UCLA Class of 2024 Discussion

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Los Angeles
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61

Sorry, @ucsb82 . . . I’ve danced around the issue you have at hand. Your daughter attends community college in Florida at what I’ll call an “fcc,” and you obviously want her AA degree to take precedence over her high-school diploma. And it’s true that there are some who have taken a degree from a community college (or fulfilled units of transfer) to UC who’ve dropped out of high school and have matriculated at UCLA. (I don’t know where a GED would fit in all this or if it would, but that’s not a problem with respect to your daughter.)

There’s a reason why 95%+ of the xfers to UCLA are from California Community Colleges, the “ccc’s.” These ccc’s have generated articulated agreements of its students to the UC (and the same for the CSU), by the former melding its curricula around what the latter needs from those seeking a four-year degree, in this case, at UCLA.

The problem lies in that Florida’s community colleges are terribly remote to the concerns of UC and more in line with what UF, FSU, UCF, USF, etc. would require. Because of this, there’s most likely going to be a difference between what fcc’s and ccc’s offer to their students for xfer.

Are all the dance major’s requirements at UCLA available at her fcc? If there are some missing courses – even she’s short just one requisite class – her xfer pathway would blow up. This would then leave you with having to go through the high-school application route as I’ve detailed before, as daunting as it is, or she could make up whatever deficiencies she would have by taking them up at her fcc or maybe even a ccc in 2020-21 if she can’t do it this year. That’s apparently why even some ccc students might have to take courses from different campuses, especially in a STEM field.

I hope everything works out and I hope she can xfer to UCLA. Sorry for my adding to the confusion. Here’s a link to the [transfer pathway](http://www.admission.ucla.edu/Prospect/Adm_tr/artsmajs.htm). The main thing seems to be the audition, but other than that it seems fairly straightforward.

62

@firmament2x , thanks for taking the time to comment on my DD’s situation.

I took a “swing” at DD’s the UC GPA calculation but it wasn’t completely clear to me how to count CC course competitions that would normally be a full year HS class (First year college English, compared to Senior HS English, for example).

I’ve listed DD’s classes and grades below in case someone is bored and would like to take a swing. I’m guessing her UC GPA would be around 4.15 - if so, I’d further guess she’d be in the 8% chance of UCLA acceptance category - still worth a shot.

I think the biggest plus for DD will be sharing the accomplishment of “walking” for her AA prior to her HS diploma in one of her personal insight question responses.

While some of DD’s CC classes may not transfer, I’m comforted that at least some of the classes will - DD is looking at private schools in NYC that will not accept credits taken prior to HS graduation (Fordham, for example).

10/11 HS Classes:

B B World History, Honors

A A English 2, Honors

A B Spanish II

NO A U.S. Government, Honors
A B Anatomy and Physiology, Honors

10/11 Daytona State College Classes (All 3 Sem credit classes except Algebra which is 4)

A   Dynamics of Student Success SLS 1122
B   Introduction to Composition   ENC 1101 
A   Survey in Mathematics   MGF 2106
A   Writing and Research    ENC 1102 
B   General Psychology  PSY 1012
A   Intermediate Algebra    MAT 1033
B   Introduction to Chem    CHM1025C
A   Literature and Culture  LIT 2000
A   Mathematics for Liberal Arts    MGF 1207
A   World Geography GEO 2000
63

@ucsb82 . . . so you’ re going for admission from high school not from fcc, and it’s probably apparent that it probably wouldn’t work for the latter because she’d have to take the dance requisites there. Xfer from cc to UCLA requires a very specific pathway of study because the University is pretty much filling available spots for majors in humanities, social sciences, life and physical sciences, E, dance and TFT from cc. Impaction plays a large part, but something like Dance wouldn’t take many candidates anyway. In 2018-19 UCLA admitted 5 of 48 applicants.

She went from low to high marks in her U.S. government classes, and in addition, not going for a letter grade. That might be tough to overcome because individual courses can be a downfall of an applicant. Her unweighted looks to be ~ 3.6-3.7 and her fully weighted and UC gpa might be around the same because I don’t see a lot of capping available – maybe I’m wrong. And she’s undoubtedly taken the ACT or maybe the SAT, but it is what it is and there probably wouldn’t be a high bar for dance.

