Transferring to UCLA

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Los Angeles
41

<p>I don't know about that MexBruin. My CC classes, including the transferable ones, were easier than high school AP classes. I can quote the following even though it was a few years ago because I remember it so vividly as I had never felt so condescended to in my life:</p>

<p>An excerpt from my CC's Intro to Statistics class:</p>

<p>Teacher: "Okay class, this symbol is not an 'm,' but the greek letter 'mu.' Can we all say that?"</p>

<p>Class: "Mu."</p>

<p>Teacher: "Right! Great job! If you're having difficulty, just remember it's like saying a cat's sound, 'meow,' and a cow's sound, 'moo,' together. Meow and moo at the same time is 'Meyoo'. Now say it faster and you get Mu. Isn't that easy?!"</p>

<p>I honestly kid you not. And this was said in all seriousness.</p>

<p>Obviously, this wasn't entirely representative of my time in CC but it was, at least in my experience, ridiculously easy. However, PCC is a really good CC where undoubtedly more bright kids aer focused on transferring than at my CC (in suburban San Diego) so likely things will be different. Or at least we should hope they are.</p>

42

<p>haha so funny.</p>

43

<p>Yeah that sounds like he pretty much undermined the intelligence of his students and that is definately not representative of all cc's.</p>

44

<p>Hahahahaha, that's funny. Well...I have some experience of taking a class at the local CC where I live. I did this while having 7 classes during my first semester of my senior year in high school. I took Speech 101. It was 3 and a half hours long and only on Thursday nights. It was a ridiculously easy class...everything the teacher said was what was going to be on the tests...
Right after I got home from school and drivers ed on thursday, I would have about 10-20 minutes to eat and write my speeches lol!!! I got a B+ in the class. I never spent any "quality" time for that class hahahahahaha. The professor would also ask the class the same question of how the new speeches sounded...and the answers would always be the same...."more enthusiastic", "more lively", "they were better", "there was more character in them", etc.</p>

<p>Well, I got to PCC and quickly signed up for a walk-in appointment. Signed up at 12 20 pm and my appointment was at 1 45 pm. Sat around for a bit, then left. Wanted to go see if I can get a hold of a schedule of classes or college catalog. Went to the campus bookstore and started looking at prices for textbooks for prospective classes and reading some of them/looking through them. At the end, I finally found the schedule and bought it...$1. Went back to main building, checked in and went back to waiting. After about 10 minutes, the lady came out and we had our counseling session. Her opening question was, "OK, so what can I help you with???" </p>

<p>Yes. Ummmm. I'm a new college student. So yeah. How about them classes...Got a few classes I could register for and now the hunt is on for registering for open classes. <em>sigh</em> I had this battle for classes at CPP, now I have it all over again at PCC...except that I am one of the last few to register...while at CPP, I actually had priority registration and stuff...hah...oh wells.</p>

45

<p>bummer =(
this is just the first term so dont worry too much about it.hopefully in your later terms you can get priority registration someway somehow either based on grades or membership in something... >=)</p>

46

<p>haha. Yeah, I hope so. Got 3 classes so far, fighting to get some more. Oh well.</p>

<p>Just today, I have been having an increasing concern. When I transfer to UCLA, will I still have a lot of fun, make friends, have a good time? Or are the UCs working their students too hard? I still want to have a good college life and not completely focus on academics...because I enjoy having fun and hanging out and stuff. Does UCLA have a good social life?</p>

<p>I've even been reconsidering going back to CPP (since I haven't completely finished the processing of going to PCC, and I haven't withdraw from CPP yet) just so I can have a social life and have fun. But it seemed to me that CPP did not have much of a social life. From what students said, there was practically nothing to do and Pomona is a boring city with no nightlife. Will I be pleased with UCLA? Is it better?</p>

47

<p>hey man dont doubt urself. last thing u do is having regrets about the choice u made. it all depends on how u take things. ok say if u settle for B average in UCLA then its just a bit of work. As are tougher. its same thing as high school except the par is moved up. ok some kids get As in high school like cakewalk but then they go to UCLA and do same thing. then bam report card comes and they get Cs. as long as u study for finals and don't mess around too much its pretty much guarenteed B.</p>

<p>UCLA and social life are synonymous. don't tell me u havent visited UCLA yet because how can u say u've always wanted to attend UCLA and don't know anything about it. UCLA is probably the most social out of all colleges. seriously.</p>

48

<p>Westow,</p>

<p>Though I wish I would have visited UCLA at some point in time, I never have. I also never said that I have always wanted to attend UCLA. </p>

<p>My reasons of interest in UCLA: I see that quite a bit of professional research with world-reknown faculty goes on, I like the challenge that the school offers for its degrees, I wanted a bigger school with more opportunities for all kinds of things like anywhere from meeting people to doing some professional undergraduate research, I wanted a school that could offer more but stay strong in its colleges, and I wanted a school that was very strong in both the sciences and engineering. </p>

