<p>and theres no set premed program, just to clarify. you pick a major, look up the med schools you want to apply to and enroll in those prereqs. then you can join a premed organization to get insider info on reliable labs and volunteering opportunities.</p>
<p>The campus is beautiful, the food is great (top 10 in the nation), the dorms are nice (especially compared to other UCs), the location is ideal (not the traffic, but the immediate location of Westwood), plenty of school spirit.</p>
<p>I can’t understand not loving UCLA.</p>
<p>Oh, and OP, keep in mind that Bayboi is a UC Berkeley student, not a UCLA student, thereby having no real perspective on UCLA. Don’t let his biased opinions sway you. Take only negative and positive feedback from those who are students/alums at UCLA.</p>
<p>To sapphire_ocean, find me one class with a midterm where 87% was a C, thank you.</p>
<p>do you even go here?</p>
<p>
Pretty sure helping out one person isn’t going to affect the curve by a whole letter grade (unless your class was the size of 3 people).</p>
<p>Also, I don’t know what kind of people you’ve been around but there are actually some nice and sincere students out there :rolleyes:</p>
<p>^to expound, I would say most are sincere</p>
<p>^madeinchina-yep there are nice people but the sentiment that ucla is not competitive was disconcerting to me, my point was more important than the example itself.</p>
<p>^incognito-math 3c classes are like this. if the prof is too easy, the curve gets shifted drastically.</p>
<p>WHOA SENTIMENT JUST MADE THE DUMBEST COMMENT EVER…UCLA IS COMPETITIVE…let me give u an example…i got four points back on a chem midterm and my rank shot up 25 places…THAT IS WHAT U CALL STIFF competition</p>
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Your example made it seem that the students at UCLA were a bunch of selfish d-bags. I agree that it is a relatively competitive school, but not to the point where people won’t help you out if you’re stuck or lost.</p>
<p>^madeinchina-thank you that is exactly what i meant. people paint this picture of ucla that everyone is friendly and there to help and they are, but that competitiveness is still there. i didnt mean the students are a bunch a jerks, but theyre not a bunch a saints(as is the common juxtaposition made to Cal). thanks for communicating what i was trying to. good luck with finals btw!</p>
<p>Basically :o</p>
<p>Or if you really like LA I guess.</p>
<p>I’m new to this forum, so I guess “reply” went just to the end of the last.</p>
<p>To qualify: “Basically” was in reference to if you don’t like competition don’t go to UCLA.</p>
<p>But its not that simple. If you don’t like unnecessary competition. I’ve been to other schools. I actually transferred out of UCLA for a year to take advantage of a full scholarship at a private school out of state. </p>
<p>UCLA (Berkeley) all prestigious public schools are very competitive. </p>
<p>There are a lot of theories on here, but from first hand empirical comparisons, UCLA students are more competitive and cut throat. </p>
<p>The Ivies don’t do this as much as they used to, but there used to be a term called the “Happy Bottom.” This referred to the lowest quarter of students who were let in cause they were rich or had connections. They did poorly, didn’t really care and were Happy.</p>
<p>These don’t exist at a bureaucracy like UCLA</p>
<p>(Okay occasionally they do. There was this girl in my LS1 class freshman year, that kept trying to cheat off everyone. She slept with her TAs for grades, and was really… never mind. But I’m surprised she got in. She is Chinese and changed her major to Chinese… )</p>
<p>But basically most people are cut throat.</p>
<p>That’s my experience. IF you know nothing other than UCLA I can see how you might think its not, however.</p>
<p>To above poster: Have taken classes at Yale, UCSD, and a private university. They weren’t more/ less competitive, just diff grading scales.</p>
<p>Reading about all this cut throat competitiveness is a bit disconcerting. My daughter is a sophomore at UCLA. She has never spoken about cut throat competitiveness. She is studying for finals right now and is involved in lots of study groups and the students seem to be willing to help each other. Her friends and classmates don’t fit the profile some have described here. I think most of the posters so far have been south campus majors, pre-med, engineering, etc. My daughter is a north campus major (social sciences, Pol Sci, humanities, etc) so maybe things are just different if you are not taking science and engineering classes. My daughter’s room mate is pre-med and I don’t think she feels that way either. She works very hard but is finding a way to study abroad in Rome next fall and has a full social life. My daughter is also very social but has managed to maintain a 4.0 gpa by working hard and having very good time management skills. She finds UCLA to be wonderful and it is providing her with a very rewarding college experience.</p>
<p>oh well if aint ur daughter just a superpstar…lol north campus is a joke…ive taken SEVERAL north campus classes and i HAVE NEVER GONE TO ANY OF THE LECTURES FOR THOSE CLASSES AND THE ONLY TIME I SEE THE MATERIAL IS THE NIGHT BEFORE THE MIDTERM AND FINAL…AND I STILL ACE THOSE CLASSES…NORTH CAMPUS IS A JOKEEEEE</p>
<p>^Don’t generalize. Not every North campus major is a “joke.” Bizecon classes, especially 11 and 101 get pretty competitive.</p>
<p>
Definitely. My girlfriend is a DESMA major and she works her butt off every day. I’d never be able to survive in that major.</p>
<p>And take Mushroomkind with a grain of salt (from his other threads, he apparently hates college or any form of competition) - UCLA is definitely competitive but not to the point where it’s “cut-throat” (I’m an engineer). I haven’t taken classes at any other university, but my high school was definitely more competitive than UCLA. And honestly, I can’t see how a top university would NOT be competitive…</p>
<p>lol harvard, brown and stanford have major grade inflation</p>
<p>mnop44: i wasn’t saying that my daughter is a superstar. I am just trying to let the OP know that you can do well at UCLA and have a good social life, be involved on campus and meet friendly people. Many people posting questions right now have just gotten the news that they have been accepted to UCLA and are seeking information from posters here so they can make their decision about where to attend college. I was simply trying to balance out all the talk about cut throat competitiveness that was going on. Unless you have personally taken upper div north campus classes (whether they be economics, language, political science or desma) I think it is unfair to criticize north campus majors. I think many would say that their north campus upper div classes are plenty challenging. The world is full of all kinds of people and UCLA has something for just about everyone. I think if your experience with UCLA has been positive that it is ok to share that with people seeking information.</p>
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<p>Same here. I went to a top 5 school in California. I felt that the competition was much more intense in high school. </p>
<p>Yeah. Even though top privates like Stanford have grade inflation, there’s still a significant amount of competition.</p>