Need help choosing your courses?

<p>

  1. Determine your major’s requirements. For more information about the major and various programs affiliated with it, see “List of Requirements by Major” below. Also, Most of you are probably in the [College</a> of Letters and Sciences](<a href=“http://www.college.ucla.edu%5DCollege”>http://www.college.ucla.edu). Look specifically at the lower-division requirements.</p>

<li><p>[Determine</a> whether or not you have passed out of any introductory classes through AP or IB exams.](<a href=“http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/Prospect/APCredit.htm]Determine”>http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/Prospect/APCredit.htm)</p></li>
<li><p>[Check</a> out UCLA’s degree requirements.](<a href=“http://www.registrar.ucla.edu/catalog/catalog08-09-22.htm#131385592_pgfId-7864]Check”>http://www.registrar.ucla.edu/catalog/catalog08-09-22.htm#131385592_pgfId-7864)</p></li>
<li><p>University Requirements</p></li>
<li><p>College Requirements (CL&S, HSSEAS, SAA, TFT, Nursing, …)</p></li>
<li><p>Department Requirements (This is essentially your major’s requirements - lower and upper division. Plus, there are other options involving specialized concentrations within the major or Honors related programs involving your area of study - departmental honors, for example or some research initiatives.)</p></li>
<li><p>Check out the GE requirements for your individual school (see links below) Become familiar with the notation and the foundation areas and sub-foundation requirements.</p></li>
<li><p>For a consolidated understanding of everything you need for completing your degree, go to URSA and click on “Degree Progress Report.”</p></li>
<li><p>If you’re in the honors program, you’ll also need to be aware of those requirements as well. See “College Honors Program” below. If you’re in the engineering school, you can’t graduate with CHP honors. </p></li>
<li><p>Essentially, for most majors, your Orientation Counselor is going to recommend that you take 2 of your major requirements (lower-division) with a GE class. OK, so you know what you need to take for lower-division - how do you find your GE classes? [Click</a> here.](<a href=“http://www.registrar.ucla.edu/schedule/gesearch.aspx]Click”>http://www.registrar.ucla.edu/schedule/gesearch.aspx)</p></li>
<li><p>Go to MyUCLA and select “Class Planner” on the left-hand side. Go ahead and select the GE/Major Classes/Foreign Language/English Comp. 3 classes and find the best possible schedule.</p></li>
<li><p>Remember to take into consideration your professors for the classes - multiple professors frequently teach the same class within a quarter especially if it’s a huge lecture introductory class. For this you can consult BruinWalk to get an idea of what they’re like. See links below. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>Here are the links cited above:

[ul]
[li][Registrar</a> Schedule of Classes](<a href=“http://www.registrar.ucla.edu/schedule/schedulehome.aspx]Registrar”>http://www.registrar.ucla.edu/schedule/schedulehome.aspx)[/li] [li][List</a> of GE Requirements by School](<a href=“http://www.registrar.ucla.edu/ge/]List”>http://www.registrar.ucla.edu/ge/) [/li] [li][List of Requirements by Major](<a href=“http://cis.ucla.edu/studyarea/”>http://cis.ucla.edu/studyarea/</a>)[/li]–> @8:49am [07/11/08] It’s having “technical difficulties.” But it’ll clear up… eventually. At any rate, in that case, go to the Registrar and find your department and go to their website to determine their individual major requirements.
[li][Degree</a> Requirements](<a href=“http://www.registrar.ucla.edu/catalog/catalog08-09-22.htm#131385592_pgfId-7864]Degree”>http://www.registrar.ucla.edu/catalog/catalog08-09-22.htm#131385592_pgfId-7864) [/li] [li][Information About Being Pre-Med and Pre-Law](<a href=“http://www.career.ucla.edu/”>http://www.career.ucla.edu/</a>) [/li] [li][BruinWalk[/url</a>][/li]–> Take some of their opinions with a grain of salt… usually, if there are enough reviews and ratings, I consider that ones with the most extreme lows/highs to be generally accurate… usually though, I’d sit in on classes to determine for myself if I’m OK with that professor/course.
[li][url=&lt;a href=“http://www.ursa.ucla.edu%5DURSA%5B/url”&gt;http://www.ursa.ucla.edu]URSA[/url</a>][/li] [li][url=&lt;a href=“http://www.orientation.ucla.edu/]Orientation[/url”&gt;http://www.orientation.ucla.edu/]Orientation[/url</a>][/li][li] [url=&lt;a href=“http://www.registrar.ucla.edu/schedule/dept.aspx]Department”&gt;http://www.registrar.ucla.edu/schedule/dept.aspx]Department</a> Links[/li][li] [url=&lt;a href=“http://www.ugeducation.ucla.edu/honors/]College”&gt;http://www.ugeducation.ucla.edu/honors/]College</a> Honors Program[/li][li] [url=&lt;a href=“http://www.registrar.ucla.edu/schedule/gesearch.aspx]Search”&gt;http://www.registrar.ucla.edu/schedule/gesearch.aspx]Search</a> Option for GE Courses](<a href=“http://www.bruinwalk.com/portal/index.asp]BruinWalk[/url”>http://www.bruinwalk.com/portal/index.asp) [/li]

