<p>Years ago, this forum helped me in so many ways. Hopefully, it's done the same for you lot. </p>
<p>I collected 9 W's, 5 F's, 1 D and 2 C's during my first two negligent years at community college. Counselors told me I didn't have a shot at UCs. I got my stuff together during the second two.. Retook classes / academic renewal.. My cum. GPA upon transferring was 3.47 (the 2 C's brought it down considerably). I applied to philosophy at all campuses (only applied to 4). Got into UCSD, UCSB and UCLA, but was ding-ed by Cal.</p>
<p>Graduated UCLA with a ~3.6 and loved my time there. </p>
<p>Ask away.</p>
<p>Did you find the new workload to be vastly harder? How long did it take to adapt to the workload? How about differences in class size? Much larger for upper division major classes?
Thanks.</p>
<p>What job do you work at now?</p>
<p>“Did you find the new workload to be vastly harder? How long did it take to adapt to the workload? How about differences in class size? Much larger for upper division major classes?
Thanks.”</p>
<p>HARDER… way harder. not necessarily the workload – though it was definitely heavier, it wasn’t by any means unbearable – but the grading… example: in CC, i’d do everything (EVERYTHING) the night before… my major is philosophy, so midterms and finals typically take the form of papers. whereas in CC i’d spend 4 - 8 hours on a given paper, not having done any / most of the reading before hand, at UCLA, an A or A- paper will take me, on average, ~20 hours of solid work. and that’s after attending class regularly, paying attention, taking notes and being only slightly behind on reading. as for other majors, i’ve taken a few history classes (jokes), an urban studies class (joke) and the theatre 120 series (TOTAL jokes). my advice, if you want to have a social life and be involved otherwise on campus, is not to be overly ambitious about your studies = one filler class (easy A) per quarter, if you can manage it, is a god send. </p>
<p>class sizes were pretty similar - between 30 and 40 people on average, more (100-150) for the core upper div classes. discussion sections were between 10 and 15 on average. if you’re really concerned about getting individual attention, utilize office hours. profs and TA’s especially are totally willing to discuss whatever you want to discuss. just come having done the reading and prepared with questions.</p>
<p>I currently work at a law firm doing records / assistant-type work. Full time, benefits, modest pay… I’ve got law school apps out and took this job mainly to supplement my applications. I didn’t find it very hard to secure work, either (had two other interviews and one other job offer in 3 weeks of selective law-firm-only search).</p>
<p>Do you ever regret majoring in Philosophy looking back? I always hear people making fun of philosophy majors for being future McDonald employees etc. was that myth put to rest through your experience after graduating?</p>
<p>“Do you ever regret majoring in Philosophy looking back? I always hear people making fun of philosophy majors for being future McDonald employees etc. was that myth put to rest through your experience after graduating?”</p>
<p>phil professors here are, for the most part, brilliant. some are better / more engaging than others, but all definitely know their ****, and most know how to convey it to you well / succinctly.</p>
<p>the workload felt crazy at times, but was nothing absurd. going to office hours with BOTH your TAs and your professors (but mainly your TAs) will help you in ways beyond your feeble understanding.</p>
<p>the material… isn’t boring, but - as you’ve heard a million times from everyone around you - it holds no practical utility in the ‘real world’… and beyond that, i just find myself not really caring about the concept of self beyond what i perceive, much less about god, or whether identity is a relation between objects, or names… i. just. don’t. care. i took 3 ethics courses and those were awesome, but the rest of it just leaves me bitter knowing that i could have ended up with a higher GPA in some other major.</p>
<p>i was forced to change study habits — start every paper the moment it’s assigned (usually 5-8 pages, assigned 7-10 days before it’s due). i find that you don’t have to do much until you have the prompt… only then can you really know what to look for in the text. go to office hours and take time to make amendments to your outlines (outlines that you should absolutely be making, every time). if you actually start work when it’s assigned, you’re golden. that’s seriously what separates the A’s and A-'s from the rest of the class… well, that, and a little smarts, maybe. </p>
