My daughter get into L&S with Bio major. And, she dances for many years. Wondering can she minor in Dance? How? Or, double major in Dance? And, how?
And, for UCLA, do they have honor program?
@gma668 Not sure about minoring in dance, but I do not think double majoring is possible because you have to apply directly to Arts and Architecture. There is a letters and science honors college program but most students recommend against it. it is better to graduate with latin honors (high gpa) than it is to say you were in the honors college because that is technically not graduating with honors in the traditional sense. The honors college is more work, harder classes for not much benefit other than saying you are in it. UCLA is plenty rigorous on its own, especially in the life sciences.
@10s4lif, Honors program site mentions about working with hand selected professors, summer research opportunity for students, and interesting interdisciplinary seminars. How about for pre-med students? Do you still advice against honors program. Also, do you know when alumni scholarship interview notifications will come out.
@WCSeniorsDad Yeah I still do. Especially for premeds, med schools care most about gpa, mcat, then extracuriculars/volunteering in that order. The honors college technically is another barrier to getting that gpa since you’re placing yourself in a more competitive cohort because you’re taking the honors versions of many classes. Research is super easy to get on your own without being in the program. Plus you have the flexibility of choosing which labs you want to apply too. The hand selected professors thing is pretty overrated imo. I’ve had Chancellors Professors, dept chairs, and other famous faculty and tbh my two favorite professors were adjuncts. One was an executive at google. The other was an editor for the la times. While not producing world renowned research, they brought some real life perspective to the learning. As for the alumni scholarships notifications, it should be sometime soon but I’m not sure. That’s through the alumni association not ucla itself.
My S18 has definitely felt that UCLA Regents scholars have some big advantages beyond just the money. (He doesn’t have one, just an Alumni scholarship which doesn’t give any priority).
First choice of class is very useful, because he has had to do some shuffling of classes when he was one of the last to pick during second pass in a couple of quarters, and has not always been able to get his desired TA section. Once he had to ask a friend to “save” a class spot for him in a class he really wanted but couldn’t choose in first pass because of other courses that were required for his major (they registered for the extra class then dropped it at a specific time when he was ready to grab the free spot the second it became available).
Secondly the housing registration advantages also appear to help significantly, he was a fair way down the list to pick dorm rooms for sophomore year and was fortunate to get the last triple on the north (cooler) side of the building that he wanted. And if you want to move to an apartment, then Regents scholars seem to be the only students (apart from athletes) who are likely to get a university owned one as opposed to a privately rented one where you also have to rent for the summer.
So while I don’t know exactly how the Regents scholar benefits work at UCI, I would definitely consider this seriously, especially now their merit money has been increased significantly.
are there any actual admits on this forum? or just parents?
@DanielSabogal its a mix. This past year a large amount of parents posted for their kids. Prev years were different.
I received an email from UCLA asking for additional financial aid information. There are 4 forms. Why are there so many for me whereas others have already received their financial aid offer? Is it because I resubmitted by FAFSA after I fixed an error last week and my FAFSA has to still process?
To those deciding which UC campus or university to attend, just sharing some tips that helped our family decide on which campus my child should attend.
My child was accepted last year to UCSD (Regents), UCLA (Alumni Scholar), and UC Berkeley (no awards or aid). The following helped us in our decision:
- Visited campus - as you cannot do so at this time, do attend virtual events for admitted students.
- Attended overnight/ day events for Regents, Alumni Scholars - Go online and look for contact persons for the Regents, Alumni Scholars, etc ,and check if you can reach out to a current scholar to ask questions and to have an idea of his/her experience as a scholar.
- Attended a class - as all classes are online, reach out to the department and ask if you can be allowed to attend an online class. You might be allowed to attend a class for freshmen.
- Discussed program with academic advisor/program coordinator - Contact the program coordinator/academic advisor of your major or intended major. Ask details of the program ( courses offered, research opportunities, potential internships/job) and see if these things match your expectations
- Assessed financial ability to pay fees- Do you plan to go to grad school? Is it worth having a certain amount of debt after undergrad? Do keep in mind that most graduate schools offer generous scholarships/aids except medical schools.
- Sought advice from friends/family whose kids are attending the campus or who are working at the campus - very, very useful. We found out about the prevalent campus culture, what to expect --- and if they match with my child's preference and expectations
- Considered other important factors for our family- Is it important for you that you continue developing and living your faith and beliefs in college? If so, are there facilities/groups to match this need? Will it be easy for you and/or family to travel to/from the campus in case of emergency? Are there friends and/or relatives near the campus who can help you in case you need assistance?
- Discussed choices of campus as a family- At the end of the day, the child will be the one going to that particular school. Seriously consider his/her thoughts and concerns.
My child is attending UCLA. We are all glad that she decided to be a Bruin. You might not end up at UCLA, but you will do very well at any university if you choose to do so.
Best wishes to all!