[/ul]</p>

<hr>

<p>Post any questions regarding the above and about how to form your schedule or for insights about course load combination. There are people on the board who are doing CHP, plenty of engineers, pre-meds, pre-laws, and a good number of CL&S students of course. I don’t think there are TFT/SAA students here really… at least, they’re in the vast minority. </p>

<p>Addendum: For those interested in double-majoring, you’ll need to check out the individual requirements for the majors, see if there are overlaps, and then, plan your overall schedules accordingly… while considering whether you want to graduate in 3 or 4 or even 5 years with possible consideration of taking summer sessions to fulfill those requirements… this generally applies to taking on minors as well. Also, there are majors that are “impacted” which means that it’s competitive to get into those programs. Some examples include: Business-Economics/Accounting, Communications, Film, etc.</p>

<p>Bring up my thread.</p>

<p>mme-lin's so ballleeeeeeer.</p>

<p>More like, I have no life.</p>

<p>Watch what you say chica, all the negative energy's going to flow to me too. lool</p>

<p>*** WAFFLES. Speaking of waffles, I love pandan infused waffles with coconut shavings.</p>

<p>Bring up my thread - seeing that we have an endless number of questions about schedule-making!</p>

<p>I'm not sure if you intended for this to be a place for questions, mme-lin, but I thought it would be best to ask for advice here.</p>

<p>I haven't attended orientation yet, but the classes I have planned for my schedule are:</p>

<p>Chem 20A (Scerri)
Math 31A (Song)
Comm ST 10 (Suman)</p>

<p>Does this look okay for a Biochemistry major's first quarter? There are so many other GE classes I prefer over Comm ST 10, but it was the only open one that somewhat interested me. All of the others had people on wait lists. How likely is it that I would get into the class I want if I decided to put myself on a wait list?</p>

<p>Thanks in advance, and a million thanks to mme-lin for preparing this wonderful thread. It really helped me.</p>

<p>My intentions exactly. </p>

<p>For what reason are you taking Comm ST 10? It's a lot of memorization and considered a 'weeder' (not to scare you off). Your schedule is typical though. </p>

<p>GEs will open up rapidly. I highly recommended SEASIAN ST 1 or History 9E with Woods. I've taken numerous classes with him and he is by far one of my favorite professors here. I'm taking the latter so I would be willing to help you out if needed. </p>

<p>No problem with creating the thread - just here to help.</p>

<p>Comm ST 10 was the only open course that sounded marginally interesting. There were so many other GEs that I wanted, but my top choices were either closed or full (with open wait lists). However, I'm not sure if I want to put myself on a wait list because I don't want September 25 to come around with me sitting there with only two classes. I think I want to spend the rest of my summer certain of my schedule. But I will look into your recommendations. Thank you.</p>

<p>mme-lin, I'm taking Comm St 10 as an English major. Should I switch to another GE?</p>

<p>Test it out if you like it but if it isn't imperative that you take it, I would bypass it for the sake of your fantastic GPA.</p>

<p>What about the History of Rock and Roll?</p>

<p>Go for it.</p>

<p>Do people waitlisted for a class usually get into it? Is there a specific process you have to go through to make sure you're enrolled in the class you want?</p>

<p>And what exactly is an "impacted" course?</p>

<p>this should be stickied</p>

<p>...is it reasonable to schedule a 17+ unit first quarter schedule for an incoming freshman for the sake of getting sophomore standing for second quarter?</p>

<p>What's your major dontcha? Most majors aren't demanding enough that they would mandate sophomore-standing for your second quarter... </p>

<p>As for waitlisted classes - generally yes but often depends on your department. It's a complete pain to get into political science courses. You just have to wait and see if people drop their courses so that you can officially enroll. Or, if your professor/TA is kind enough, ask them for a PTE# to override waitlist restrictions. </p>

<p>An impacted course is a high-demand course - like the Writing II courses during the school-year. They require a drop by week 2 or you get penalized on your transcript.</p>

<p>...right now, i'm pre-biz econ but could go Applied Math, Applied Science, Math/Econ, etc. etc.</p>

<p>Just take 3 classes fall quarter. It won't be a big deal especially if you don't have monetary concerns regarding graduating earlier. If you're feeling extra-ambitious, you can just drop the fourth class by 4th week without penalty assuming it's a non-impacted course.</p>