<p>In short, do I regret it? Sort of… but I knew from the start that I wanted to go to law school, and I should say that what I studied was pretty conducive to that - both the analytical reasoning and the LSAT skills booster. Like I said, I would have been happier with a higher GPA and studying stuff that couldn’t be reduced to pedantic mental masturbation.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot for your answer! My best friend applied to UCLA as a philosophy major and she also has the same GPA as you at the time of applying (3.47) heh. Do you think she has a chance at all in 2012? Were you a bit surprised you got admitted? I think most applicants need a 3.7 to have a good chance? were your ECs and PS extraordinary or something? </p>
<p>thanks again</p>
<p>@Chelzmcnamara</p>
<p>Mess around with this: [University</a> of California: StatFinder](<a href=“http://statfinder.ucop.edu/]University”>http://statfinder.ucop.edu/)</p>
<p>It’ll give you / your friend a look at actual numbers. Philosophy isn’t at all impacted. If she did well (A’s) in phil classes, has an upward GPA trend and is somewhat involved / works, I’d say 50/50. I was a little surprised, yeah, but my GPA alone wasn’t so far off the mark that I considered getting in a miracle. </p>
<p>I think my transcript may have put me slightly above other people with similar numbers and equally unimpressive softs. According to every counselor I spoke with at the time, 1 in a million go from straight F’s to straight A’s. It gave me a story to tell and I think I told it well. In my PS, I took personal responsibility and expounded on my desire to learn. I wrote 4 drafts in the weeks leading up to the deadline but scrapped those… I ended up submitting two prompts that I wrote while getting through half a fifth of whiskey the night before apps were due. I guess it worked out.</p>
<p>great to know someone was a similiar position as the one im in now and ended up being succesful. I basically spent my first 2 years bombing classes and only passing remedial courses. </p>
<p>I was wondering by the time you transfered, did you have all your prereqs done or was there any missing? Also would you consider 3.1 too low for compsci major for UCI? </p>
<p>Thank you, any advice from you would be great considering its someone with a background similair to mine.</p>
<p>Ohh yeah I see thanks a lot. If you didn’t get into ucla and ucb, what school were you planning on attending instead. Also do you think the fact that you graduated from UCLA alone, has helped you get more job offers as opposed to going to say csun for philosophy?</p>
<p>@compsciguy91</p>
<p>Yeah… If it weren’t for the stupidly easy GED, you could consider me a high school drop out. I kept up the trends that got me there (rather, didn’t get me there) as I came into my first years at CC. I’d take classes, stop showing up and not drop them. Wish I could go back and slap some sense into the schmuck I was. </p>
<p>I did have all of my prereqs completed by the time I transferred. However, for phil, there were only 3. I also took 3 other phil classes. I really don’t know the statistics for CS (at UCLA or otherwise…), but you should definitely check out the link I posted above. That will surely give you better insight than you’ll find anywhere else. </p>
<p>If you’re currently waiting on decisions for 2012, there isn’t much advice I can give you. If you’re applying next year, I’ll give you very basic advice, but if you can stick to it, you’ll have maximized your odds in a fundamental way: 1) grades - you need to pull straight A’s so that you can evidence your ‘change of heart’, or however you want to phrase it; 2) get a job, or be involved in some way on campus; 3) volunteer - you can find volunteer positions that ask 3 - 5 hours / week from you. anyone has time for that; 4) finish ALL of your prereqs, if you can, by the time you apply, otherwise, by the time you transfer. I know that specifically with business or bus/econ, if your GPA is under 4.0 and you’re missing even 1 prereq, UCLA and Cal will ding you. again, don’t know much about CS, but finishing prereqs beforehand will absolutely not hurt in any way…</p>
<p>Dd you transfer to ucla that is far away from home? If so, what is it like to go a school and be in a place that you knew no one? Did you deal with homesickness? If so, how did you deal with it?!</p>
<p>@Chelzmcnamara</p>
<p>"Ohh yeah I see thanks a lot. If you didn’t get into ucla and ucb, what school were you planning on attending instead. Also do you think the fact that you graduated from UCLA alone, has helped you get more job offers as opposed to going to say csun for philosophy? "</p>
<p>If I hadn’t gotten into either of those, it’d have been a toss up between SB and SD. I actually lived in IV and did one of my years of CC at SBCC, but was sort of over it by the time I left. I think I probably would have sided with SD for the change of scenery and the slightly better name. </p>
<p>Graduating from UCLA has ABSOLUTELY helped me with jobs… You have no idea how much of professional Los Angeles is run by Bruin alumni. I know this to be especially true in the legal industry. For personal curiosity, I’ve looked through most major LA law firms to see where new associates (one of whom I hope to be in a few years) went to school. Law schools vary, but most are in the top 20, but there’s SUCH an overwhelming amount of ex-UCLA undergrads. It’s like 1 out of 3… At my office in particular, there are 20 attorneys, 15 legal assistants, a handful of paralegals and some administrative types… At least half graduated from UCLA. In fact, the managing partner at this firm and I talked about the state of Bruin basketball for about 15 minutes of my ~25 minute interview for my current job. So, yeah… I don’t know any different, but I imagine that it’s a definite plus.</p>
