<p>I'm an incoming freshman for fall 2014 and I have a few questions regarding the honors classes at UCLA:</p>
<p>How much more difficult are they compared to the non-honors courses? In particular, 20AH Chem versus 20A Chem?
Are they much smaller in size?
Since I'm planning on going to medical school in 4 years, do med schools look at whether or not I took the honors route? </p>
<p>Thanks!! </p>
<p>Med schools won’t look at whether or not you took the honors class or not, probably 1) because many other schools don’t have an honors equivalent and 2) because the scheduling of 20AH is only in the fall. Some people may not have the chance to take it if they can’t get in in the fall or if the class fills up because it is much smaller than 20A. Tons of people take regular 20A and do just fine in med school admissions. </p>
<p>Secondly, I wouldn’t recommend 20AH if you’re planning to go the premed route. Not because of difficulty or anything like that, but because 20AH emphasizes very different subject matter than 20A. It might vary a little from professor to professor, but this past fall, I found that the professor concentrated mostly on quantum mechanics/chemistry and it would’ve been very mathematical in terms of solving wave functions and schrodingers equation and the like. I, myself, am going the pre health route so even though these topics were interesting, I knew it wouldn’t help me on the standardized test (e.g. MCAT). I took 20A instead and found it prepared me very well for ochem, as well as receiving a strong foundation of gen chem. </p>
<p>Could you elaborate on the exact difference in topics taught in the honors versus non-honors chem class?
Also, in regards to other honors classes available (math 32AH, LS 3AH, Physics 6 honors series), is it worth my time to take those? Or is the honors material useless as a pre-med?</p>
<p>I’m not sure what the exact differences in the chem courses are. I was only in the honors class for about a week and I didn’t keep the syllabus. But it focuses a lot on the more advanced concepts of chem that you’ll see more in upper division type classes rather than giving an intro to chem. I remember that there would be usage of calculus (differentiation, integration, maybe even partial differentiation?) and physics (gravitation, collisions, etc) so it’s a very quantitative type of chemistry class, more so than regular 20A. You can take it if you want but just know that the extra depth of material isn’t going to help you on the MCAT and when you study for the MCAT, you might have to go back and relearn that part of gen chem because you’ll skip over it in honors. Honors classes in college are nothing like honors classes in high school. You don’t get any bonus points or anything for taking them. I honestly don’t think it’ll be worth the effort to take 20AH. If you can, take 20A with Scerri and you’ll have a much more solid grasp on conceptual type thinking. Not to mention, he gives a little intro to organic chem at the end of the course which really helped in transitioning to 30A later on. </p>
<p>And as for the rest of the honors classes you mentioned, they don’t offer honors physics anymore, pretty sure they don’t offer LS 3AH (LS 3A isn’t offered anymore), and Math 32AH is intended for math majors. I would recommend not taking it because it is very proof based, which I personally hated. Even my professor for 32A put proofs on exams and I hated doing them because they were pointless. </p>
<p>Btw, what major are you?</p>
<p>I’m a biochemistry major.
Thanks so much for your insight! I’ll be sure to keep your advice in mind when selecting classes over the summer. </p>
<p>Also, what major/year are you? </p>
<p>Biochemistry entering 2nd year. I was in your same exact position last summer, thinking I’d want to take every honors class possible. But I quickly learned honors classes offer no advantage. </p>
<p>Just out of curiosity, how did you lay out your freshman year schedule and what classes do you plan on doing this upcoming year?</p>
<p>I took chem 20A, math 32A, and a GE in the fall. This was reasonable because I had a harder time adjusting to college than I thought. Winter, I took Chem 20B and 20L, a science class (not GE), and 2 fiat lux seminars. Spring I took chem 30A, LS 2, and another GE. The earliest I would recommend you take LS 2 is spring quarter because you can’t continue on to LS 3 unless you’ve taken 30A. You can take it sooner if you’re okay with the gap in your LS series. I’m probably not going to take LS 1 though because I hate the subject matter for the class, but that’s just me.</p>
<p>If ur at ucla and interested in research I’d highly recommend:</p>
<p>ucla biomedical research minor
CURE at UCLA
Innoworks at UCLA</p>
<p>@JustOneBruin Yes! I’m very interested in doing research and would love to start during spring quarter (if permitted) or next fall. Could you please provide additional details about the biomedical research minor (experience, pros, cons etc.) and CURE/Innoworks? Also, how easy or hard is it to get into a research group at UCLA?</p>
<p>Feel free to google any of those organizations and get more info (too lazy to describe them sorry!)</p>
<p>biomed:
pros
<p>cons
<p>cure at ucla (has application but not too competitive)
