<p>I posted in the "College Search and Selection" forum, but I was informed I could get better responses here.
My two top UC's are Berkeley and LA, but I live about 15 or 20 minutes away from Berkeley and don't really feel comfortable going to college that close to home. Berkeley is usually considered the more "prestigious" school, although both are excellent schools (UCLA was more selective last year, I believe). I was hoping someone has (or had) experience with the UCLA Honors College. Preferably, I'd like to attend someplace with more student-professor interaction and smaller classes and I've heard honors colleges provide this. Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>i don't have any experience with the honors college, but i would honestly advise you to apply to smaller liberal arts colleges if you really want a lot of professor-student interaction. i'm not saying ucla/ucb don't have this, but if that's something really important to you, try smaller schools (like pomona or scripps)</p>
<p>good luck!</p>
<p>I'm applying to small liberal arts schools too: Haverford (~1200 ppl), Claremont McKenna (~1000), and possibly Bowdoin (~1700). I was just curious about UCLA Honors College because while money isn't a huge deciding factor, it would be nice to get a quality education for less than $45,000 a year.</p>
<p>Oh, and I'm a guy so attending Scripps would, well, be challenging, to say the least ;).</p>
<p>woops, well...think about all the ladies you'd get!</p>
<p>UCSC has a small college atmoshpere, similar to the system at oxford and cambidge. and you still get UC name prestige at UCSC. UCSC is a rising school and its SATs are higher than UCdavis (1050-1280 vs 1040-1280). why not consider to be banana slug??</p>
<p>okay looks like none of the honors kids are here over the summer...</p>
<p>bump this since i recommended the OP into this forum</p>
<p>if no one replies, then ill respond with what i know, but i'm not in the honors program (by choice)</p>
<p>Well I'm in the honors program but I haven't actually started it because I'm an incoming freshman. UCLA doesn't really have the type honors college I think you're thinking of with really small classes consisting of only honors students and honors dorms, etc. UCLA has an honors program where you are required to take a certain amount of honors units from honors classes per year and maintain a 3.6 or 3.4(I can't remember which) GPA. The honors classes I believe are smaller than normal lectures, but they are also open for enrollment to all students. The main perk of it is something to put on a resume and priority registration for classes.</p>
<p>I would imagine that priority registration would be nice at UCLA.
shinseki12, you have to apply to be in the honors program, right? I've checked out the website and I definitely meet the requirements to enter, but is it really competitive to get in?</p>
<p>UCSC over UCLA Honors?
You're going to have to try harder than that!
Slug On! :rolleyes:</p>
<p>I'm only applying to four UC Schools: Cal, LA, SD, and SB. I don't want to spend four years at either Irvine, Riverside, Merced, or Sacramento (Davis). As for UCSC, I heard they don't even give grades and so many people from my school go there, so a high school-repeat is out of the question. We have a lot of matriculations to LA and Cal too, but I'm still interested in those schools because they have excellent econ programs (potential major, not sure yet).</p>
<p>They actually invite you to apply for the honors program after you're accepted to UCLA. All you have to do is write a paragraph about what kind of research you'd like to do at UCLA. Supposedly if you're invited to apply and you write the paragraph (comprehensively, cohesively, co-somethingly; I can't remember the word I want to use but tell me the word if you figure it out), you're pretty much in.</p>
<p>If at first you don't get invited to apply after you get accepted into UCLA, I believe you can apply after a quarter or two? I'm not completely sure that works nor how selective that is.</p>
<p>Coherently?</p>
<p>I have to agree with aquasocks (not on the scripps part though...). If the student to teacher ratio is important to you, go to a private or LAC where you'll get plenty of attention w/ the small population.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I don't want to spend four years at either Irvine, Riverside, Merced, or Sacramento (Davis).
[/quote]
Davis != Sacramento.</p>
<p>yeah coherently was the word i was looking for. thanks flops</p>
<p>"Preferably, I'd like to attend someplace with more student-professor interaction and smaller classes and I've heard honors colleges provide this."</p>
<p>quagmire123, </p>
<p>UCLA doesn't have a seperate Honors College like you would think, and even if you applied for the Honors Program, it wouldn't guarentee you smaller classes...that really comes down to the sort of major you're applying for. You have to keep in mind that UCLA has some 35000+ students, and most of the lower div classes are huge lecture halls with 150+ students. You do get the smaller, 15 person atmosphere with the course discussions, and of course the classes get smaller and smaller as you start taking upper division courses. </p>
<p>What the Honors Program does offer you though, is the opportunity to do Honors Contracts with whichever professor you'd like, as many times as you'd like as long as the professor is willing to participate. This will give you an opportunity to meet with the professor one on one a few times a week, where he/she will discuss the material provided in class, go into extra detail not provided in class, etc. </p>
<p>Its pretty cool, I did one for my Greek Mythology class, and I sat around with the professor, comparing Greek mythology to the matrix and just casually talking about Greek Mythology and some of the stuff covered in class. I also got a few short extra readings that made the stuff make much more sense...and it helped me ace the class. I also had the opportunity to write a term paper for the professor, and she was more than willing to help me organize my thoughts, provide materials, books, articles, etc... that would help me with my paper. </p>
<p>There are also freshmen Fiat Lux Seminars, Honors Collegium courses, etc...and most professors make themselves readily available through office hours, so one on one interaction with professors shouldn't be a problem.</p>
<p>Anyway, I suggest you come to UCLA, be in the Honors Program, and do a few Honors Contracts. If you have any other questions about the Honors Program, let me know...i'm an Honors Fellow so I know the program pretty well.</p>
<p>Hope that helped.</p>
<p>Thanks so much, shebsmehr. Large classes don't necessarily bother me, as long as I can have some interaction with the professor (and evidently Honors Contracts provide this). As I mentioned above, I'm applying to small LAC's like Claremont McKenna, Bowdoin, and Haverford, but the UCLA Honors Program sounds like a nice alternative without paying upwards of $40-45K a year. I'll be sure to let you know if I need any more info. Thanks again!</p>