Hi! I wasn’t sure whether to put this under Summer Programs or UCLA, but hopefully it’s in the right place.
Has anyone had any experience with the UCLA Summer Sessions while in high school?
I’ll be a rising senior and would appreciate if you can all give a detailed description of your experience.
Here are some questions you can answer
What courses did you take? Were they really hard and unmanageable? What was your favorite part about your whole UCLA summer session experience? How was the housing? What activities were there to do on campus during the weekend/down time on the weekdays? Did you leave campus during the weekend/where did you go/were there organized field trips? Are there a lot of other high schoolers (was it easy to meet other high school students to hang out with)? What was different from your expectations? Do you regret it/would you do it again? Was it worth the money? Other info?
Thank you so much for your help! I really want to do Summer Sessions at UCLA and want to get input from others first!
Hey, I will be a rising senior and I am curious about this too. Are you talking about the UCLA Summer Institutes or some other pre college program that UCLA hosts on their campus?
@plasticvalley@mirandaf@rose43 Yeah! I am doing the Session A (6 weeks) and living in the dorms. They only allow you to take roughly 2 classes as a high school student which I am worried will leave me with all this free time and nothing to do.
Also, are the classes hard? I want to reach out and show that I am taking college classes at an amazing university (my top choice for college) but if I dont do well it may harm me in the college application process.
@kitkat01 I think I’m 85% sure I’m going. I was worried not other high school students would be living in the dorms so I’m glad that I know of at least one other person who is doing it. Do you know if there will be activites for us on the weekends/planned trips to various places in LA? When I emailed someone who was in charge of summer sessions, she said taking 2 classes is definitely not too much, but at the same time I’m sure we will be busy with homework/projects. There’s also the recreation center/library. Any free time I have I’ll also be using to do summer homework for school as well as starting my college apps. Which classes specifically are you looking at? I was looking at one of their computer science classes and have so many options for the second one
YES! Be my friend… lol. I am so glad I know someone else going. I am thinking about Physics just because I would like to have another physical science under my belt. I have not taken physics in high school so this could potentially be a bad idea. I would like to get some gen-eds out of the ways but on the other hand I am very intrested in some of the communications classes such as intro to philosophy of the mind or understanding relationships just because it seems so interesting. As for the weekends, I dont think they offer trips. I could be wrong but it isnt like a summer camp, which I love because it means it is much more independent and unsupervised. I have some friends in LA that I might do stuff with on the weekends. I am also hoping to make some friends who may be from LA and have a car so I can see more of the city.
@kitkat01 I was also thinking of taking physics! Even though they don’t supervise trips, I’m sure I’ll make some other friends friends that will want to explore LA during the weeeknds. I don’t think my parents will let me bring my car (I’m from Northern California) but when I toured this weekend they mentioned that their public transportation is really helpful.
@mirandaf I am from out of state so I wont be bringing a car but if you decide to go, Im sure public transportation will be easy and cheap for students. Have you decided whether or not you are going to do the summer sessions and which one you would do?
@kitkat01@mirandaf sorry I somehow totally missed all replies to this thread! I was only planning on taking one class but would this seem like I’m not pushing myself enough? I want time to enjoy my summer and work on college apps + hw. I also know myself and that I’m a pretty bad procrastinator so it’d be a lot harder to balance multiple things. I’d be living on my own in an apartment my cousins own with a car (I’m driving down from NorCal) for reference, but I’d probably use public transportation more. I’m still not completely committed to this and its more of a backup plan than anything. I don’t really want to spend my whole summer studying for finals, but this is a way I’ll have a reason to spend time at UCLA (my dream school too!)
Hi! @flinda I am doing the 8-week summer session and I would love to talk to you. I am so excited! UCLA is my dream school. 39 days til I leave for LA!
Hi @plasticvalley I am for sure spending the summer at UCLA doing the 8-week program. If you decide to do it, I’d love to get to know you and maybe meet you sometime when I am in LA
Hi!
I just finished attending UCLA summer sessions during semester A and took prelacy and psychobiology. Neither of the courses were unmanageable and I balanced a heavy social life on top of getting good grades. As long as you go to parties and socialize I promise your time there will be a breeze. The night my parents left I went to a party in the treehouse and met a lot of ppl that helped me while I was there so I would definitely recommend walking frat row on friday nights if you’re out there alone. Also, the classes were pretty easy and light on homework.
