Agree. And given how hard UCLA is for so many things, why on earth would you want to do that to yourself 
Mine is willing given the difference in class sizes. It seems that the difficulty of those classes is keeping most students away.
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That makes sense.
It makes perfect sense that departments might still offer honors courses and/or research programs, especially for those in the major (or planning to declare the major). Just probably doesn’t make much sense to have a university-wide (or even college-wide) honors program any more, especially with selection based off the college app.
My recollection from decades ago at Cal was that the honors version of first year physics had no problem keeping class sizes down even though it was open to all and the “physics for scientists & engineers” sequence had hundreds in the lecture hall. No engineer I knew (including me) was that masochistic. But those who survived it knew they were cut out to be a physics major 
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There are three different flavors of Honors at UCLA:
- Latin Honors at graduation (just based on GPA, top 5%/10%/20% for summa/magna/cum laude, no special classes)
- College Honors (what’s discussed above, requires a range of non-major classes)
- Departmental Honors (a senior thesis in your major, competitive to get the opportunity, has merit for many of the successful candidates).
S18 did departmental honors which he enjoyed: he got “Highest Honors” which is the prize for the top departmental thesis, also was an Undergraduate Research Scholar and got $6000 for his senior year (some of which could be used for the research, but he didn’t need to, so it was just a discount on tuition). Around 10% of students in the major did an honors thesis, I’m not sure how many applied (in the spring of junior year). It’s a very good idea if you are considering grad school.
He didn’t think College Honors was worthwhile, it required extra courses outside your major and doesn’t give you any money.
FWIW he was also an Alumni Scholar all four years.
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That’s a helpful rundown — thanks! My kid at UCLA is hoping to get #1 — the gpa cutoffs are pretty high! He’s sad he’s getting his first B in a course this quarter.
Latin Honors are going to get tougher because they take the top 5% by GPA in previous years and during Covid lots of students went P/F on classes where they thought their grades might slip, boosting their overall GPA. In S18’s graduating class, nearly 15% of his major got summa cum laude, so there’ll be a bunch of realignment in the cutoffs going forward.
Both S and his best friend ended up with a 4.0 but that wasn’t in sciences. It’s a shame they don’t give a boost for A+ as there were plenty of those handed out in upper level courses (he got more A+s than As overall).
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I got accepted as a Regents Scholar but didn’t apply. It came as an email and a digital letter on the MyUCLA Provisional Aid portal page on 3/28. I’m a little confused because from what I can gather from previous years, UCLA admits get an invite to apply and then are selected, rather than an immediate acceptance.
A post was merged into an existing topic: UCLA Fall 2023: Transfer Thread
It has varied over the years. Back in 2018 the acceptances came with admissions. In other years there has been a separate application process for a select group of applicants, sometimes before admissions are formally announced.
Have all the regents been sent out? I’m holding onto hope lol
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Congratulations!
Several years ago (maybe 4-5), UCLA awarded Regents like this. Then they changed to the early application process. Last year they asked students to apply after they found out they were admitted.
for the waitlist people, is there an option to send a LOCI or no?
No, just the waitlist statement, updated grades and achievements. UCLA does not consider an applicant’s level of interest. By opting into the waitlist and submitting your waitlist statement is interest enough.
Help needed : UCSD vs UCLA 2023
Major :
[UCSD](Biology with Specialization in Bioinformatics)
[UCLA](Pre Computational & Systems Biology)
Future career aspiration:
Ph.D. then scientist in drug discovery / development.
Scholarship :
[UCSD] regents scholarship.
[UCLA] alumni scholarship.
I previously posted at UCSD thread. recently daughter saw she was offered UCLA alumni scholarship. Not sure how this changes anything, hope to get some suggestions / tips helping us make decision.
any suggestions? many thanks.
location is less of a factor, we like both campus.
We have toured both campuses. UCSD is quite spread out, huge campus, very nice part of town (we are from San Diego). But we thought it was almost a ‘concrete jungle’ of sorts. Definitely doesn’t have the charm of UCLA campus. Also the students looked so serious, not nearly as friendly. Additionally the school spirit of UCLA was off the charts.
Just our opinion. We felt is would be an overall better college experience at UCLA. They are both great schools. I would say the best school is the one your student feels the most comfortable at.
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We are in San Diego for Triton Day tomorrow. Daughter was not admitted to UCLA so that’s not a choice, but her older brother is there and I can confirm that the friendly, happy, tons of school spirit vibe is quite strong at UCLA. It does feel like that’s in part due to the small campus—it’s the smallest in terms of acreage. So it has a bit of a buzz. Also the big time sports. By comparison UCSD felt very spread out when we visited two years ago and much less cohesive. We hope we get a good response from our daughter tomorrow, but if she had the choice between the two, it wouldn’t really be a choice. Maybe if you are studying something particular to UCSD as it obviously has some top notch programs.
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S18 was an alumni scholar at UCLA. It really didn’t bring any benefits beyond the $1500 per year, no class or housing selection priority, and he didn’t find the Alumni Scholars Club particularly interesting.
Note that ASC is not the same at all as the Student Alumni Association which organizes Spring Sing, Dinner for 12 Strangers, etc Student Alumni Association - UCLA Alumni. SAA is extremely competitive to get into, as it is limited to 100 members (he did get in eventually in junior year and really enjoyed it).
So much less useful than Regents. But it looked good on his CV. And he absolutely loved UCLA generally, it has been great in terms of opportunities, both during and after college. It is definitely best for outgoing kids who are comfortable being go-getters, as many of the most interesting opportunities are quite competitive.
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anyone know if Bruin day is worth attending for us out of staters?
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We felt the same way. UCSD felt palpably flat. It was a nice day, and it seemed that nobody was talking to each, at least what I could see from my car as my son and wife toured. Why was I in my car? Because I circled every parking garage for over an hour and could not find one parking spot. It was too filled up with zombie commuters.
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