<p>great post mook, i agree, i often wonder what it was like to have the freshman experience and what living in dorms would be like. My first semester at a CC i was envious of all of my classmates who were saying they were enjoying dorm like and partying. Most of the students at a CC are older students who are trying to get an education again for whatever reason they didn't do it the first time, or students from out of the country. Most students i knew had a goal to transfer or get a job and also had jobs and kids to take care of. So being exposed to people of all ages and their different backgrounds also gave me some new perspectives. People at 4 year colleges i guess are mostly all the same ages and party more. I also heard how its harder for a transfer to adjust, fit in, and make friends since people from the previously 2 years already have their groups. And you were right about the counselors, i knew more than they did in some cases.</p>
<p>Good insight zemook, I too think the community college experience can be enlightening and educational in it's own right.</p>
<p>zemookmook-I registered just to thank you for your words.</p>
<p>someone mention about GSI what is that exactly?</p>
<p>GSI Graduate Student Instructor
same thing as TA teaching assistant or TF teaching fellow</p>
<p>^^ oh okay, thanks!</p>
<p>if people rush a sorority/fraternity during thier junior year, do you think that would help out socially? or does the greek system not accept juniors? is there ANY way to be social at UCLA? how was/is the party scene?</p>
<p>If you are outgoing you will have NO Problem being social at ucla</p>
<p>What I write here is from my experience with fraternities, but should be equally applicable to sororities.</p>
<p>The Greek community is a great support base for new transfers. I transferred to UCB this past fall without any plans of joining a greek organization. I ended up pledging a fraternity after I saw the many benefits. I am living in a residence hall and am close with my floor mates and friends I've met through clubs and classes, but the truth is that there are no college friendships stronger than those in fraternities. Living together, working together, and partying together creates lifelong friendships and true brotherhood. </p>
<p>In the shorter term, fraternities provide an instant community of friends who are willing to go to great lengths to help you. I have to admit that it was very tough during my pledge semester, having to adjust to a new environment, take upper-division courses, and participate in time-consuming pledge activities, but I can say that joining a fraternity is one of THE BEST decisions I have ever made. One thing the experience will teach you is time management and efficient study habits. Fraternities and often have many members of the same major, and they are able to give practical advice on what courses to take, who to take them with, and what you should focus on in your studies. I took two classes with brothers from my fraternity during the fall semester and we often studied together, to great success—my fall GPA was much higher than I anticipated. </p>
<p>Fraternities and sororities are not for everyone, but members of the Greek community are the most well-connected people on campus. </p>
<p>PS - I am of the same age as my junior class and I fit in fine, but I can see some awkwardness for older transfers joining a fraternity of primarily 18-22 year olds.</p>
<p>ACADEMICS:</p>
<p>UCLA is LOT LOT LOT HARDER THAN CC COURSES.</p>
<p>IF YOU THINK YOU CAN DO AS WELL AT UCLA JUST BECAUSE YOU GOT 4.0 IN CC AND STAYED TOP OF THE CLASS WITH 125% FINAL GRADE, THEN YOU SHOULD RECONSIDER WHAT YOU ARE GOING INTO.</p>
<p>Basically:
At CC: You study hard day and night 3 days in advance of exam, you will most likely to get an A.</p>
<p>At UCLA: You study hard day and night A WEEK in advance of exam, you will most likely get average (B-/C+), or if you are lucky, a B/B+. </p>
<p>Just a warning.</p>
<p>or maybe I just had hard profs.</p>
<p>^ dhl3 whats your major?</p>
<p>Business Economics</p>
<p>hey dhl,</p>
<p>for business econ what do you think i should do</p>
<p>go to a lower tier UC school like UCI and dominate over there with a rly high GPA</p>
<p>or take ur chances at UCLA and try to perform well and risk a lower GPA but I guess have a chance for better recruitment?</p>
<p>i would say i am big time slacker eventhough I performed really well at JC, but I am starting to have doubts of whether I will realistically be able to handle UCLA</p>
<p>let me know</p>
<p>@dhl, </p>