I know you said this:

The good news is that Dance doesn’t go for straight gpa or in this case UC average. I don’t know if the audition counts for a predominant amount, but I’ll hope that for all your sakes that it does and that she would kill it. The only hangup in this would be if she needs a preapproval of admittance before it were to come to the audition. But she does seem to have a good hook, a good story to tell about her walking for her associates’ before her hs graduation, which shows immense dedication. And in her general personal statement, she should write like she’s never written before.

I copied her courses and I’ll look them over when I get the chance. I don’t recognize many of her fcc courses, so it’d take considerable learning on my part. In the meantime if someone else who does have available insight were to have input, that would be great.

All the best!

64

@ucsb82 It looks to me like a pretty remote chance of admission. I don’t see a third year of Spanish or a year of fine arts in the list above, and the UW GPA is pretty low for UCLA. My impression from a friend of my D who applied (and was rejected) for the dance major at UCLA (in-state from a strong high school with an ACT score in the low 30s) is that they don’t lower the academic standards for dance as much as at many other schools, at least partly because this is a BA not a BFA, which doesn’t align with @firmament2x 's assumption that “there probably wouldn’t be a high bar for dance” in terms of SAT/ACT scores.

More broadly I’m struggling to understand what your D hopes to get out of the course at UCLA. Its not really geared towards a professional dance career - a BFA would be much better for that. Is she applying for audition based dance programs elsewhere (you mentioned Fordham - so does that mean the Ailey BFA)? There are plenty of audition based dance courses at other state flagships that would take her CC course credits, which could put her on track for a double major (although I’m very doubtful that the course sequencing would allow any BFA course to be completed in less than 3.5 years), for example Indiana, Oklahoma and Utah were all on my D’s list (she is a sophomore doing a ballet BFA). UT Austin is another possibility that appears to weight the audition more heavily (or at least seems to have relatively low average academic stats for dance majors compared to the university as a whole).

65

@firmament2x and @Twoin18

Yes, the four cap for weighting, and lack of honors boost for OOS classes brings down DDs UC GPA, a bit. It is unclear to me how CC classes are counted (if they are split into two identical semester grades, and all calculations performed in semesters - this is how UF calculates grades for example).

The “NO” grade I posted was to indicate that the class was a single semester class (in FL this is counted as 0.5 credits). In then Duel enrollment equivalency of DD’s CC classes, same count for 0.5 HS credits, others for a full credit.

DD was able to satisfy her year Fine Arts during her freshman year, but she does only have two years of one language (she took some French) - I think two years meets the minimum UC requirement.

Yes, DD dream is to be accepted to a BFA program in Manhattan and dance her life away and live happy ever after. (Fordham/Ailey, NYU, Pace, etc.).

Due to the demands of the BFA program, I think it would be to DDs benefit to eliminate as many of the GE requirements as possible (to free up time to focus on dance). Fordham doesn’t accept college classes taken while in HS; NYU will accept some classes if they were not used to satisfy HS requirements).

Dad’s recommendation is for DD to do her BFA at, FSU, USF, of UF - where she would enter as a junior (will still need four years for her BFA), and will (by law) have all of her GE requirements satisfied - with her “free time” she could then complete a minor, or a second bachelors in, say, psychology. With the money saved she could spend her summers dancing in NYC, Paris, etc.

So, what does this have to do with UCLA? UCLA doesn’t have a dance BFA, but I’ve read that a BA in Dance, from UCLA, or UCB, would be a good starting point for a MFA. The UC system seems to have a good policy for transferring CC classes, so there is hope that DD could eliminate some of the UC GE classes to focus on dance (Fordham wouldn’t provide that option, for example).

The UCLA dance audition doesn’t have a pre screen (like USC, for example) so DD could make a showing in 1/31 in Westwood and get before the faculty. Chances are, DD will not be accepted by UCLA, her application will also be revised by UCSB (BFA), UCSD, and UCB. Time will tell. Good luck to all. Thanks for the feedback.