<p>I'm guessing that some people have been suggesting UCB as well. Anyone have any advice/opinions on UCB for my reasons of interest?</p>

<p>Also, I am completely new to this whole thing. I never visited any schools unless I was forced to, such as for orientation. That is among the first two times that I visited CPP. I applied to the 7 schools that I did in the beginning all because of what I had read about them and what they had to offer. I never visited any campuses whatsoever. People were astounded when I was agreeing to apply to somewhere or to attend a school without ever visiting the campus. I didn't care much about the "campus" and I thought that there was nothing to see. Universities are big and some are decorated. It's what's inside the campus is what interests me.</p>

<p>I'm not looking for a school that is only specialized in academics but in social life and entertainment as well, and since westow's reply, I have become happier from the news. Westow, could you please tell me more?</p>

49

<p>well yeah all UCs claim they are research universities so thats why most of them are ranked in the top 25 public univ. undergraduate research u can do but u got to take the initiative to find these internships and research opportunities. no one will force u to take anything.</p>

<p>UCB is top notch engineering no doubt. competition is very fierce and everything. their science department, especially engineering, is very strong and theres a very very good batch of professors. that would be ur point of interest for going there. what wouldnt is that it would be too fierce and as u mentioned u wanted more social life. that sounds like a balanced breakfast and UCLA is a good choice for that. although their engineering thing is ranked 10s and 20s, i would not dismiss it as anything inferior. simply the rankings do not vary too much and stay rather "sticky."</p>

<p>entertainment? well since the first half of my name starts with West u might as well get use to saying Westwood a lot cuz thats a hella good place to hang out. theres a lot to do but i have to admit theres only so many shops and first time i went there i thought "wow this is it? so small" but its still decent for doing things when u are bored of studying.</p>

<p>last but not least, when u get god grades after ur first year at PCC go visit ucla. i assume u live near UCLA unlike me so u have the advantage. and i dare to u ask anyone who regrets going to UCLA. nobody will say that. anyways just make the effort the next 2 years and u will be rewarded.</p>

50

<p>Any opinion on the clubs/organizations? Thanks a lot for the info, that was great heh.</p>

<p>I wonder how UCB is with its social life and how the students like it there...and UCSD is probably below both UCB and UCLA regarding the programs I am looking for right?</p>

<p>I will try and put out the best effort possible to get the best possible grades, though I am pretty sure I am going to be pretty lazy and get a few B's in some classes...it just always happens. Unless somehow I discover myself as an extremely focused student, well then I would obviously got as many A's as possible without a B being the result of what I did but because of some thing, like my ultimate weakness in Poli Sci, ugh...</p>

<p>After my work and enjoying PCC, I hope I can do the same at UCLA or UCB...</p>

<p>Also thinking about USC...how does it rank against the UC's programs and what is its social life like?</p>

51

<p>I have friends who just finished their freshman year at Berkeley and USC...</p>

<p>The Berkeley kids say you can only have a social life if you make yourself have one; whereas at UCLA, a social life falls in your lap.</p>

<p>The USC kids say it's extremely social. All the time.</p>

52

<p>What was just described on the social life of Berkeley students was the same thing I heard at Cal Poly Pomona, hhahahaha. You would only have a social life if you tried to get yourself one.</p>

<p>I like the USC and UCLA prospects of a social life.</p>

<p>How about the programs? USC's engineering/sciences?</p>

53

<p>USC excels in engineering and the only program that can beat it in California is Berkeley. Science-wise it is still strong, but is likely fifth, after Stanford, CalTech, Berkeley and UCLA.</p>

54

<p>u should be asking that in the USC forum... personally i didnt know USC existed until 6 months ago.</p>

55

<p>again if i were u Xcron I would consider UCLA more than USC simply becaused im a biased bruin. but actually due to what u said about ur financial situation its either UCLA or Berkeley.</p>

56

<p>Sounds good, Mr. Biased Bruin! =P</p>

<p>Yeah, I was told by a person who works at JPL that I should only consider USC if I really wanted to go to a good engineering school but wasn't able to get into a better one (like UCLA, UCB, Stanford, ?CalTech?, ?and any others?).</p>

<p>I'm pretty sure right now that I am going to be doing a few majors that include science and engineering majors...which school would be best for ungdergrad for my situations and for grad? I think UCLA/UCB for undergrad, and then perhaps (somehow) MIT or Stanford?</p>

57

<p>I think UCLA is definately the best at having a good balance of social life and academics. There's always something cool or interesting going on campus from concerts to guest speakers to sporting events. Again I still feel that a lot of people here are kinda pushing you towards going to PCC over Cal Poly. </p>

