<p>SO...
I've been accepted to UCLA (American Literature & Culture major) for Fall 2014!
AND
I've also been accepted to UC Berkeley (English major) for Spring 2015!</p>
<p>I honestly wasn't expecting to get into either school & I'm still in shock!
& at the moment I'm pretty torn between the two (I realize that this is a WONDERFUL 'dilemma' to have)</p>
<p>I would absolutely LOVE any feedback from past/current transfer's who were also in a similar dilemma and what was the deciding factor that made them choose either LA or Cal. </p>
<p>**I'm a junior transfer from a CCC...if that makes a difference
THANK YOU!!</p>
<p>I’m also into English. Personally, I’d rather major in English than American Literature & Culture. I’m saying this because “English” already has narrow job prospects; where as American Literature & Culture has even narrower job prospects.</p>
<p>Also, Berkeley beats out UCLA in academic rankings. I mean, if you want to intern in Los Angeles while pursuing your major, UCLA should win; but, if you like Northern California, by all means go to Berkeley.</p>
<p>The semester separation between UCLA and Berkeley could be used to either attend UCLA, or intern/peruse other interests. </p>
<p>@Jewbacca has spoken… But it depends on your age. I am a little older so I would rather go to the best academic institution available. If you are younger UCLA would probably be more “fun.”</p>
<p>As with anything, it’s what you make of it. Spring admission can be used to your advantage. There are those who want to defer their admission to Spring but cannot. I personally will use this time to do various sorts of things that I would not have had time to do otherwise. (reading, traveling, relaxing, exercising, learning, etc.)</p>
<p>In the grand scheme of things, starting one semester later is not really a big deal. I am submitting my SIR to Cal as soon as I secure my spot in a summer class. (the last pre-req I was missing per Conditions of Admissions).</p>
<p>Follow your heart and you’ll be ok.
Hope this helps. :-c </p>
<p>Is UCLA really that fun over Cal? Probably not. I’ve been to both campuses and both seem great in their own different ways. I think both are great college experiences it just depends on the person, dude! </p>
<p>@ocnative I’ve seen people complain about life in cal and all the hippie culture going on but didnt see anyone complain about ucla, and obviously LA area beats Oakland </p>
<p>I am a UC Berkeley English student and I LOVE it. I had a hard time deciding between Cal and UCLA too, but I am so glad I chose Cal. UCLA is a great school, and I’m sure it is fun, but Cal is fun too! And it has an amazing English program! I don’t think starting a semester late would be that big a deal, either. Of course it depends on your personal future plans and which location you prefer too-- have you visited both schools?</p>
<p>Good for you for getting into both! Feel free to ask me any questions about being an English major at Cal. :)</p>
<p>@kat121 - I can’t think of any specific questions but can you just tell me a bit about what it is like? What are the classes, professors and other students like? What is the work load like? Is it hard maintaining a high GPA? What are you plans after graduation? </p>
<p>@Annie2015:
Classes: the largest class I was in had 120 students (that was my Shakespeare class, which is a prereq for the major), but most of them are in the 25-50 range. Usually there is a grad student reader who grades your papers and exams, but I have one class where the professor grades the papers (that’s for a class with 25 students). Some classes have discussion sections with grad student instructors, but I’ve never had one of those (I got out of the 45 series pre-req with CC credit). The biggest difference I noticed between CC and Cal is that there are no quizzes or anything like that, and a lot of classes have no exams, so your whole grade is based primarily on a few papers, which is a little intimidating! It was a strange feeling to have essentially nothing but reading for like a month and then suddenly have papers to stress about. Also, the paper prompts tend to ask more of you, in my experience. Of course, this is natural for upper div classes!</p>
<p>Professors: they are so smart and so willing to be helpful. I hear great things about most of the professors in the department, actually, so I’m excited about taking more classes with different professors! So far I have had two professors in particular that I LOVED. </p>
<p>I’m not sure how to describe the students! They are friendly and smart. I’ve met cool people in all of my classes. The workload is all reading until you have a paper, but there is lots of reading. I’m only in my second semester, but my GPA is good so far, though not quite as high as CC! (I had a 4.0 in CC). I’m not sure what I’m going to do after graduation yet-- as I said, I’m just finishing my first year. </p>
<p>@Annie2015 Well, it depends on the class. I’m not exactly sure how to quantify it. For one of my classes, in which we read novels, we spent about four classes on each novel. For some of my other classes, we’d have anywhere from 20-50 page readings per class, I guess? Which isn’t that bad, really. In my Shakespeare class we read a play a week.</p>
<p>Yes, I am from SoCal! It is different up here, but not THAT different. I’m not sure how I would describe the difference… there’s just a different vibe or something. You don’t have to drive everywhere, which I personally like a lot. People say “hella.” I found it easy to adjust!</p>
<p>Let me know if you have any more questions!</p>