<p>How hard is it to graduate on time if I'm in UCLA Engineering? I saw the brochure and it says that only 68% of students graduate in four years - the rest take usually 5 or 6 years.</p>
<p>I've heard a major factor that contributes to this is the number of weeder courses and how quickly the lecture classes fill up. Is this true?</p>
<p>It's not so much weeder classes that inhibit you from graduating on time... it's about whether or not you'll make it pass them to consider graduating!</p>
<p>yea, in the acceptance packet that got sent home, it gave the percentages of students who graduate after X amount of years...i'll be honest, i don't want to be in school for five years trying to get my bachelor's</p>
<p>its all up to you, really. i think the course loads for all the majors should be doable in 4 years, but they frequently require 4 classes a quarter. many people dont want to take 4 classes a quarter because of the workload, so they cant graduate in 4 years. also factor in possibility of failing/repeating classes and/or time/scheduling conflicts that prevent you from taking 4 classes even if you wanted and its easy to overshoot the 4 year mark. some people solve that problem by taking summer school to make up for it. those that dont make up for it with summer school end up staying longer than 4 years.</p>
<p>so it mostly depends on your major and how hard you want to work.</p>
<p>also MANY people change majors...and those that change to completely unrelated ones (like south campus to north campus or vice versa) will be more likely to have to stay longer than 4 years since the coursework they did for the old major doesnt fulfill any requirements for the new one.</p>
<p>graduating in 5 years is pretty common throughout the US...so it's not like UCLA is different from any other public university in that sense.</p>
<p>yes, you can graduate from engineering in 4 years. you might have to take some summer classes, but it's not that hard to do.</p>
<p>Hm, I don't mean to hijack your thread, OP, but this question made me think of another question myself. I'll be going into either bioengineering or materials engineering. How easy/difficult would it be to get a masters degree in 5 years?</p>
<p>
[quote]
Departmental Scholar Program</p>
<p>Exceptionally promising juniors or seniors may be nominated as Departmental Scholars to pursue bachelor's and master's degree programs simultaneously. Minimum qualifications include the completion of 24 courses (96 quarter units) at UCLA, or the equivalent at a similar institution, the current minimum grade-point average required for honors at graduation, and the requirements in preparation for the major. To obtain both the bachelor's and master's degrees, Departmental Scholars fulfill the requirements for each program. Students may not use any one course to fulfill requirements for both degrees.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>to clarify what constitutes honors:</p>
<p>
[quote]
Latin Honors
[...]
Based on grades achieved in upper division courses, engineering students must have a 3.892 grade-point average for summa cum laude, a 3.742 for magna cum laude, and a 3.615 for cum laude. For all designations of honors, students must have a minimum 3.25 GPA in their major field courses. To be eligible for an award, students should have completed at least 80 upper division units at the University of California.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>you can decide how difficult that is.</p>
<p>My Engineering major son is graduating in 4 years, he went to summer school between his soph and jr year, but only to take one class that he couldn't fit in due to scheduling conflicts. He normally took 4 courses a quarter.</p>
<p>Sample 4 year engineering class itineraries can be found here:</p>
<p>HSSEAS</a> OASA | Curricular Requirements and Department Information</p>
<p>By the way, getting your degree in 4 years will save your parents a boatload of money, which can then be spent for grad school, etc.</p>
<p>^ If your parents pay for your education. Otherwise, financial aid/scholarships/work FTW! Grad school...I thought it was paid for with some sort of package, at least for PhD? :confused:</p>
<p>UCLA Grad school is free if you win a Fellowship. </p>
<p>Funding</a> Opportunities for Graduate Students & Postdocs</p>
<p>Otherwise you (or your parents) have to pay even higher tuition than for undergraduate level classes.</p>