<p>
very good advice. I'm a Biochem major and I really wanted to take the Biotech cluster, but I'm in the 60's cluster (yawn!) since it gets rid of my Literary/Social analysis GEs.</p>
<p>Thanks for the reassurance about out-of-staters fitting in; I really appreciate it!!</p>
<p>My daughter was just accepted to UCLA. We visited this weekend for the first time, and we were very, very impressed with everything. She has some concerns about the large classes though and was wondering about the English major. Does anyone here have any thoughts on class size (both lower and upper division) in the English department and does anyone have any impressions about the English faculty or creative writing concentration? She would love to communicate with someone in the major, so any contacts would be appreciated.</p>
<p>large class sizes are pretty much universal among public universities. huge lecture classes arent that bad. all you have to do it sit down and take notes, who cares how many people are sitting around you? you usually have discussion sections anyways, which is usually 30 or less people per class. if you want to get that one on one factor with the professor, you can always goto office hours.</p>
<p>My daughter is a senior at USC, a Biology major. I was a little surprised to hear that one class of hers this semester has 75+ students and the class is being taught by a grad student. The professor sits in on each class but has yet to speak. We had dinner with her and several of her friends, also seniors and this is common at USC they say. So it's not just at the "big public universities."</p>
<p>what exactly is cluster???</p>
<p>A cluster is simply a set of courses. It is a year long course focusing on one broad topic and is often interdisciplinary.</p>
<p>Are freshmen required to take a cluster?</p>
<p>
[quote]
Are freshmen required to take a cluster?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>nope - totally optional</p>
<p>no, you have the option of taking one. if you want to join a cluster, you must enroll in it for fall 06. you can drop it anytime, but you can't start in the middle of the sequence.</p>
<p>clusters are year long. fall and winter quarters are lecture and discussion. spring quarter is a seminar, focusing on a more specific topic. clusters get rid of 3 GE requirements (exactly which ones will depend on your cluster), and also give you writing II/seminar credit, as well as counting as honors classes if you're inthe honors program.</p>
<p>I'm taking biotech despite being a science major. Any other cluster would kill my GPA. I'm just satisfied that it takes care of Writing II, seminar, and almost half of the honors requirements (15 of ~40units and 1 of 2 collegiums).</p>
<p>I would say take the cluster that is of most interest and perhaps if you are satisfied with stuff it takes care of. I wouldn't waste effort on a class that you don't like for the entire year.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Are freshmen required to take a cluster?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>nope - totally optional</p>
<p>Here's a link to the most popular GE clusters in past years:
<a href="http://www.college.ucla.edu/ge/clusters/%5B/url%5D">http://www.college.ucla.edu/ge/clusters/</a></p>
<p>What does it exactly mean when they say the cluster gets rid of "3 GE requirements?"</p>
<p>Sorry, I'm still kind of confused about UCLA's GE req</p>
<p>Well basically the GE requirements consists of 10 courses under various categories (9 of them unique). A cluster would fulfill 3 of those (which 3 depends on the subject of the cluster).</p>
<p>Personally, I don't think that's a selling point because it's 3 quarters long. So that's one GE class requirement satisfied per quarter, which is the same as any other GE class.</p>
<p>there's a thread devoted to Clusters that fields these questions</p>
<p>socalpatty,</p>
<p>Do you mind telling me what class you daughter is in? I just can't believe that is common. I may take some opportunity to see that myself.</p>
<p>O Chem is one, I believe physiology the second. Have no idea about the 3rd.</p>
<p>any of of staters going to UCLA? if so, how did you manage the exorbitant OOS fees to go to UCLA? I want to go very badly, but it's sooo much money for my family. ugggh.</p>
<p>How hard is it to double major in Bizecon and Mass Communications?? Do many people do it, if yes, do they survive?</p>