<p>Since I saw the post about the Berkeley Alumnus willing to help out, I decided to do one for UCLA. Ask me anything that you think relevant, but please not anything silly "I have a 2.2 GPA, what can I do to get in?"</p>
<p>I transferred almost 2 years ago and look forward to graduate in June. Feel free to ask me questions, I made many bone head decisions before transferring and I would not like you to repeat my mistakes.I am a non traditional student in more ways than one:</p>
<ul>
<li>I am South Campus (UCLA talk for steM major)</li>
<li>I am a first generation college student</li>
<li>I am a minority</li>
<li>I am a parenting student</li>
<li>I receive full financial aid (did not realize so many rich kids go to UCLA)</li>
</ul>
<p>Do if you have any questions please ask....</p>
<p>If I dont respond so soon I apologize, I am in the middle of midterms. However I try to answer as many questions as possible. </p>
<p>Also if there are any UCLA students (preferably transfers) that want to add their 2 cents please feel free.</p>
<p>One more thing I forgot to mention Go Bruins!!! UCLA 37 - Cal 10,</p>
<p>p.s. there is a rivalry between UCLA and Cal but its brother against brother, we may joke around but at the end of the day we are both brothers and there is mutual respect.</p>
<p>Personal statements vary, it not only depends on how well you write them. the substance of the personal statement matters.</p>
<p>In my opinion a good personal statement is a tie-breaker. If there are 2 students with similar GPA, major. The personal statement can be the difference between getting in or not. I truly believe that I was in that scenario (my GPA was not the best) and I benefited from the tie-breaker.</p>
<p>to snorlaz: I dont know how I would feel about getting rejected Berkeley since I got accepted.</p>
<p>However I can tell you how it feels to get rescinded, since my admission to UCLA got rescinded. I got accepted to UCLA and some some stupid reason (sophmoreitis?) I got a D in differential equations my the spring semester before transferring. I naively tried to hide it, when UCLA found out I got rescinded immediately. .</p>
<p>Getting Rescinded sucks, It’s like reaching a pedestal and then being thrown off by it, it is definitely worst than rejection.</p>
<p>Luckily, I was able to appeal it and miraculously got overturned. However the summer of 2012 was full of stress. The advice is that even in the worst scenario you can always apply the next year.</p>
<p>to lsq921224: my advice is to try to join as many organizations that you find enjoyable as long as it does not negatively affect GPA. They are an important way to build your network and most of all they can be fun. The upside of joining a “frat” is that alumni of the frat are more likely to hire you after graduation.</p>
<p>Since I am a parenting student I decided to not to join because I dont have enough time. I almost joined SACNAS (society for the advancement of chicanos and native american scientist) however time conflict was the main issue for me. However the people there were very nice to me.</p>
<p>However its important to network, being a UCLA graduate is not a job guarantee. You still have you put your name out there and socialize.</p>
<p>in a seriousness, getting admitted to UCLA under 3.0 is getting harder and harder. there is just too many transfer students with good GPA’s, classic supply in demand. </p>
<p>If someone really wants to get admitted to UCLA with a 2.2 GPA I only have 2 words for you: academic renewal.</p>
<p>there might be another way but I can’t think of any. even one of the alumni who has donated millions of dollars to ucla spoke to us and said that his own grandson got rejected to ucla, his grandson had to attend another uc.</p>
<p>Did you do any extracurricular activities or jobs that was related to your major when you were applying?
Do you mind telling us the GPA you had when you applied/when UC looked at your application?</p>
<p>What’s the social scene like? People pretty motivated, talkative and friendly, or do I have to neckbreakingly try to motivate every conversation? Are people *******s? Are there high school style cliques? </p>
<p>What’s your major? Are there inter-major feuds? What’s your perception of Math majors? Specifically, have you met any Financial Actuarial Math majors? What are they like? What are your teachers like? Do they motivate you, or do they put you to sleep? </p>
<p>How is your housing? Do you live on campus? In Westwood? If you live in a UCLA owned apartment, what’s that like? How’s the kitchen? Do people violate you while you shower? (Just kidding)</p>
<p>How’re the on campus eateries? The youtube videos make them look pretty good, but I kinda imagine it’s like Army dining facilities, because of sheer volume. </p>
<p>To Luckylucky: I do have plenty of job experience. I worked a few years as a math tutor and since I became a math major I think it was relevant. Since I went to different colleges my GPA is not exact, it depends how you want to calculate it. It was somewhere between 3.2-3.4</p>
<p>DreamerJMC: I don’t know which factor got me in more… I think the non traditional was more relevant. Most of the parenting students that I have made are north campus majors (humanities). Remember that because prop 209 race is an illegal consideration for admittance, the admissions officers don’t know what your race is when you apply.</p>
<p>Hey sega18: a lot of interesting questions.</p>
<p>Major: mathematics/economics</p>
<p>Major feuds? Yes, north campus vs south campus. Between south campus there are rivalries between pre meds, engineers, and everything else (math, stats, geology)</p>
<p>Since I’m a math major I can definetly tell you there are rivalries between the department. Pure math are the preferred ones, they think they are so smart because all they do is proofs. </p>
<p>Then there is applied math, math/Econ, and actuarial…</p>
<p>The applied math people tend to think that mAth Econ and acurial math are not real math majors and we don’t belong… </p>
<p>Teachers are crapshoot, some teachers are motivating others are geniuses but don’t know how to teach. </p>
<p>Housing is expensive, the food at he dorms are similar to hometown buffet. They are amazing at first but get repetitive fast. I live in family housing which is nice because is spacious but sucks since it is far away (5 miles).</p>
<p>If you thinking about actuary then ucla is the right place. The bruin actuarial society is a growing club, and there Is a strong demand for actuaries.</p>
<p>@OP
So, you flat out lied about your grades and Berkeley never rescinded your acceptance and UCLA still let you in? This would be quite alarming.</p>
<p>I never lied to the UC’s about the grades. I just delay submitting my spring grades to them and took my time submitting my transcripts late. Berkeley did not recind my application, UCLA did. I submitted my SIR (Student Intent to Register) only to UCLA so whether Berkeley would take away the admittance would be irrelevant.</p>
<p>Congratulations of those impressive credential.</p>
<p>with your high GPA you are a shoe-in to get admitted to UCLA.
the only scenario which i see you getting rejected if don’t get your IGETC or you too many major pre-requisites missing.</p>
<p>so why even bother writing a great personal statement??
With your credentials writing a great personal statement is going to matter if you want to receive $cholar$hips. There are many scholarships that the UC’s offer, based on income, grades, major, ect. So you will be competing with 4.0 students, and the personal statement can set you apart.</p>
<p>One more thing to consider, the UC’s compete for students. So if you UCLA really likes you and thinks they will lose you to a rival UC (Cal, UCSB, ect) they will do whatever it takes ($$) to make sure you attend their school.</p>