66

@Twoin18 . . . thanks for the correction. I understand now that since the breadth requirements are the same for all students, a dance major would still have to take a heavy dose of non-dance courses with the rest of the student body (specifically) for her BA.

But honestly I don’t bat an eye when I read that a student wants to cross the country to attend this public university in California. Florida is well represented in the undergraduate student body from those out of state as are those up and down the eastern seaboard, especially from the tri-state region of CT, NJ, and NY, downward to the southern states.

A lot of this is because of the California dream but also because the University is of high caliber. I’m going to guess that some of these other universities wouldn’t have the same appeal, though hopefully once she immerses herself in dance wherever it may be, she’ll be happy. Additionally, her other options may well be at private colleges, with UCLA perhaps being the only public on her list, added with perhaps UCSB in honor of @ucsb82.

Thanks for your input, you are the go-to for dance questions and certainly other matters also.

67

@ucsb82 . . . thanks for the education in your post #64. This is hopefully not intended as an insult, but nice sandbagging. :slight_smile:

Best of luck to your daughter hopefully, I guessing, at NYU. And she’ll make a good arts manager once her career is done.

Edit: And by all means, keep us informed of the process and where she ends up.

68

And by sandbagging, I meant a more ameliorated, benign type, almost seemingly playful. In fact you inspired me to run a marathon after I read your post. I stopped short by a considerably large amount but that’s beside the point. Best wishes…

69

@ucsb82 I think you should ask for more opinions in the Dance Major forum. I don’t consider UCLA’s program to be pre-pro, my D didn’t bother applying to the dance program there or at UCB (she got in for an academic major instead - we are instate and her twin brother is at UCLA). I think most would consider UCI to be the best UC for dance, followed by UCSB, though even those BFAs aren’t completely professionally focused (we didn’t look at UCSD either). I’m also not sure of the relevance of an MFA to a performing as opposed to a teaching career.

If you want to go outside FL (and I tend to agree that staying instate and doing a double major far more cheaply would be a great idea) I think you should seriously consider other state flagships like Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah or Texas where the academic admissions are not going to be as much of a challenge and many of the CC courses will probably still transfer

70

@firmamnet2x - you lost me on the whole “sandbagging” topic, must be some misunderstanding. In post #62 you mentioned a grade trend in DD’s Government grade that I didn’t understand (as I listed only a single Government grade) - certainly no intended negative context. Thanks for taking the time to review, and comment.

The UC GPA requirement (limited to grades 10/11) seems to be used to set the minimum requirement. DD meets the 3.4 OOS minimum without requiring the 4 (capped) points from the (10) 3 credit CC courses that she completed before her Senior HS year.

I don’t know the level of merit the ADCOM uses for planned senior courses - but DD will have completed 10 more three credit transferable CC courses prior to graduating HS in May (for a total of 60 semester CC credits).

Best I can tell, most of the premiere dance programs only accept approximately 50-75 dancers - so the wise tend to cast a wide net.

In the case of UCLA, the chances are also slim to be accepted into the dance program, but one of the bonus of the UC application is being able to select a alternate major. So, if Dance doesn’t pan out perhaps DD will gain acceptance into her UCLA Plan B - time will tell.

71

@ucsb82:

From the UCLA Website:

So an alternate major may not make a difference.

72

@Gumbymom , Post 70: Thanks for the reminder about alternative majors, it seems odd to me that UCLA would have this approach for a major (Dance) that has a audition requirement, but hey, I’ll send them an e-mail to confirm.

Changing gears: I think DD will have all the transfer requirements for UCLA Psychology by the time she graduates HS (but she is unable to apply as a transfer student).

I guess I will shop for other LS majors that meet DD’s college classes (hopefully completing all of the transfer requirements for that alternate major as well).

There’s probably post on this thread for the “safety” major to select for the best chance of acceptance.