<p>@lawlking</p>
<p>"Dd you transfer to ucla that is far away from home? If so, what is it like to go a school and be in a place that you knew no one? Did you deal with homesickness? If so, how did you deal with it?! "</p>
<p>I moved to the valley (suburbs adjacent to LA-LA) when I was 16. I knew people here who’d since moved to the city and that was great, but I also made a lot of friends at UCLA, mostly from my dorm (Rieber Terrace). We ate together at the dining commons, we found parties to go to, did on campus stuff when it came up, found women together… Everyone is out of their element at first and friendships are forged pretty naturally. I didn’t experience home sickness because 1) I was 22 at the time and 2) my family was right over the hill, 20 minutes away. </p>
<p>Do not worry about missing home. You’ll be fine and you’ll grow a lot. Just make sure you don’t lock yourself away in your dorm while everyone else is out, like, living, or whatever…</p>
<p>@ pinkerfloyd</p>
<p>thanks a lot for your detailed reply as always. do the law firms you applied to and currently working at, delighted at hiring philosophy majors? is philosophy usually a preferred major for these firms before they head over to law school? or can a poli sci major and whatnot have equal chances? Also would a philo major who graduated from SB or SD have a pretty hard time finding a job at a law firm in LA? Also did you mention that you also transferred from a community college in your resume and stuff? or is it ‘smarter’ to just act like you went there for 4 years? lol</p>
<p>thanks!</p>
<p>Also, would you by any chance know how much it would cost for a law firm, business based, to create a contract that is used for exclusive rights and business orders?</p>
<p>@chelz: you should have gleaned that his firm delights in hiring Bruins!</p>
<p>Do you know if UCLA will guarantee housing to transfers for two years anytime soon. I’ve heard rumors about it. Also, how likely is it for someone to get the housing the prefer?</p>
<p>@Chelzmcnamara </p>
<p>“thanks a lot for your detailed reply as always. do the law firms you applied to and currently working at, delighted at hiring philosophy majors? is philosophy usually a preferred major for these firms before they head over to law school? or can a poli sci major and whatnot have equal chances? Also would a philo major who graduated from SB or SD have a pretty hard time finding a job at a law firm in LA? Also did you mention that you also transferred from a community college in your resume and stuff? or is it ‘smarter’ to just act like you went there for 4 years?”</p>
<p>Not a problem. You don’t understand how slow it is today… </p>
<p>A few things: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>I got the interview for this job threw a friend in a pre-law thing I did on campus. The position I work is one with a high turnover rate, usually taken by students or people like me who are killing a year before grad school / trying to put some work-experience on their apps / resumes.</p></li>
<li><p>I don’t imagine there to be a significant difference given to phil majors over other liberal arts majors… Liberal Arts is such that you’ve been trained to think, not necessarily to ‘do’ anything in particular. Had I studied physics, business, CS, etc., it might have impacted their decision, but if you want to work an entry level job in really any field, I think your personal charisma, your GPA and the school you went to (in that order) have a lot more to do with whether or not you get it than does your major. </p></li>
<li><p>UCLA has something called BruinView. It’s a jobs classified service that employers use to offer jobs specifically to UCLA students. There are many, MANY offerings. Most are in LA, but a lot state-wide and nationally, too. I used that to secure a previous job and a number of other interviews. Other schools have comparable systems, but I’ve heard from other people that this is the best for finding jobs from reputable companies in LA (boutiques to fortune 500s). </p></li>
<li><p>About your resume: I personally didn’t put down the community colleges, but that was more to save space and keep my resume to 1 page than it was to hide it from them… When you put your school on your resume, you’re supposed to put ‘years attended’, too. If it only shows 2 years and you’ve received your B.A., they know what’s up. About your ‘smarter’ comment… It’s never smart’er’ to lie. Embellish, maybe, but I personally won’t take the risk of flat out lying about anything for any place that I might one day hope to bank on for a reference.</p></li>
</ul>