counselor to plan my classes? Do people do that at UCLA, or is it more like you’re kind of on your own with planning?
Has anyone tried commuting long distances every day? I live like an hour away (maybe an hour and a half or two with traffic).. But I was thinking it might be worth it to save money.</p>
<p>for counselors they meet with you during orientation and after that you don’t have to go to the counselors to plan out your classes or anything, at least for me I just planned my schedule and another for backup(very important)… then just sign up for the classes yourself, counselors are so highschool like lol also i personally think you’ll miss a lot of fun if you live at home unless you are one of those who just sits in your room studying all day anyway…</p>
<p>for two summers, i did actually commute with roughly an 1-1 and 1/2 hour drive (roughly 70 miles) or more depending on traffic. for me, it was terrible. of course i wasn’t driving - i was taking the UCLA vanpools (cause i’d rather not drive on the 405) and at the mercy of the vanpool drivers… but, in any case, it wore me out. i definitely don’t recommend a commute that long. </p>
<p>you also have to take into consideration that many classes have evening review session and evening exams - which makes it a little difficult to attend sometimes if you’re commuting and want to beat the traffic home.</p>
<p>thanks so much everyone. i think i’ve pretty much decided to live there. i guess school is one of the few things in life that’s totally okay to be buried in debt for =]</p>
<p>I have a housing/roomate question. Im sorry if this sounds trivial but it really concerns me. My son is very social and therefore will be choosing the halls for his first year. He does not drink or do any drugs but most of his friends are drinkers and smoke weed ocasionally. As far as the housing question about a roomate that drinks or not, he wants to check the yes box for fear of “getting a nerd”. I have told him that since he will be in the halls with many non-nerds, he should hope to get a quiet non-drinking/smoking roomate so he can have some peace and quiet and not have to worry about the room partys, throw up, drug dealings, etc…am I wrong? Please tell me what you think. Thank you.</p>
<p>Agreed with your karagon7. A typical reshall floor has about 70 occupants. I imagine it would be slightly more congested seeing that we’ll have a similar scenario of previous years where many freshmen were cramped like sardines in triples. “Very social” <– he should have no problem in the reshall. In any case, there are study rooms on the floor if he needs to seek refuge…</p>
<p>^I should clarify my point: My son has not filled out the housing form yet but will before the weekend is over. Since he specified the importance of roomate match over room choice, I feel it would be in his best interest to check the non-drinking roomate box. He thinks it’s more important to have a ‘cool’ roomate and said he will just punch him if he gets out of hand. :(</p>
<p>if he knows the person he is going to room with then there is no point of checking non drinking box since they just room you with the person you want instead of taking one from the pool that matches his choices… but on the other hand if he is trying to get someone random then I say answer the questions by if he does it or not… chances are your kid is going to drink and/or smoke a little bit in college… if you don’t check the drinking roommate box doesn’t mean you’ll get a nerd roommate (since nerds tends to go to suites or quiet plazas anyway) I didn’t check the drinking box on my app but me and my roommates have one or two beers here and there and it all works out fine also just because they drink or smoke doesn’t mean they are “cool” i met a few people who are just jerks about how much alcohol they can take and how often they smoke…</p>
<p>as far as roomie thing goes… it is definitely best to say what you are, and not fill out your app based on who you want/don’t want.
my mom thought it would be a good idea to say i kept my room “very neat” so i wouldn’t get a total slob. instead, i ended up with two neatniks and that made me look like the messy one! (not to mention they kept “organizing” my stuff FOR me… when i wasn’t there…)</p>
<p>if he checks yes, he may end up with someone else who checked yes because they already drink/smoke/etc. and if they already do, what’s to say college isn’t going to increase this behavior? in my mind, it’s better to stick with someone who doesn’t drink/smoke and may just experiment in college, instead of already having a history…</p>
also just because they drink or smoke doesn’t mean they are “cool” i met a few people who are just jerks about how much alcohol they can take and how often they smoke…</p>