Poli Sci at UCLA

<p>Is political science impacted at UCLA and if so, how much does that affect transfer admissions? Anyone have stats for Applied/Admitted/Enrolled for particular departments?</p>

<p>I got in with a 3.4 so I doubt it was that impacted this year usually my gpa would have been borderline if not rejected</p>

<p>were you in TAP?</p>

<p>Yes, it is impacted. Yes, he is in TAP.</p>

<p>if i'm not in TAP but I go to a community college in san diego is it gonna make that big a difference if i have a 3.8 or above?</p>

<p>Yeah TAP and IGETC certified with all the breadth requirements completed I noticed they were pretty strict about that across the board</p>

<p>Well I will definitely have IGETC completed. I meant would not having TAP available to me hinder me much?</p>

<p>not so much TAP is not as important as IGETC or major pre-reqs and ofcourse major the social sciences not as tough to get into as the hard sciences and biz-econ. If you get in as an econ major you deserve all the money you will be making because to say that it is highly selective is a great understatement</p>

<p>UCLA poli sci majors have you thought about your emphasis?</p>

<p>so poli sci at ucla is hugely impacted or slightly? what about berkeley?</p>

<p>I would say the Berk poli sci is a bit more selective.</p>

<p>Deciding between International Relations and American Politics...but at the state of our politics today...eh. You?</p>

<p>I prefer american politics</p>

<p>I started at UCLA with an IR emphasis, and switched to comparative. </p>

<p>I also did a lot of American. </p>

<p>I personally enjoyed comparative because I got a lot of American political analysis while also learning about other countries. However, I'd say that at UCLA, American is the strongest emphasis. After that, comparative/method, theory, then finally IR. All are top 10, but American particularly shines with the work of John Zaller and Kathleen Bawn. </p>

<p>However, not taking a class in theory with Victor Wolfenstein is a huge mistake. Don't make it. </p>

<p>In comparative, George Tsebelis is a huge name, as is Ron Rogowski. I also recommend a class or two with Barbara Geddes.</p>

<p>Don't worry about your emphasis yet though, just take classes and see what works. You can change your emphasis in ten minutes. You can't change the impact of a great class.</p>

<p>Also, remember something: A good political science class isn't about politics, it's about analysis of political actors in a system. Here's an example of a "good" political science paper from George Tsebelis. Notice how the focus is on the data:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/polisci/faculty/tsebelis/TCpaperfinal.PDF%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/polisci/faculty/tsebelis/TCpaperfinal.PDF&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>As a transfer student would I be forced to do any more intl relations? (I've already taken the intl relations prereq course). Also, did you double-major or do you know others who did and if so what majors?</p>

<p>I did not double major, but it's quite possible. I did a minor in Japanese, however. </p>

<p>And no, you won't have to take more IR if you don't want. I recommend you take at least IR 120 though with Larson or Rosenblum. Great class.</p>

<p>How much writing is there and how tough is grading</p>

<p>There wasn't a whole lot of writing for Larson's class, and the grading wasn't too bad.</p>

<p>But do yourself a huge favor at UCLA- take at least a couple classes with heavy writing requirements. Anything with Brian Walker, in fact. You will benefit greatly from having to challenge your writing ability. </p>

<p>Undergrads at UCLA, and most other top schools for that matter, sorely lack good writing ability.</p>

<p>My community college professors have noted my ability in writing; I don't know. But anyway, you're in Washington now--internship, job?</p>