<p>Thanks again for the reply. I do get the GI Bill. The great thing about the GI Bill is that it is paid directly to the veterans so they can do with it as they see fit. So if I get a Regents Scholarship, it would help with tuition (along with a pell grant) and I could use the GI Bill for other school expenses and bills. The GI Bill is better than you thought! Our monthly pay is not reduced to 100 for the first year... we only PAY a 100 a month for the first year. 1200 gets you over 36000! I'm glad to hear about the Republican clubs at Cal and UCLA. I was kinda scared after reading Ben Shapiro's book about his experience at UCLA. But hey! He got into Harvard Law! lol. Even if I don't get the Regents I will be torn. I really don't know what to do. How competitive are the students at LA? To get a high GPA do you have to spend countless hours in the books or what?</p>
<p>Ben Shapiro was a complete nutjob. Smart, clever, able to use words in his favor 'till the cows came home, but nuts nonetheless. Trust me, I knew him. The guy was so Republican that anything that was even remotely unflattering toward America/Republicans was evil commie pinko professors trying to destroy freedom. Seriously, don't give him a second thought. This guy was so nutty that he got upset when someone asked a professor for a personal opinion, and got an unsavory (from his perspective) response in the end. He couldn't hear anything contrary to his beliefs, Republican or not. College challenges you to rethink yourself, so he didn't like it, decided that he wanted some cheese with his whine, and wrote a book that was full of innacuracies about how things work at UCLA. </p>
<p>Yes, there are liberals at colleges. Lots of them. There are also lots of conservatives. However, in the political science department at UCLA for example, every professor I had tried VERY hard to straddle the line. But some of the more vehement Reps can't even take a joke. One professor jokingly used the term "baby eating conservatives" in a sentence next to "tree hugging psycho liberals." The use of the former was taken to mean that he was some evil liberal indoctrinating the class, despite the fact that it was: clearly in jest, balanced out with a liberal identifier, so obviously out of line. However, that caused an uproar for days, and he finally responded with, "What the hell, can't you people take a joke? Do you even know my party affiliation?" Half the class called him Rep, the other half Dem. He responded, "Good. I thought so."</p>
<p>Some people, you will find at UCLA or Cal, cannot take a joke. They cannot have their views challenged either way. My professors actually tempered me, made me MORE CONSERVATIVE. Some people go the opposite route. Either way, there are thousands of idiotic liberals and conservatives at both schools. They all need to be smacked, because they annoy me a lot. My friend at Cal agrees. :p</p>
<p>Oh, and yes, you'll have to study like a fiend. I graduated cum laude with college honors, but had I put more work in I certainly would've graduated summa cum laude. I had other priorities, however.</p>
<p>Gattaca,</p>
<p>If you want to know more about how to avoid nutjobs at UCLA or Cal, feel free to IM me. I think it's in my profile, if not, I'll be updating it right now.</p>
<p>All of you may IM me, BTW. I'd love to hear from future Bruins!</p>
<p>Oh, and this Bruin thinks you're awesome for serving in the Navy. A lot of my friends are either ex-Marines, ex-Army, or soon-to-be JAGs, so it's always nice to meet new military-type-folk.</p>
<p>Thanks for the insider info on Ben Shapiro. It makes sense. He might have been crazy, but part of the problem must have been his age. He was really young when he went into UCLA. Young people like to get offended by everything. As for me, I'm conservative on some issues, moderate on some, and liberal on some. I just don't want to have to worry about writing a paper from a conservative point of view and being graded down. Ben Shapiro makes it sound like conservatives are made to walk the gauntlet lol. I agree, college is definitely about opening yourself up to new opinions. I'm a political science major, so I'm sure I'll run into a few crazy profs but I have handled them before. At my current school, my favorite professor who wrote all my recs is the biggest liberal on campus! We argue all the time and sometimes we even agree. But he told me I'd be fine wherever I go and that if I hold back my opions it will take away from the experience. Do you know how hard it is to get into UCLA's political science grad program?</p>
<p>Gattaca,</p>
<p>In a word: hard. For the most part, however, I'd seriously recommend against going to the same grad as undergrad. Professors agree too. Why? You already know what they have to say, it's not interesting after a couple of years! That, and you tend to give another dept. better depth of thought because of your experience elsewhere.</p>
<p>Hey, poli sci major, eh? I just finished with thems. Thinking back to my experience, I realize now that I had one professor who was patently unfair in his lectures. He was, however, a lecturer (and an unpopular one at that.) Every tenured professor I had was super duper careful to be as balanced as possible. UCLA political science is generally very quantitative in its methodology, so if you can provide data to argue your case, you'll do just fine. </p>
