Does anyone know whether studying abroad (through UCLA) during the first 3 years would mean the student would lose his/her guaranteed housing for the remainder of thei enrollment?
@youcee Thanks for the tip. She actually is going to attend cal instead.
@pickledginger no studyjng abroad does not break the guarantee as long as they live on campus when they return and the study abroad program is through Ucla
@10s4life Congrats to her! Have her look into Bowles Hall for housing. More expensive and you have to apply separately for it, but the location is awesome. Views of the Golden Gate Bridge from the entrance. Hogwarts-like dining hall. Used to be all male, but now it is co-ed after a big renovation by former Bowles residents.
Acceptance packet arrived today - NorCal!! Very excited :))
Hi, I was trying to sign up for bruins overnight but it says the event is full. Is this a glitch? The email said to apply by april 7th and did not indicate anything about limited spots
@Mizuki You can call on Monday but BOE is not only popular but also fills up extremely fast.
@10s4life Berkeley or UCLA w/ regents for pre-health/pre-med??
@jeanbean020 Ronald Reagan is right on campus so you have a wealth of volunteer and shadow opportunities. Combine that with regents and the unmatched social life at Ucla I think you know the answer to that. But in all seriousness you can’t go wrong with either.
Accepted as a Regents Scholar!! However, will be attending H!
@10s4life Just one more thing… I don’t understand is that why you (on CC and Reddit) do not think that repaying will be easy. Like, cost of living in California is a little more than half of $20,000 as told on the internet, and with the salary told to me on Reddit (~$80,000), I should be able to payback 75% during my 3 year OTP. Rest I think my parents can save for the next seven years. Isn’t this a good idea? Am I underestimating something?
@ToUSAfromINDIA Well I don’t go on reddit so idk what people told you there but I think high schoolers don’t understand really how hard it is to pay off $240k in debt. Let’s say you do get a 90k starting salary. A lot goes to taxes, health insurance from your employer. And a high COL area will have high rent too. The debt repayment will prevent you from saving into a 401k, saving for a down on a house you’ll be putting almost all your money into the loans. @Gumbymom would be able to give you a better perspective. But you are oversimplifying things. You’ll see even 90k goes very quickly.
Did anyone who got an interview for the Alumni Scholarship get an email or anything yet about their status? I was reading previous threads and it seemed like most people got an email the next day or a couple days later. I don’t know, I guess I’m just nervous.
@ToUSAfromINDIA , in addition to what @10s4life said, students themselves can only borrow a relatively small amount annually for undergrad (about $6K per year).
@pickledginger and @ToUSAfromINDIA: International students cannot borrow or are eligible for federal student loans. If your parents have $240K available in a college fund or savings then if they want to pay for you to go to UCLA great. If you and your parents have to borrow a significant amount of money so you can attend, then NO it is not worth attending.
As an International student, do not count on getting a job in the US and definitely do not count on earning the salaries you are quoting. The best gift a parent can give a student is that they graduate with no debt. This is coming from a Full pay parent of two Undergrad students.
@pickledginger @Gumbymom I have read online that with a cosigner, international students can borrow the full cost of education from an American bank, and this is what I intend to do.
Plus, for every degree (BS, MS, Ph.D.), we get to work in the US for one year per degree under OTP. Plus, STEM students can apply for a 2-year extension of that OTP. @10s4life I saw the cost of living in California under $20,000 per annum and income tax also $20,000 per year. I am basing all my predictions on these figures. Are they reasonable or an underestimate?
Finally, I was thinking I might stay on the priority waitlist for Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science (3rd best in world) and attend if accepted, but since it costs $280,000, which is more than UCLA’s (13th best in world) fees for which already many of you are apprehensive, I think I’ll not go to CMU… Do you think it is the right decision?
One last thing, thank you all for replying, this kind of spontaneous social interaction with a stranger, helping him in one of his pivotal decision was indeed unimaginable for me, but it is happening here 
@ToUSAfromINDIA Let’s go through the scenario for you since I think you’re being idealistic. First off getting a H1B visa is not guranteed. So you can’t realistically count on working here in the states. But for the scenario you’re allowed to stay. You will only find 90k starting CS salaries at top companies. So you need top grades, and great experience and a good internship to get that job. It is very hard to get an internship as an international student as it counts as your work time in the US. A 90k salary would also be in the top cost of living areas. Think La and SF. An room in an apartment so living with roomates in LA runs around 1200-1400 per month per person for small low end places. Having your own place would be even higher. Then look at income taxes. You would pay Ca and federal I come taxes. Also you pay into social security and Medicare and Medicaid. If you want to save for retirement you would put money into a 401k. Subtract health care mortage and other things like cell phone bills, internet and groceries, car payment, gas and you have little left over. Spend your expendable amounts on loans. 280k is a lot of money to be in debt right away. You are looking at payments of over 1000 a month if paid over 30 years. You said tax would be less than 20k. That’s not true as it’s proprtiknal to what you make and you forgot federal income tax. Realistically you can expect a salary closer to the mid to high 70s. Again this is your decision but sometimes things just don’t make sense financially. I know my parents would not allow me to go into that much debt. And if you ever want to buy a house that would be very hard to do if you want a mortage as your loan debt would prevent you from qualifying for much. House payments in Ca are expensive. Our mortgage is over $4000 a month and that would be unsustainable if student debt was factored in.
Hi! I’m torn between Purdue honors (with 64k scholarship) and UCLA. I’m a statistics major. I’m planning to do a CS major(if I go to ucla) or a CS minor (if I go to Purdue) along with statistics
Selection Criteria:
-Internships and research opportunities
-good academic relationships with professors
-a decent class size
As you can tell, I do plan on going to grad school. So I’m confused about what looks good on resumé according to grad schools: brand name or honors. Money isn’t a factor in my selection. But, I do want to pre-occupied with research or internships rather than just classes. I also want good rec letters from professora and I do want to do research under some of them.
For engineering undeclared (possible bio?) what are the pros and cons of the following schools (not rankings or hearsay)?
- UCLA w/ regents
- UCB (I live in the area and I think I don’t want to go here)
- Harvey Mudd (waaaay more expensive)
- Smith (30k cheaper than mudd)
- Cal poly
Also, I’m in UCSB CCS math. How easy is it to switch between CCS majors? To switch to engineering?
I get that this is a ucla forum and I probably won’t get most of the answers I’m looking for, but I figured I’d go fishing
I only can tell you about UCLA Regents’ advantages since my daughter is benefiting from. The main one: Easy to enroll in classes … especially those which you want (and with a right professor?). Consequently you can even finish in 3 years (as my daughter is going to do next quarter). Of course there are other perks which I am sure you are already well aware of!
(Honestly sometimes I feel that they make it too easy for your and my daughter type of students who are already above the average in the school, by allowing to take advantage of easy enrollment and hence gaining better grades. I feel it is not fair to other students!)