Hello. For the upcoming summer, I am considering attending Session A of the Summer Sessions at UCLA. I’ve always loved the campus and would not mind taking some college-level classes to further my education and prepare me for college.
a. How many units/classes are manageable during the summer?
b. Also, I am a little concerned about the social aspect of the Summer Sessions as a junior in high school. Is anyone aware whether high school students typically attend the Summer Sessions? I do not think college students will necessarily want to hang out with a high school student? Though my focus is on the academics for the summer, friends would be nice lol.
Thank you !!!
@kkendall Have you considered taking community college classes during the summer instead? The CC classes are free for high school students, are generally easier, they count as weighed “honors” classes in your UC Application, and many of the classes are 100% transferable to UCLA.
The downsides to taking classes at UCLA as a highschooler are that you will have to pay a very high tuition (I think its over $3000 per class) and not very many highschoolers take this route, so you might encounter difficulties making friends. Plus, the academics at UCLA are VERY rigorous, so you risk getting a low grade in a college class which will remain on your permanent academic record forever.
When I was in high school I took 12 semester units at my local community college during the summer of my Junior year, and managed to earn straight A’s, but if this will be your first time taking college classes I recommend you start taking between 3-6 semester units in the summer, and 6-9 in the Fall/Spring sessions.
@need2go2UCLA Alright, thank you so much for this insight. I have considered taking CC classes instead, but one thing that I do want to get out of this summer is the experience of living at a college, so I will have a better idea of what to expect when the time comes to actually go to college. The CC’s near me do not offer on-campus housing. I will look into CC’s a bit more though, thank you again.
Although I know the price deters high school students from attending UCLA as opposed to a CC, money is not too much of a concern.
In terms of the classes, how do the lower-division courses at UCLA compare to the rigor of an AP course? BTW, this will be my first time taking college classes.
The social aspect is unfortunate. Friends would be nice, so I’ll have to consider this all a bit more lol. I may try to call UCLA and try to get some stats/numbers about how many high school students actually attend the summer sessions
Thanks again for the response!!!
AP courses to be quite frank aren’t anywhere close to UCLA courses especially on the STEM side. I would just do CC. It’ll be easier and the grade will count as honors for your transcript. UCLA summer sessions won’t give you an advantage for UCLA. Also as a high schooler it may be hard to make friends with students significantly older. C session has a lot of parties if that’s something you’re interested in.
Thank you so much for this insight @10s4life Though C session does sound fun, it would overlap with the start of my senior year of high school so really only session A is an option. I will have to think the UCLA vs. CC decision over a bit more. What is making me lean towards UCLA is that I feel living there for six weeks would just be such a surreal and unique experience as opposed to the seemingly monotonous experience of just commuting in to a CC for a few classes every week. I think I could probably handle one or two lower-division classes over the summer at UCLA, I do not really mind academic challenges. In addition, being at UCLA would be good to get a better feel of how it is living independently at a college and I just feel that the opportunity has presented itself so I want to take advantage. I feel like it would be one of those experiences that would stay with me throughout my life (sorry probably seems like extreme glorifying of UCLA but hey it is a dream school lol). My main worry is the social aspect, so I may give the summer sessions office a call and see if they have any stats about the number of high school students who have attended in the past. Thanks again for this answer !!!
Yeah of course! Also keep in mind over summer most students will live in apartments or the fraternity houses because it’s much cheaper than living on campus for the summer. Most of the students on the hill will be from the 2 freshman start programs and orientation.
Alright! That makes sense, thank you for all of this info @10s4life !!!