<p>By all means go if you feel you definately will get good grades. Your situation though reminds me of a friend back in high school who gave up offers from UC Santa Cruz, UC Irvine, San Diego State, and Cal Poly SLO because he was set on UCLA or CAL but was ultimately rejected by both. He went to Glendale CC and finished two years as a Computer Science major then reapplied to UCLA and Berkeley as a transfer and was again rejected because of what he credits to his low gpa (3.6) and not enough EC's.</p>

<p>He regrets not taking the offers from the schools mentioned before and always says that if he could go back he'd definately go to Irvine or San Luis Obispo. He has already graduated from ITT Tech (trade school) and has a good job but not a day goes by that he thinks what could have been had he gone to those schools.</p>

<p>Bottomline: Just know that for the top UC's you are going to have to work really hard to maintain a good gpa its defiantely possible with a little planning and really hard effort. Couldn't help but mention my friend to you because of the similarities to your case. Good luck at any rate.</p>

58

<p>what mexbruin has said is a very good point. by going to PCC u are giving up a lot and RISK the chance to be rejected by UCLA. I would not even think about grad school until after your first year at PCC. Remember getting into UCLA thru PCC is by no means a cakewalk.</p>

59

<p>Wow. Ok, I must admit. Either it has been seen or not, my grades steadily kept going higher and higher until I almost got a perfect streak throughout my 12th grade year in high school.</p>

<p>I feel kind of uncertain giving up CPP because of the chance that I may not get into the school I want to transfer to. I am determined to transfer to UCLA or UCB. I am also confident that I can pull off a pretty good GPA. What I must admit is that I am sure that I have yet to realize the difficulty of trying to transfer to the school. No one has given me an example of how hard it is to transfer except for "mexbruin" and that is because he mentioned his friend's GPA. I'm probably not going to find out the difficulty of transferring until I try to do it myself. </p>

<p>People have advised me and recommended going to a CC and I picked PCC because of all the pluses that it had over what I would have at CPP. I am not going to regret not attending CPP. I don't like the school much. I have stated the reasons sometime ago and I have stated the reasons for choosing to attend PCC. </p>

<p>I have only taken Speech 101 at Glendale Community College and it was extremely easy for me. I think that if all the classes are going to be similar in difficulty (which I doubt because I read a lot about how the difficulty of the classes is set to prepare you for the school that you want to transfer to), then there is a very large probability that I will get a high GPA. I'm not going to blow my head trying to take 8 classes or something during Fall. Currently, I am signed up for 4 classes and I have already 17 units. I filed a petition for more units today and I hope to take like 6 classes or something. </p>

<p>One thing has been of concern to me lately: transferring at another time, other than Fall. I need to do a sequence of 4 Physics courses. The first has a Calculus req which I will fulfill in the Fall. I will try to take the first Physics class during the Winter Intersession (between Fall and Spring semesters) so that I can get ahead. But after Winter, I will need Spring, then Fall again, and then finally Winter again to complete that sequence of Physics courses. So at minimum, it will take me 1.5 years to transfer out of PCC. </p>

<p>My concern was would I be able to apply for a different term, like the Spring Semester at UCB or the Spring Quarter at UCLA? Or do I need to waste another half-year at PCC in order to apply for Fall? =(</p>

<p>mexbruin, how smart was your friend? What were his grades like? How do you think he did in high school and college? Sadly, I'm beginning to realize why your friend did not get in. For the preliminary statistics of Fall 2005 Transfers to UCLA, the average admitted GPA from community college students was 3.56. Your friend was extremely close to that. But that was not the problem. He had first priority, some ECs, and a satisfactory GPA for transfer admits, but! The Computer Science major is offered by the Engineering college at UCLA. For the Engineering college, the average GPA of transfer admits to it was 3.77. That was why your friend did not get in.</p>

<p>I hope that since I will be doing the reqs for Mechanical Engineering, that I may hopefully get a 3.85-4.0 so that I may be admitted to the highly selective Engineering school =(. There is still a possibility that I may do Physics. If I do do that, then I can get into the Scholars Program so that I have an even greater priority consideration for admission and the College of Letters and Science admitted an average transfer GPA of 3.55. But, I think that if I choose to do Physics, then I will not be allowed to change it to any other major as stated by UCLA and that I will probably not be allowed to do an Engineering double major if I only satisfy the science requirements. If I keep ME as my declared major, I think there is a greater chance that I will be allowed to double in Physics as well.</p>

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<p>just to let you know. doubling on ME and Physics would take u about 4 years AFTER u transfer to UCLA. i kid you not. google for UCLA majors and look at the upper division prerequisites. I suggest considering a math minor. also, watch out for 213 (or w/e it is) unit cap for graduation.</p>

<p>and yes i'm fairly confident that transfer won't be able to change their majors. this is because during junior and senior year, u will be taking upper division classes which are more focused on ur major. if u switch after ur junior year, u will probably have wasted one year.</p>