UCLA is one of the few (15% of all colleges) that is on quarter
system. Each quarter has 10 weeks of classes and one week for finals before the
breaks. Quarter system in general is a lot more intense and you will find
yourself juggling with midterms and assignments starting from 3rd or
4th week will the end of the quarter.
Semester system has 15 weeks of classes and there is usually a
break in the middle of the semester.
In order to register as a full-time students (all international
students must be), you need to have at least 12 credit units. One exception can
be made throughout your whole academic life if you have valid reason(s). You
can also take less units during your last quarter here before graduation.
A credit hour unit usually corresponds to an hour of
class/discussion or lab. However, that is not that case in most engineering
classes and labs. Typically, a 4-unit engineering class will have 4 hours of
lectures and 2 hours of discussion and some will include another lab session.
The UC system which is supported largely by the State of
California has been hit terribly by budget cuts for the past few years. UCLA is
no exception and a lot of classes have been cancelled. Therefore, you want to
make sure you get into all the classes you need to in order to graduate.
Careful planning will ensure that you will get into most classes and graduate
on-time.
Some notable cases include Mechanical Engineering majors when
the department decided to cut the senior design class and offer it once a year
with tons of pre-requisites. That resulted in quite a number of students having
to take one more year (i.e. 5th year) in order to graduate.
Most science majors will require you to take 4 classes (16
units) every quarter while other majors have different amount of workload
depending on what concentration they specialize in.
Any classes before 10am are early for college students.
Depending on your sleeping schedule, some people prefer late classes while some
prefer to finish early. Do not plan something like 10am-6pm unless you have to
as you will find yourself can’t concentrate after 4 hours. Typically, you
should spend 4-6 hours in classes every day.
Each college or school has its own graduation requirement, so it
is good to familiarize yourself with the requirements when you sign up for
classes. Some classes are offered in certain quarter, so you do not want to
miss it. You can know it by going through all the past year class schedule.
Impacted classes are classes that you cannot drop or add after
second week. They usually have higher demand, so sign up those classes first.
When there are pre-requisites, it is better to take them first because
you might be disadvantaged for not knowing some knowledge that you should have
known if you have taken the pre-requisites. Talk to counselor or your seniors
if you have doubt.
GEs is categorized into 3 groups and multiple sub-groups. You
are supposed to take a number of classes from each sub-group. However, priority
should be given to major classes as you can always take different GEs. Freshmen
are eligible to take GE Clusters which are classes that span over three
quarters. For the first two quarters, classes are held in the usual lecture
style with discussion sessions. For the third quarter, classes will be
conducted in a seminar style which are smaller and involve more writing. You do
not have to take it for all three quarters but you should since the final
session (winter session) will satisfy the Writing 2 requirement provided you
have passed out of or taken English Comp 3 by winter quarter. Classes for
Writing 2 tend to fill up fast and so GE Clusters are useful for the purpose of
securing that.
It is advisable to take only 3 classes during your first quarter
to get used to the study life here. If you plan to take 5 classes anytime, make
sure you plan your time wisely. You might lose your social life but it is
definitely doable.
The General Catalog lists
practically every class that UCLA offers, and is useful for reference. It
includes information on graduation requirements, grading, tuition and fees,
facilities, and so on.
Double Majors/Masters
It is possible to do a double major, depending on the majors you
choose to pursue, and on how intensive a workload you prefer. However, if you
are in one college, and want to pursue a second major in another (no double
majoring within the department is allowed), you generally have to fulfill both
colleges’ graduation requirements separately (that includes you have to take
another similar class). This means, for example, that if you are in the College
of Engineering and decide to pursue another major in L&S, you would need to
take about 20 units a quarter and several Summer Sessions in order to graduate
on time.
One thing to be careful about is that the units system is not a reliable
indicator of workload at times: classes in math, science, engineering, and
computer science (known as ‘technical’ classes) tend to have significantly
heavier workloads than most other classes, even though they might be listed in
the Catalog as being worth just as much credit.
For some majors, you can do a master degree after your degree
directly if you maintain a certain GPA and receive some recommendation from
professors. For engineering school, if you maintain a GPA of 3.5 with 3
recommendation letters from the faculty, you automatically qualify to complete
your master in a year (as opposed to 2 years).
