<p>I'm a CCC student, going into my last year before I transfer in '11, hopefully to UCLA or Cal. I have three questions:</p>
<p>1) I HATE community college. The social scene is Z-E-R-O, and I really feel like I missed out on such a unique experience by not attending a University from the beginning. It seems that It would be so much easier to meet people as a freshman. Are there any transfers out there who could share their experiences with me?</p>
<p>2) How is the transfer housing at Cal and/or UCLA? It seems that this would make it a lot easier to meet people. Reasonably priced? Convenient? Really, any feedback on this would be excellent.</p>
<p>3) Any engineering majors out there (especially electrical) -- Did you have any time for a social life when you were in school, or did you pretty much have to sacrifice your social life to the gods of academia?</p>
<p>I'm so ready to transfer to a university. I hate junior college so much (I think that the worst part is being 20 and still living at home.) but that misery has kind of been the fire under my @$$ that has driven me to succeed in my courses, and get good grades -- to make sure that I'm never in such a $hitty situation again. I just hope that I can make it this next year without losing my sanity!!!!!</p>
<p>1) Yes, I can share my experience with you.</p>
<p>I transferred to UCLA in 2007 from a CCC at the age of 22. Once I got there I lived in the dorm. I had a single in Hedrick Summit. I think I paid like $1200 a month or more but it was paid for with my college fund by my parents. It wasn’t special “transfer housing” or anything. On my floor there were freshman, sophomores, juniors, seniors, and a few other transfers.</p>
<p>I was pretty social. The first thing I did was do all the floor government stuff and got involved with that. Then I started making friends in classes and I later joined a fraternity. My second year at UCLA I lived in a fraternity (Delta Tau Delta) and was the treasurer. I was super involved.</p>
<p>I’ve had the craziest experiences of my life while down at UCLA and it was amazing. There were definitely cliques of people who had been friends since freshman year, but there were plenty of other non clique-ish people too!</p>
<p>Overall, I’ve partied, made friends in classes and through student housing, etc. The key is to just dive in and get involved to the fullest! Don’t rely on your friends back home and don’t stay in your room on skype all day or something. Get out there and just force yourself to be in the college bubble for 2 years.</p>
<p>I’ve thought about participating in greek life as well, but I’m a little worried that it would take away from my ability to do well in my classes. Did you find that most of the people in the frats were majoring in less demanding things, or were there a decent number of frat guys who majored in engineering, math, physics, biochem, etc…?</p>
<p>For one academic year I lived in the fraternity house. We were very social and it was easy to get side tracked from school. You need time management skills. A couple people from my fraternity had amazing time management skills and they are currently at UCLA Med which is extremely hard to get into. A couple guys I lived in the house with did not have great time management skills and they failed out of school. It just depends!</p>
<p>I am gonna start at UCLA this Fall and as you, I come from a Community College. I have never found any problems with my social life but that also depends on your personality.</p>
<p>I made friends in classes, clubs, and sometimes just for no reason at all. But I’m also pretty outgoing.</p>
<p>As far as the friends go, I’ve met different people throughout my 2 years in college- Party boys, surfers, dedicated students, overachievers… etc.</p>
<p>wow, I would love to pick the brains of those UCLA Med brothers of yours. Were they simply geniuses who breezed through the material, or is it possible for regular people to balance rigorous coursework with fraternity life?</p>
<p>Joining a frat is something I’d really love to do, but I don’t think I’d be willing to sacrifice my grades as a biochem major for it.</p>
<p>@SDHopeful: It’s all about what your personal goals are.</p>
<p>Last semester I was President of an Honor Society with 3 meetings per week, taking 14 units, doing volunteer work, working part time, and still having a pretty nice social life which included parties, outings, movie nights, tourist and camping trips. This translated into a 3.8 GPA (semester GPA).</p>
<p>I will admit that I slept little (and still do), skipped meals, and usually found myself squeezing in readings anytime I could… I do think that if I would have slept more before my Psych final… I may have ended up that semester with a 4.0 but the overall fun I had throughout the semester was far more worth it than the .02… people are too caught up with numbers these days.</p>
<p>i REALLY enjoyed my community college experience. I’m almost sad to see it gone. There are plenty of interesting people, and you kind of have a sixth sense of who’s going to stay in community college (for many many years) and who’s going to be gone in under two. It really is interesting how things turn out. I left my CC knowing like 8 of the 40 people who were transferring to UCLA from my school this semester. And on orientation i talked to a couple of the other kids there. Joining a club/volunteering is also a great way to meet people.</p>
<p>The housing on campus is very convenient, but somewhat expensive. Westwood is fairly close to beverly hills and bel air, two of the more expensive areas in L.A. and as a result, the apartments are fairly expensive. (at least like $1,000/mo for a single)</p>
<p>not an engineering major so i can’t help you there. i’m tempted to say that cal has a better engineering program but i’m not sure. Wherever you go i hope you find what you’re looking for, and more importantly that you enjoy yourself.</p>
<p>@SDhopeful - Some people see the fraternity house simply as a place to rest their head at night. Living with 40 other fun loving college guys is a very distracting environment, but its not distracting you you aren’t there to be distracted. I think the UCLA Med guys got all their studying done on campus or elsewhere and when they came back to the house they were there to relax.</p>
<p>@Wacker1990 - My major was Econ. I got into UCLA with TAP and a 3.46 GPA. I was accepted for Fall 2007. I graduated.</p>