Thanks for this very thoughtful write-up. May I ask which Dept or Major is your daughter enrolled in? Did she find UCLA too big/overwhelming? Also, what’s the culture like (heavy party or drinking)? Is this a competitive or collaborative campus?
@D4Mom Thanks for the useful tips. Are you instate or OOS? When did you find out about alumni scholarship, before committing? Did you consider college ranking in your decisions?
Hi there! My name is Emerson and I was recently accepted to UCLA for Computer Science 
I’m very excited for the opportunity but have a few questions if someone would have time to help
- How often do the actual professors teach the classes rather than the TAs?
- What’s the culture like inside the CS major specifically? Or is that too hard to pin down? Like is it very party heavy? Because I am not lol
- I can’t find the male-female ratio for CS at UCLA online. I’m a girl and so far all my CS classes throughout high school have been me as the only girl and twenty other guys. So while I’m used to the situation, I was just wondering if it was still a thing in college (UCLA specifically obviously).
Thank you so much for your help!
Does anyone know when we find out about the alumni scholarship?
@10s4life I was admitted for Electrical Engineering! Could you talk a little bit about what it’s like to be an engineer at UCLA? In terms of culture, difficulty, experience, etc. I am planning to do engineering wherever I go and I am nervous about the rigor and cutthroat culture of competitive engineering schools.
Congrats to those who got accepted to UCLA!
Just peeking in here to ask @10s4life what is the acceptance rate this year for UCLA?
My friend’s daughter applied and she is devastated that she didn’t get in. UCLA was her top choice and would be willing to go 3000 miles to attend UCLA. She has pretty decent stats too.
@livford https://www.seasoasa.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/seasoasa/UCEE.pdf
If you scroll down to page 8, you can see the Gender Breakdown by Major. For CE, CS, & CSE, Female Ratio is around 22%.
@Heyryan227 Ok not too bad, thanks so much for your help pal!
Haha lots of questions here. Hopefully this will answer them! And congrats on your admissions!
- One unique thing at UCLA engineering is all engineering courses are taught by faculty. TA’s only teach the discussion sections which are supplementary to the lecture. The only CS course taught by a TA is CS35L which is a lab class that doesn’t need a prof.
- The CS culture is pretty laid back for a top ranked cs program. The students are pretty collaborative and there is alot of group projects so you will get some good real world team experience in software projects. This is helpful for internships and industry since you’ll learn how to work in an Agile team. UCLA is a big school so there are def students who party but like any large school, you can find people that have the same interests/ideals as you.
- CS is def male heavy but there is a large emphasis on expanding women in engineering. SWE (society of women engineers) is pretty big at UCLA. I haven’t taken CS courses in while but in my physics class there were 2 guys (including me) and 4 girls in our study group.
- If you have other questions Id be happy to answer them or connect you to an Engineering Ambassador that is CS major who can help.
- Alumni scholarships should be out soon.
- You’re in luck since Im EE. I had a great experience so far and really like it. Like my previous answer for CS, EE and the rest of the engineering school is very collaborative. At orientation there is a heavy emphasis that engineering is a team sport in the real world so the curriculum reflects that. Professors encourage us to work together and there are alot of group projects. I’ve learned almost as much from peers as I have from professors. There will always be cut throat people who will do anything to get an A but as a whole, I haven’t found my experience to be that at all. Its difficult for sure but not impossible. I was by no means a top applicant (my scores are on the lower end for EE) and I managed to do ok without spending all my free time studying/doing homework. With good time management you will have plenty of free time to spend doing things outside of engineering. Feel free to reach out if you have any other questions.
@Nhatrang
Nice to see you again. Hope your daughter is doing well. The acceptance rate isn’t public information yet. That will be released sometime mid fall. It was definitely a competitive year especially for engineering. One reason why for all the high stats kids getting denied/waitlisted is UCLA’s yield has been going up so they can accept less people to still fill classes.
For engineering admits, while Discover Engineering won’t be in person it will be really interactive with live aspects so it will not just be static brochures or videos. Hope you all decide to become Bruins!
@10s4life Thank you so much for all of your help! We really appreciate it.
@livford - Not to discourage you but I would definitely suggest trying to connect with a current UCLA cs student. My understanding is that most top schools (including Cal & MIT) start cs majors with Python which they believe is an easier starting point. UCLA however starts with C++. My D is a junior CE student who had considered cs and took cs 31 (one of the intro cs classes). While she did pass with a B, she found it extremely difficult to the point she was discouraged to continue. Her professor (who was suppose to be one of the best) didn’t help. He chastised kids that didn’t do well and told them they would never succeed in life. It was brutal.
UCLA cs graduates may be better qualified in the end due to the rigor of the curriculum but I think they must have several dropout early in the process that may not have if they started with a different language.
Other than that, my D loves UCLA and is very happy. She has not found it to be a party school at all. She has said many of time “All the kids at UCLA are genuinely super nice. It’s like the admissions counselors specifically seek them out.”
My D2 was waitlisted for fall and we are crossing our fingers she gets in.