How strict is unit max?

Colleges & Universities A-Z University of California - Los Angeles
1

<p>I know UCLA has a unit max in an effort to get us all to graduate in 4 years, but how strict is it? What if, come senior year, there is no possible way I can finish my major in time? Are there safeguards along the way besides just the ECP totals? I mean, technically, you could just declare a major and not take any classes that fulfilled major requirements, which would then force you to delay graduation. </p>

<p>I'm asking because I've heard it's hard to get minors approved late in your college career for fear that you won't grad in 4 years. I was wondering if you could just take all the classes for the minor first, without declaring the minor, and then declare it after you've finished the classes. Then, if you needed to go over the unit max, you could claim adding a quarter or two is necessary for your major, instead of trying to petition for more units with the reasoning that you wanted an extra minor. Is this reasoning correct?</p>

2

<p>Usually OK if you manage to graduate in four years. If not, petition and beg Murphy Hall.</p>

3

<p>I considered petitioning, and they told me that unless I have a VERY good reason to petition for more, I was looking at an extra 4 to 8, tops.</p>

4

<p>Really? It's kinda weird - one of my friends does bio research and is graduating with an excess of 50-75+ since she has at least 6 units of research per quarter... she will graduate on time, however.</p>

5

<p>Oh, well... research is different. You're a benefit monkey for the university. Whereas if it's just classes you want to take... well... you're just deadweight loss.</p>

6

<p>benefit monkey... hehe.</p>

<p>but why should they care if you take extra units within the four years? it's not as bad as sticking around another quarter, is it?</p>

7

<p>When the university advertises the average time to graduate is x years, they want x to be closer to 4 than 5. Think there was another major reason behind the unit crap but I can't think of it off-hand</p>

8

<p>Actually the reason why that person doing research was able to get her excess units approved is more so because she is able to fit everything into 4 years and less so because it's for research. Getting approval for increasing your unit max so long as you graduate within 4 years is pretty easy, but getting approval for going beyond your four years requires a VERY good reason why.</p>

<p>Here's the information about the neuroscience minor from their website, which is pretty universal for all the minors at UCLA:</p>

<p>
[quote]
Students may add the Neuroscience minor if it does not cause them to exceed their unit maximum. If they will exceed the max, students must first file a petition with the College of Letters and Science to raise their unit max.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>The petition requires a quarter by quarter listing of all classes you will take until you graduate, that must be signed and approved by various people, including your current major's counselor who will only sign if he/she believes it is a feasible plan (i.e. your counselor will see right through you if you are listing 6 classes a quarter with the intent to only take 3 to get your plan approved since they will be well versed in your major requirements and know how much coursework is reasonable to take per quarter). If your plan goes beyond 4 years, then Murphy may or may not approve (most likely not), and if they don't approve, you will never get recognition for the minor even if you take all the courses required for it. If you need to go over your max but will finish in 4 years, you have a pretty good chance of getting your petition approved.</p>