pros
<p>cons
<p>innoworks ill let u read up on the website. it’s actually an educational charity for underprivileged middle school students i was a mentor in and it was just a lot of fun so i like to promote it =D</p>
<p>In terms of getting into labs… though I did alright at UCLA, in hindsight I’d tell my freshman self to follow the below steps:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Ask yourself what science topic in science class did you enjoy reading/studying the most? Be honest, if you don’t like studying science, then don’t do research! Don’t just do it for ur resume or getting into grad/med school. Do what you enjoy and are passionate about, that’s number one.</p></li>
<li><p>Look up which labs at UCLA that are well-known for research in that topic. Having a good mentor is important in research. Sometimes this can be the lab of the department chairman/vice-chair. Or of a “distinguished professor.” BUT most professors without chair or distinguished designations are great as well so the key is to look for a good lab. CURE at UCLA helps with this b/c you can ask around about how supportive a lab is. How well-known ur PI is in his/her field of study also affects the weight of ur recommendation letter when u apply to med/grad school (but this shouldn’t be ur main focus at all, just a bonus). </p></li>
<li><p>(b) check SRP listings for labs researching ur interested topic and with openings.</p></li>
<li><p>Look up papers the lab has published (search the PI’s name is Pubmed or NCBI) and google the lab’s website - the PI’s name + lab (ie “Albert Einstein lab”). This is where CURE at UCLA helps a lot. Ur CURE mentor can help you with reading scientific papers and understanding the ongoing projects in the lab (which u can get from the lab website). Key is understand what exact projects the lab is running.</p></li>
<li><p>Prepare a CV. A CURE mentor can help with this too.</p></li>
<li><p>Send the PI an email of max 400 words (shorter the better cuz researchers don’t have time to read long emails) summarizing ur CV strengths and attaching ur CV. CURE mentors can help with wording ur email and figuring out which CV strengths to present in the email. I just finished working at a lab and my PI forwarded everyone at the lab on avg 5 emails per month from students… What happens is ur email will either (a) be ignored by the PI (in this case he/she is most likely not supportive and not worth ur time) or (b) in my lab at least (I don’t know about other labs) the PI will forward ur email in original wording to every researcher in the lab. Then, the postdocs/grad students will look at ur email for (1) a CV… if there’s no CV most post docs/grad students won’t have time to email u to ask for one unfortunately, (2) anything that stands out (ie a high gpa, sat score, interesting extracurricular - if you have any of these definitely write it into ur email to the PI - My name is X and I’m a X year X major undergraduate with gpa X, sat score X, and have experience working in X), (3) why ur interested in the lab - which is why its important to read papers and the lab website - if u can show u can understand their ongoing research to some degree it’s a plus.</p></li>
<li><p>Repeat until you get an interview chance from a lab (I had to send almost 20 or so emails to get into one my first year so don’t get discouraged if u dont get into the first lab u apply to).</p></li>
<li><p>Read papers and understand the lab’s ongoing research. Dress professionally and ace ur interview! CURE can help with this too.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>The biomedical research minor can help with the above steps as well.</p>
<p>I don’t recommend applying to and emailing a bunch of PI’s and applying to a bunch of SRP openings just for the sake of applying and having a chance to get into one, without looking into each lab’s research topic. Doing research just for ur resume or grad/med school isn’t the best mentality going into a lab. </p>
<p>Sorry for the marathon reply. Hope this can help a bit. Best of luck!!!</p>
<p>if ur premed i’d recommend googling the following as well:</p>
<ul>
<li>ucla emra</li>
<li>ucla mobile clinic</li>
<li>ucla student stroke team </li>
<li>ucla stroke force</li>
<li>ucla EMS</li>
<li>ucla gmt</li>
<li>Project nicaragua</li>
<li>global medical brigades</li>
</ul>
<p>I’ve been in mobile clinic and I will say that it cemented my choice to go MD only instead of MD/Ph.D b/c I couldn’t see myself doing more than 50% research. I’ve heard stroke team/force and emra are very good from friends who were in them. I don’t know about EMS but i’m sure its a great clinical experience - u serve as an ambulance EMT-1 for the entire UCLA campus. GMT is a global medical trip experience that was great (i took a summer trip with them my junior year). I’ve heard Project Nicaragua is good as well as a global experience. Global Medical Brigades is another option. </p>
<p>That said, being in any of the above organizations is completely OPTIONAL. Number one is find what ur shaped to do and do it… even it if that means leaving the medical track altogether (my friend decided to become a pastor). Of course, make that decision carefully if u do leave the premed track. </p>