<p>So everyone knows it's a prestigious university...and Berkeley is good at engineering, UCSD is also I think, UCD for medical, health related things. But what is UCLA good at? Also engineering?</p>
<p>We don’t have any “major” strong points here at UCLA. </p>
<p>In the graduate department, we have one of the top dental schools in the nation as well as one of the top schools for teaching.</p>
<p>UCLA also has a renowned School of the Arts and Architecture and School of Theater, Film and Television. No other UC comes close (not within miles and miles). Admissions is very, very stringent however. Our film school has an admissions rate of 8.4%.</p>
<p>Our engineering is only on par with our other graduate schools but people pay extra attention to it because it is the undergraduate college that most commonly uses more selective admissions standards</p>
<p>In almost every academic other area, we are worse than Berkeley by varying degrees.</p>
<p>UCLA is just as good or horrible as any other top university. But I can only imagine UCLA (I’m a senior there) and UCB are the worst. Of the schools I got into 4 years ago those were the only two schools I seriously considered and I got a full scholarship to UCSB and Irvine.</p>
<p>I have a lot of friends that go to UCSB and they are way happier people in my experience. </p>
<p>Your close friends will be great at UCLA, but you can’t get around the feeling that everyone is ultimately super competitive and selfish. There are some VERY hungry pre-med students and Biz Econ students (I’m in both) and its really not pleasant.</p>
<p>If you are one of those people that has been taught you have to beat everyone to be a success, I find that unfortunate (I used to feel that way somewhat). However, if you are that type UCLA will be great. You will compete and feel all the better for getting a decent gpa at UCLA or Berkeley as opposed to CSU school or lower UC. </p>
<p>But if you aren’t fooled by thinking that means anything in life, stay away. I see kids going around on campus tours and I want to shout to them “Stay far away!” but never seem to have the guts too.</p>
<p>Anyway, if you want to brag (and get a decent education) go to UCLA. If you want to be happier go somewhere else.</p>
<p>mushroomkind: are you basically saying if you love competition, you should go to ucla?</p>
<p>I think UCLA’s location is the best of the UCs</p>
<p>
Awwww. It’s nice of you to consider your peers.</p>
<p>But you shouldn’t stay away from UCLA because it’s competitive. Every top school has cutthroat competition. If you want to avoid competition, you’ll be stuck at universities such as a CSU all your life.</p>
<p>Expanding on fortify’s idea:
There are many small things I like about UCLA. They’re not by themselves worth choosing it as your university but they’re things I thoroughly enjoy. For example, I like how our student’s store is big and has sales on the patio every once in a while. I also like how our dining tastes, ranked by Princeton Review #15 in the nation. I enjoy the gelato at Cafe 1919 even though the lines are ridiculous. I’d definitely miss Diddy Riese, the famous local ice cream parlor that sells delicious ice cream sandwiches for cheap.</p>
<p>If you’re afraid of competition, good luck in the real world. I eat competition for breakfast.</p>
<p>But honestly, I’m a first year pre-med and it’s been pretty manageable. Yes, I know upperclassmen who have to study all the time, but life just gets harder as you go. If my studies were the same difficulty and pace 2, 5, and 10 years from today, I wouldn’t feel like I’m making progress and actually learning something.</p>
<p>Edit: Oh right, what I like about UCLA. Good weather, good location, and good people. Dining food is definitely a plus. I just found the right group of people fall quarter and I’m getting through my classes just fine. But I really should be going back to studying for finals…</p>
<p>I think UCLA is the best all-around UC. Good reputation/academics, good location, good weather, nice campus, relatively good food, good athletics (helps with school pride/spirit).</p>
<p>Yes, there is competition - especially in the pre-med and business majors, but competition makes the world go 'round.</p>
<p>I’ll second what VTE said.</p>
<p>i absolutely love ucla, mostly for how well-rounded of a university it is. it’s academically rigorous, but still has a great social/cultural atmosphere. </p>
<p>there will ALWAYS be people at any academic institution who don’t like it, for whatever reason. maybe they’re at the wrong school, maybe they’d be just as negative if they were anywhere else, but don’t listen to them! spend a day or so here, attend a few lectures, and decide for yourself.</p>
<p>ucla has the best medical center in the west, 3rd best in the nation. the geffen school of medicine is also very reputable. </p>
<p>i find that, more so than any other uc i think, ucla is definitely the most well rounded. it has everything and excels in pretty much every area. i found berkeley to a bit less well rounded (more academically focused - i.e. if you just have the grades, you’re more likely to get into berkeley than la), but that was just my impression. </p>
<p>explore the campus if you can. explore the website if you can’t (a college counselor told me that a school’s website is a really intuitive way of determining what a college is really about).</p>
<p>the campus is beautiful. professors (at least in the CS department) are great. food in LA rocks. beach is just a 15 minute drive away. there’s always something to do. the people are beautiful.</p>
<p>probably the best university you can choose for the “college experience”</p>
<p>westwood =] chances to be school spirited if you want to be. crazy profs like scerri . the wonderfully steep hill to get to the dorms. bcaf at 1 in the morning. the hill by janns steps. the feeling that you need to go work out, now. taking the bus to santa monica for only a quarter with your bruin card. Pledging and joining organizations. ahaha and this is from someone who SIRed to Cal before ucla. i think i made the right choice.</p>
<p>Ah Scerri… where would this school be without him.</p>
<p>UCLA is not ultra-competitive, I’m in both south campus and north campus classes. Have friends in all the premed reqs; That is a horrible impression given by this website. If anything, the curves help.</p>
<p>If anything, the curves inflate my GPA. I wish lab courses had curves.</p>
<p>Yeah, this site is giving the wrong impression. UCLA isn’t as “competitive” as most other colleges around its rank. The curve helps students more than it hurts. The people who think its competitive probably came to this college with low expectations since UCLA has a reputation for being carefree. I find UCI has more of a “hardworking” rep than UCLA despite its students being less talented.</p>
<p>Of course, our curve could be interpreted in many ways. It could mean that our professors give insanely difficult exams and the ones over at other universities are too easy. This is the case, sometimes, because our professors are inexperienced. At other times, it could be because Professors are treating us as a more “prestigious” university than we really are. </p>
<p>In comparison to Berkeley, our quarter system may have something to do with our relatively low test scores. I just don’t feel we have enough time to really flesh out our knowledge for a lot of our courses and I’ve had professors who openly admit they feel their courses are better suited for a semester system. This pulls our test scores lower as well.</p>
<p>Beyond the premed program? Nothing. If you’re looking for a well-rounded public school go to Berkeley. If you have the money go to USC. UCLA and the UC system needs time to rebuild before it’s worth attending again. However, one can never go wrong with a Berkeley degree. If you are able to go to Stanford. Take that over anything.</p>
<p>
You obviously don’t know what you’re talking about.</p>
<p>Even though I don’t consider the engineering program to be top-notch, we definitely have one of the top Film programs in the country. And I definitely would consider UCLA to be more well-rounded than Berkeley (especially in the Engineering school).</p>
<p>ok so whoever thinks ucla is not competitive is blatantly wrong. bruins appear friendly and not cutthroat but everyone is super ambitious. It is difficult to access just how competitive a certain class without keeping in mind what kind of class it is and the professor. People are nice enough to smile and maybe even form a study group, but when it’s between your 87% on your midterm being a C or a B and helping a stranger by collaborating on homework…pretty sure theyre going to pick the B on the midterm. Just because it is not on the surface, Bruins have dreams and are going to strive for them, just saying, it’s not all dandy and whatnot.</p>