73

This may already be known to the group:

“A: For freshmen applying to a major in UCLA’s College of Letters and Science, choice of major will neither enhance nor diminish their prospects for admission. In fact, a large number of freshman applicants apply as “undeclared.” Major is a factor for freshmen applying to non-L&S schools at UCLA (Arts and Architecture; Engineering; Nursing; Theater, Film and Television).”

I’ll still check with the college of Arts and Architecture to determine if the alternate major needs to be within the college.

74

@ucsb82 . . .

I thought they were two separate grades “N” and “O”. When I looked them up there were indeed the initials “N” for not passing and “O” for outstanding. I was thinking, “Why is she taking important classes as essentially pass or no pass?” My apologies…

As to my sandbagging comment, I thought in our discussions previous to your post #64 that you didn’t know that much about applying to UC, even though you said in an earlier post that you went to UCSB (which makes sense with your handle). So when you hit us with #64, I was blown away. You’ve obviously done a lot of research for dance programs across the nation, but this was not even remotely evident in all your pre-#64 posts. It was actually a compliment; I wasn’t presenting as though you were disingenuous as the word denotes or even connotes. My apologies…

Right. . . understood. The 3.4 is actually higher than in-state students’ 3.1. You’re also right if I caught your inference: summer as a rising senior is included in soph and jr grades.

She sounds like she’s done an incredible job of setting herself up for advanced standing at UF per your prior post.

However, I don’t think it would work at UCLA or UC in general. But there is a mitigating factor that UCLA takes into account, and that is that California high schools pretty much have the most APs by a good amount of all the states in the nation. The University makes this adjustment for out-of-state students (and even more for Internationals) by requiring higher board scores, as they have lower wgpas.

I’m thinking that y’all (sorry) in Florida don’t have a bunch of APs or certainly not as much as CA. Otherwise she might not have resorted to having simultaneous enrollment at her fcc? She manifests honors, sure, but AP perhaps not. Well, I guess I shouldn’t say that without fully, fully knowing. So though honors in CA would not necessarily denote APs, I think the University could cut her some slack in the admissions process because of the previous paragraph.

And things like Algebra I and II are not in anyway considered high-standing courses. The only real way to get college credit for math – not relative to your daughter’s situation but as an example – is to take calculus in high school, with the AB or BC tests for 1 or 2 course credits.

And I don’t recognize some of the courses she’s taken at her fcc. But then again, the a-g casts a pretty wide net; the University is trying to enable not disable.

Strange because I just used the same metaphor, without reading this paragraph. But I’ll hope this will be the case for your daughter, with the audition as I think you said happening before any admissions decision.

I’ll hope for the best, despite what gumbymom said.

I’ll say it again . . . all the best!

75

Forum Champion Note:
Lots of good info here. But let’s try and keep patronizing comments down to a min. And please use words everyone can understand without needing to pull out a dictionary. Welcome to all the users visiting the UCLA Forum of College Confidential. This forum serves as the official CC thread on all topics related to UCLA. Thanks and best of luck to all the applicants.

76

Thanks to all who have contributed to my initial question - if having an AA would be a plus for UCLA applicant - my conclusion is no.

I do think it would be favorably received if a freshman applicant had completed all, or most, of the UCLA GE requirements prior to HS graduation.

As far as UCLA goes, I think my DD’s best path would be to gain acceptance in the college of L&S (pre-psych, or cognitive science) targeting completion in three years (and dancing off, and on campus in her spare time).

Here’s a link to the UCLA GE requirements - in case folks find it helpful.

https://www.registrar.ucla.edu/Academics/GE-Requirement/Campuswide-GE-Requirements-Overview

77

Thanks @10s4life . . . noted in your post #74.

78

Have any applicants received an email notifying them that their application was received? I applied to UCLA, UCSD, and Berkeley and so far Berkeley has been the only one to send a confirmation email.

79

@jennylog20 same for my daughter and her BFF as well. They both submitted their UC apps over a week ahead of the deadline. I just think Cal is more on-the-ball in their admissions office! I don’t think you should be concerned.

80

My D20 applied to UCLA and UCSD. She has not received any emails but I believe both say on their website that portal emails will be sent mid-December.