What are the 3 best and worst things about UCLA

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Los Angeles
1

<p>I am looking for information about "your" experience at the school per se and not the location (traffic/cost). Thanks!!</p>

<p>A prospective parent.</p>

2

<p>Best:[ul]
[<em>]Software job recruitment
[</em>]Lots of student organizations, many of which are simultaneously educational and fun
[<em>]Several excellent professors who are willing to make themselves available to talk 1:1[/ul]
Worst:[ul]
[li]Course registration[/li][</em>]Constant construction (a positive for future students, I guess)
[*]Very little variety in food options (especially for vegetarians)[/ul]</p>

3

<p>Best:
Extra curricular activities (volunteering, clubs, research positions- overall a lot of opportunities)
Some really excellent professors who truly enjoy getting to know students
Great campus/student body</p>

<p>Worst:
Hard to get into popular classes
Some really bad professors (although I’ve had great TAs who more than make up for a bad professor)
Hard/frustrating to navigate the bureaucracy at times.</p>

4

<p>Best:

  1. campus is the most beautiful sight in the world. Going to be a senior and I will never get sick of staring up Janss Steps to see blue sky and Royce Hall and Powell Library.</p>

<p>2) the Professors in my department are amazing. The History and Urban Planning department are wonderful. I love my professors and have stopped by in their office hours and had amazing conversations with them. Some of the best memories of college are my classroom experience with them and the knowledge they shared with me.</p>

<p>3) the food is too good. For crying out loud…you can eat tiramisu, gelato, and super delicious pizza everyday. The dining halls have great food and occasionally you’ll get some real good stuff like all you can eat Crawfish and Gumbo. Yum.</p>

<p>Worst:</p>

<p>1) The football team stinks. No matter how much you hope and pray to God, the football team will never be good. Or so it seems.</p>

<p>2) Class registration is frustrating. If you didn’t enter college with a lot of AP credits, you are almost certainly doomed because you will end up with the least popular classes with the most difficult professors and your GPA will suffer. This system discriminates against students who came from high schools that offered little or weak AP curriculums and rewards those who had the benefit of a solid high school foundation. I was one of those who entered college with few AP credits and it has been a humongous pain to deal with this.</p>

<p>3) The campus hills. It takes me 20 minutes to casually walk from my apartment to my classroom. Even in perfectly cool 60 degree weather, I am drenching with sweat by the time I arrive in class. Thank you unnecessary Westwood hills for making my life harder.</p>

5

<p>Thank you ^^^ for replying. We simply loved the campus too :slight_smile: Its hard to figure out what to expect as an outsider…hence my post. The responses were helpful. Our tour guide seemed to be in love with UCLA and her enthusiasm was contagious!</p>

6

<p>I like the hills. They give the campus character.</p>

7

<p>^ I agree! So how does the meal plan work for lunches? Do you carry your food along?</p>

8

<p>The hills keep us in shape, don’t hate.</p>

9

<p>I’ve never had a problem with registration. There has never been a time where I have not gotten the classes I want.</p>

<p>Good:

  1. Dorm food. Those of you who are complaining are just way too spoiled.
  2. Libraries.
  3. ?</p>

<p>Bad:

  1. People can act arrogant and conceited sometimes.
  2. The LA area gets way too hot sometimes. Norcal is much better.
  3. I haven’t had any extremely good professors as I would expect from here. A lot of professors don’t really care about teaching and are more into their research.</p>
10

<p>

</p>

<p>You can pack sack lunches or get meal coupons to use at ASUCLA restaurants on campus, but I don’t think many people do that. Most people head back up to the dorms during a break in the schedule or pay out of their pocket to eat on campus. You probably need a full hour break if you’re going to eat in the dining halls.</p>

11

<p>Yes, I wasn’t quite sure how that worked as dorms are @ 15-20 min walk?</p>

12

<ol>
<li>food</li>
<li>clubs/the variety of people you can meet</li>
<li>professors
for me personally the fact that it rains very little. i hate rain lol.</li>
</ol>

<p>bad

  1. parking
  2. traffic
  3. idk</p>
13

<p>Best:

  1. The name itself
  2. Beauty of the campus
  3. A majority of the women</p>

<p>Worst:

  1. Parking
  2. Traffic
  3. All the asians going “ching-chong ding-dong” all day long</p>
14

<p>Best:</p>

<p>1) Great Professors and Competitive Students. I was one of the smartest kids in high school and at UCLA I am nothing more than average. While this adds additional stress and pressure, I feel the constant competition pushes me much further to grow intellectually as well as perform to the best of my abilities.</p>

<p>2) Wide array of hobbies to pick up. The Wooden Center has dozens of sports groups, exercise classes, and activities to get involved with.</p>

<p>3) Wide array of students. Easy to find groups to fit in, whether it be gaming nerds, art hipsters, or frat dudes, no one really cares what you do and all the stereotyping crap from high school is mostly gone.</p>

<p>Worst: (I had to think a moment for these)</p>

<p>1) While you should always review your professors before enrolling at bruinwalk.com, sometimes you may be unlucky and get a professor that spends more time on his research than actually teaching undergraduate students. In fact, the professors here are paid to research, not to teach. Their pay grade is not influenced by how well they teach! So always look up to get best professors at teaching.</p>

<p>2) People flier and solicit everyday on the “Bruin Walk”. While walking to class, student’s have learned to turn cold shoulders, walk with headphones and sunglasses, or do anything to avoid being hassled. This in turn has made it quite annoying to actually talk to someone while walking to class. Everyone seems to want to avoid each other. While I try to keep an open mind, I have become more stone walled as well.</p>

<p>(eg.) A couple walked up to me and greeted me. I immediately thought they were some fundraising campaign or christian group trying to enlist me. I almost instinctively said “No Thanks” but realized they were just wanted directions to the ucla bookstore.</p>

<p>3) Peak hours at the gym is horrible. Weight room is packed with guys, cardio room is packed with girls. I don’t like staying at the gym for 2 hours.</p>

<p>Hope it helps!</p>