<p>One of UCLA's premier scholars, John Zaller, had this to say, "I kind of get offended when people insinuate that I'm pushing an agenda. The only agenda that I'm seeking is how these things work, and I just give you guys scatterplots, equations, and lots of numbers and let you explain it. If you're remotely correct, you do okay. If you can't even begin to explain it, then you don't do so well." He even came out and said before class started, "Unfortunately, the two texts I have for this quarter are a bit liberal. I'm very sorry, I didn't mean to push an agenda. I simply wanted you to get the public opinion parts of the texts. If something is an issue, approach me, and we'll talk."</p>
<p>Now, he made no effort to hide the fact that he was in fact a Democrat. But he did a good job goosing the Dems when they did stupid stuff. Probably even better than his pokes at the Reps.</p>
<p>Come to think of it, most of my friends/acquaintances argued that the profs in the poli sci dept. were too conservative/institutional...whatever that means. I thought they were nuts, but hey, I'm a moderate liberal, what do I know?</p>
<p>And really, is there any surprise when you take a class on Marxism offered by the Sociology Dept. that you're going to learn about Marxism?</p>
<p>Or, if you take a Women's Studies class, that you'll learn about the evils of patriarchy? I oftentimes think the campus uber-conservatives are just masochists, and love pain. It's like my liberal buddy who took a class in military studies, and got offended at the "sheer inhumanity of it all." No crap, Sherlock!</p>
<p>Coming out of UCLA as a poli sci major, what grad schools would you recommend? I heard UCSD has a great graduate poli sci program but that it's hard to get into. </p>
<p>-Thanks for supporting veterans... most college students don't care.</p>
<p>I read the Commy Manifesto once and that's enough. You've really cleared up alot of things for me. Cal had the slight edge over UCLA but now they are dead even in my mind. Now I'm really torn. :/</p>
<p>Gattaca,</p>
<p>Actually, Das Kapital is a much better read than the Communist Manufesto. I'm not a Marxist in my models, but I definitely enjoy reading whatever I can.</p>
<p>UCSD is excellent, but is also hard to get into. The trick to something like grad school is to keep good grades (I think a 3.6 or 3.7 or higher is good enough), kick butt on the GRE (800 quantitative, 700+ on the verbal) and have your professors speak personally with someone in the dept. you want to get into. It really helps if Professor so-and-so here speaks with Professor what's his name over there and says, "Yeah Bob, he's a great guy. One of the best I've run into." </p>
<p>UCLA is a great name in poli sci, so name dropping anyone there will really help.</p>
<p>After that, it's just showing them that you have a good reason for applying. Grad schools are interested in knowing that you know your interests. Remember, the PhD is a research degree, not a teaching tool, so you'll spend your time writing, writing, writing. They want to know that you know that.</p>
<p>Oh, and grad schools I recommend will largely depend on what you want to study...but as a broad list of schools that will get you a good job goes...</p>
<p>Harvard
Columbia
Stanford
Berkeley (eh...on some things right now.)
MIT
Chicago (very good in theory)
Michigan (they're very good at quantitative analysis.)
Duke
Princeton
Yale
Cal Tech is good sometimes
UCSD
Rochester has been surprisingly good lately
and a couple others here and there. I recommend you speak to a professor you learn to trust there and see what she or he has to say about your best bets. I don't know your field interests that well, so it's hard to say.</p>
<p>great advice, thanks UCLAri</p>
<p>i'm not sure if i'm correct on this, but i believe the bruin democrats were working on compiling a list of good poli sci professors and possibly a list of professors who leaned liberal. the PSSO (political science students organization) might've been compiling a list of good poli sci professors too. it's good to at least get a heads up from them (or anybody else) about your profs.</p>
<p>Interesting. I had never heard of that. I personally am not interested in personal politics from each prof., but the quality of their research and work in the class. There are so many good professors in poli sci, and so few of them have to resort to partisan hackery to be good.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Letters of rec play an important role in grad school admissions so it would be imperative to get to know professors that could write letters.
[/quote]
at any large public, the burden is going to be on your shoulders to make things happen. There are tons of resources out there and help available, but you have to make the first move. </p>
<p>So to get to know profs go to office hours. To get career assistance go to the career center. To meet other people get involved in anything -- clubs, band, the greek system, the Daily Bruin, you name it.</p>
<p>Agreed. It's really not that hard to get your name "known" as long as you at least try a little.</p>
<p>i really want to study abroad yet i was planning on being a RA one of my years. UCLAri, what do you think about being a RA for junior year and then studying abroad for a quarter or two during senior year?</p>
<p>How much do RAs pay for their housing?</p>
<p>
[quote]
How much do RAs pay for their housing?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>nothing. they get it for free.</p>
<p>Jason,</p>
<p>I think that's a good idea. However, keep in mind that EAP is usually limited to one quarter, the summer, or a full year.</p>