How much more rigorous is UCLA compared to community college?

<p>Hi guys I'm in community college now, specifically OCC. I am working hard to get into my dream school UCLA in the next two years. So I would like to ask people who started off first with community college and then get admitted to UCLA. How would the course load in UCLA compared to CC? For example, would 17 semester units in CC takes the same time to study as 13 quarter units in UCLA? How did you adjust your life and study habit after you get into UCLA? And I also would like to know all about academic life in UCLA. How much time you spend every day to do hw? Do you have to a lot of project for each class? etc. Thank y'all :)</p>

<p>I haven’t attended UCLA, but I think there are some considerations:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>As you get closer to graduation, you will be taking higher-level courses, which should naturally require more work and studying. Freshman-level courses are not usually as demanding as senior-level courses (depending on the subject and prof). So you may find UCLA more challenging in part because you are taking higher-level courses regardless of overall academic rigor.</p></li>
<li><p>It varies with the professor. Depending on what kind of CC you go to, you may have some excellent, challenging professors there who are very much on par with the demand at UCLA. You might also have some duds that are not preparing you at all for UCLA. In turn, UCLA may have the occasional dud. It’s always good to read reviews about your professors when planning your schedule to give you an idea of how challenging they may be. If you are concerned, take it easy your first semester there and see how you handle it. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>I attended a CC my first year and then transferred to a good, private LAC. I certainly noticed an increase in academic standards/workload, but it didn’t require me to change my study habits. I might have spent more time, but I feel that I developed good habits while still at my CC that transferred just fine to my LAC. If what you are doing is working fine for you now, it should be okay after transferring. You just might need to increase time spent.</p>

<p>If what you are doing is not working for you, see a tutor at your local CC to try and gain some better study tips and begin changing your habits.</p>

<p>I’d say i’m pretty qualified to talk about this (i’m graduating this friday.)</p>

<p>I’m a north campus (humanities) major and i’d say that the workload feels tripled, which might have something to do with you having 40% less time to do it (11 weeks vs 17 weeks, including finals week)</p>

<p>Some people get used to it, others don’t. Getting an A is considerably harder due to curves (i’ve been in classes where i’ve been one of only two people to get an A, although other people probably deserved it as well) and other stuff too. Some people are able to pull off 3.8s/3.9 gpas, but average (for my major, philosophy, and other writing majors) is generally around a 3.2 (i’ll probably end up graduating with about a 3.7x)</p>

<p>As far as time goes, that really depends on you. How much you get out of lecture, how quick you are to learn things, and what grade you’re comfortable with. The majority of my time was spent reading, but if i could read faster it would have been much easier for me.</p>