<p>Why not study hard day and night 5-6 days a week, that's worked for me. I found myself last semester, taking 7 classes at a CC, studying 30-40 hours a week; I am sure that there are some classes at CC which have been "dumbed down" to a level where crash studying is an option, but staying on top of school work (be it reading, writing papers, or grinding through countless problems sets in statistics) uniformly provides a starkly better method to both succeed and to internalize the information learned. From what I have seen, studying for the sheer reason of regurgitation or application on an exam translates to forgetting that material later on. Crash studying seems to be academic laziness coupled with dishonesty; if one forgets what he has learned, his degree is only a facade.</p>
<p>Though, I may be misinterpreting what you meant.</p>
<p>Ektaylor, pretty much everyone at UCLA studies like you. As a matter of fact, starting a week before midterm/finals week, you'll definitely see that there are lot less activities going on in the campus, and the library will be full. People literally bring pillows and blankets and live in the library for a full week (well except shower) during the finals week.</p>
<p>The difference between CC and UCLA (and any other UC's i'm sure) is that at CC, you are one of the very few that actually studies that hardcore and you are at advantage compared to other "slackers" or whatever you wanna call. At UC, studying like you is THE NORM. Basically, imagine you competing against yourself, except there are more than 100 (one of my class has 400 people) of you, and the prof. makes curve based on that.</p>
<p>Competing against myself? Then I would try really hard to beat myself and end up screwing myself...</p>
<p>:D</p>
<p>I am not contending the difference between a CC and a UC --I'm not that naive. What I was responding to was your mention of 'starting to study,' which suggests postponing work, letting it accumulate.</p>
<p>Honestly, whether you start studying early (the first day of lecture) or later on depends on you and the courseload. </p>
<p>This is what I tend to do (based on 4 courses/quarter):</p>
<p>Week 1: Enjoy the opportunity to meet people and go to the club meetings you are part of. Don't really study, noone does. Unless you have Professor Ravetch for Accounting class :) (you'll know what I'm talking about once you attend UCLA)
Week 2: 2-3 hour/day 4 days a week for studying + Review the past lecture materials, do homework, write essays, start those projects.
Week 3: For some South Campus Majors (Math, Science, Engineering) and Econ majors, this tend to be a week before the midterm week (which tend to take place anytime between week 4 - 6). 3-5 hours/5 days a week for studying + finish the projects, finish the homework, etc.</p>
<p>Midterm Week: No-Life Week for me pretty much.
Get up, go to class, eat, then go straight to library, spend pretty much all day there studying, then sleep. This goes on for a whole week (or two if your midterm is spread out). </p>
<p>You do this, you will get a B.</p>
<p>Maybe you'd think this is cramming also, but as a student who goes to UCLA, I'd say I'm a fair representation of what typical students do at UCLA.</p>
<p>Anyway, I'm not trying to argue with you which study method is the most efficient. The point I'm trying to make here is that while I was at CC, I heard from lots of transfers that UCLA (or Cal) is not much harder than CC, and I'm just trying to say that I really regret taking their words as facts and taking my ego at UCLA just to get crashed during my first quarter here. In CC, my GPA was fairly high (3.85) and I was top 3 students in most of my classes. My first quarter in UCLA, I ended up with 3.1, which is not horribly bad but far below what I had in mind. I'm not saying this to brag but to make a point that if you are a very successfuly student at CC and set standard high for yourself at UCLA (which I did before my first UCLA quarter started), then you will undoubtely be crushed and will only end up laughing at yourself for thinking so highly of your ability. And maybe I'll be one of the few here to say that UCLA is at least dozen times harder than CC (if you are econ, that is).</p>
<p>Yea, I completely agree with your observances of the transitional period, and the incline in work, between a CC and UC. And, I will admit, the way I study is many times overkill for my classes (one time giving a 45 minute presentation on urbanization, while everyone else gave a 5 minute presentation ranging from otters to their favorite type of car --not trying to brag, just illuminating the difference in student effort at CC), but I find the method I currently employ much better and less stressful than crashing, which sometimes was requisite given the amount of work 7 classes brought. Also, I don't have any experience with the quarter system, so I cannot comment on the immediacy of studying it brings.</p>
<p>And my major is polisci --gladly not econ, haha.</p>
<p>Ektaylor: So your classmates take ~5 minutes for a presentation, and you take 45 minutes? They must hate you! LOL</p>