<p>Friday</a>, August 06, 2004:
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ucla is a large school that can seem intimidating at first. At its best attending ucla can be an exhilarating experience in which you make close friends, get a great education, have lots of fun outside class in parties, clubs, and so on, and which prepares you for entry into the working world and a killer entry job. At its worst you know few if any people, treat college as almost a "day job" in which you show up in the morning, punch the clock by attending large impersonal classes and taking test, and are dumped out at the end as just another resume in a big stack of applicants none of whom will even get to the interview stage...</p>
<p>Near-Term:</p>
<p>1)** attend orientation.** You get a much higher chance of getting the classes you want, you'll get tours of campus, and lots of information on the resources available at ucla.</p>
<p>2)** buy your books early.** For an extra $4 asucla will pull all the required books and have them waiting for you. Or if you want to save some money and buy used books get their early to get the best selection. "Early" means prior to the weekend before classes begin. The place is a zoo the weekend before classes start, and if you want until classes start some books will sell out.</p>
<p>To save lots of money on textbooks, consider ordering from Europe and having them shipped. Believe it or not, the very same book that costs $100 here sells for about half that in Europe via amazon.co.uk An article about this is at <a href="http://www.econ.yale.edu/%7Egh79/301_F03/html/books.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.econ.yale.edu/~gh79/301_F03/html/books.pdf</a></p>
<p>3)** walk to all your classes before the term begins** so you know where they are. Especially for new students the buildings and numbering scheme can be confusing...</p>
<p>4)** buy the lecture notes for all the classes that have them**. ASUCLA sells notes for the most popular lower-division and some upper-division classes. A grad student attends the class and takes the notes; often its a "bennie" the prof gives to one of her/his grad students so they can earn some extra money and the prof will review the notes for accuracy. You will probably be surprised by the speed at which material is delivered; you want to learn to take good notes, so compare what you capture with what an experienced student writes down listening to the same lecture...</p>
<p>5)** don't tape record lectures.** Some profs allow this, but its a bad crutch. First you're doing more work than the other people, listening to the same material twice. Second, as you move on to smaller classes far fewer profs will permit it... Bite the bullet and learn to take good notes, with the assistance of the ASUCLA lecture notes.</p>
<p>6)** introduce yourself to lots of people.** They're new, too, and they are probably just as anxious as you are. Just because someone looks calm and assured doesn't mean they feel that way inside; it may be just their "game" face. At the start of the year people are in the same boat, knowing few if any people and really willing to make new friends. The start of the year is not the time to immerse yourself in computer games or surfing the net, its the time to get to know fellow students. Get off of this board!</p>
<p>7)** don't let yourself get intimidated by others** who seem self-assured and act like ucla is going to be a breeze. I remember a chem class my very first quarter in which a few people who knew each other and were sitting near me were looking over the syllabus and loudly remarking how their chem class in HS had covered all the material, how this class was one for sure they'd ace, and so on. My HS was not that strong academically, and I just knew I was screwed. Although discouraged I tried my best and got an A on the first midterm and in the class. [Most of] guys sitting near me... dropped, and the rest got B's and C's.</p>
<p>8)** Learn to study better.** There are 2 books I will recommend every student should own, and this first one you should buy now and read over the summer. Its called What Smart Students Know by Adam Robinson, written by one of the founders of the test prep service Princeton Review. I have never seen a better explanation of the steps you need to follow to really <em>learn</em> the material, and if you've learned it well you will have no trouble with grades. ucla selects from the top 12.5% HS students, and for most people in this range they were never really challenged in HS. You will have to step it up a notch at ucla, and instead of learning it by trial-and-error why not read this book over the summer and come in prepared?</p>
<p>9) Optionally, read other books about preparing for college, such as The Everything College Survival Book. Books such as these will give you tips on dealing with money, roomates, social life, and so on.</p>
<p>Big-Picture:</p>
<p>1)** Take charge of your life.** ucla can be a large impersonal school, so you need to get involved to make it an enjoyable place. There are an almost uncountable number of options for you to do. Whether you participate in the greek system, student government, join some clubs, write for the Daily Bruin, work as a tutor or volunteer, go with friends to concerts or to watch teams compete, there are just so many ways to be active. But there is one key thing. Nobody is going to call you and ask/beg you to join their group. If you're the person who waits for someone else to make the first move you might want to consider changing this approach, because it just won't work for you at ucla. The opportunities are there galore, but you have to take the first step to discover them.</p>
<p>2)** For better or worse, you are attending a large state college.** You just aren't going to get the personal attention and focus that comes without effort to those at a small LAC. There are resources out there that can help (profs, counselors, tutors, advisors, etc) but you're going to have to go to them... You have to go to them. You don't have to be obnoxious... but you do have to be persistent and a self-starter. If you have questions, figure out who can help you answer them and then go see that person. If you don't know who can help you answer them, start by finding <em>that</em> answer. Your RA is a good source of advice on pointing you in the right direction. So for example if you're not sure of what you want to do when you graduate, the folks at the career center are happy to help but you can wait until usc is 1/2 the school as ucla for them to call you (in other words, ain't gonna happen).</p>
<p>3)** get to know some of your profs.** For one thing you may need recs for grad school or an employer, and they mean more if the person actually knows you. Once again, profs aren't going to invite you to stop by for a chat or to come over to dinner the way they might at a LAC. But they hold office hours, and you'd be surprised how many people <em>never</em> attend one except to argue about the grading on a midterm. And a prof who's seen students come and go can be a good source of advice in choosing a major, preparing for a career, etc.</p>
<p>4)** It's never too early to start thinking about what you'll do after ucla.** Sure, plenty of people <em>think</em> they know what they want. But stats show that only about 1/2 of the people who enter as engineers, for example, end up getting an engineering degree. Most students who enter college with the idea of being a pre-med don't go to med school. And sometimes people who enter a field not understanding it well end up regretting it; for example Forbes reported that 38% of the lawyers they surveyed regretted their career choice. So if you think you know what you want to do start testing that idea right away to make sure its a good fit for you. You can talk to take career testing, talk with alums in the field, get a part-time job or volunteer, do an internship. ucla has lots of resources to help you do all of this, but (have you heard this before?) you're going to have to make the effort to investigate.</p>
<p>5) get an internship. This is probably the single most important thing you can do to prepare yourself for a job after college... Internships leap out at companies reviewing resumes because it shows you have real-world experience in the area and know what you're getting into. Even in the tightest job market, a company that is hiring at all will almost always extend offers to those who have worked as interns. Think of it this way: if you interview on campus and then at the office, you've spent maybe 10 hours tops interacting with them. An intern spends a month or a summer. Who do they know better, who do they want to take a chance on? In a tight job market you'd probably have better luck finding a job with a 3.2GPA and an internship than a 3.7 with nothing on your resume but a list of classes. This brings me to the 2nd book everyone should own; its called "Major in Success" by Patrick Combs. Written in a casual tone, it offers example after example of how students parlayed internships and volunteer work into great jobs.</p>
<p>6)** Approach school (and life) with an optimistic attitude.** Studies have shown that the best predictor of success in so many fields is attitude. This is based on the work by Seligman and others, names you will learn in Psych classes. Want to predict which new salespeople will do best? Which 1st-year students at the US Army Military Academy will survive plebe year? An optimistic attitude is the key, and the good news is you can change yours if it isn't one of optimism. </p>
<p>See, for example, <a href="http://www.ihhp.com/positive_think.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.ihhp.com/positive_think.htm</a> At a large school like ucla you're going to have the same disappoinments at college students anywhere, but without the tight-knit community you might find at a smaller college. Help is out there if you look for it...
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