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Anyone out there with anecdotal or personal knowledge about UCLA's math department? The decision website is up this afternoon and he was accepted. He wasn't too impressed on first visit but it was just the "general" tour...

Is it difficult to get personal attention at this big of a school or is it one of those situations where you can make it work if you push for it?

TheDad? Anyone?

By Drusba (Drusba) on Saturday, March 15, 2003 - 12:45 am: Edit

A co-worker went to UCLA and majored in math. He said personal attention can be had for classes after the first year when you hit classes that only math majors, engineers, and physics majors are taking and thus the classes are much smaller. However, he also said he enrolled in Japanese as his foreign language so he could understand some of his math professors.

By Proudtobemom (Proudtobemom) on Sunday, March 16, 2003 - 05:17 pm: Edit

This might be a match made in heaven, then. This kid took Japanese and loved it and is already through Calculus 3 and differential equations so he might be "past" the initial math offerings that are so crowded. Of course, general ed will be another story...

By Thedad (Thedad) on Sunday, March 16, 2003 - 08:52 pm: Edit

Ack, sorry PtbM, I thought I'd responded to this
a while back. Brain cramp.

My response was: let me ask around. So far, my Usual Suspect hasn't been able to give me a pointer and my unusual suspects I haven't connected with.

I *know* a student in the Math department. Duh.

I'll get back to you when I hear.

Bump if I don't respond in a day or so.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Monday, March 17, 2003 - 01:41 am: Edit

bump

By Thedad (Thedad) on Monday, March 17, 2003 - 03:16 pm: Edit

ProudtobeMom, here's something from a senior Math student at UCLA:

****
It really depends on the person himself. With the lower division classses, you're in a class of about 150 students. But discussion sections will only have about 30 students. It's up to the student to go to the professor's and the TA's office hours for extra help if he needs it. Those who go to office hours, ask questions, etc. find their experience much more enjoyable than those who do not and wonder why they didn't understand the material as well as others.

By the time he reaches upper division classes, those are all classes of about 30 students, so there's more attention paid, bu still, it's up [to] the student himself. ****

The student has been almost deliriously happy at UCLA.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Tuesday, March 18, 2003 - 01:48 pm: Edit

More on the Math Dept. from students & a former prof:

You get smaller classes if you're in the Honors program.

Undergrad research opportunities are a matter of self-motivation and initiative; you need a very strong lower division record to get opportunities in upper division. There are more research opportunities in Applied Math...you generally have to get into graduate work before getting out of the 20th century in terms of Math.

"The department is weird...two of the teachers were rated in the top 10 on campus, two in the bottom ten."

Hope this helps.

By Proudtobemom (Proudtobemom) on Wednesday, March 19, 2003 - 12:17 pm: Edit

Thanks, Drusba and Thedad. Those are specific comments and give a bit more of a "feel" than what we had. Son is off to pursue more input. Thank you for your help!

P.S. Which two were rated top 10 and which in the bottom 10? Or is that available on some other site?

By Thedad (Thedad) on Wednesday, March 19, 2003 - 02:01 pm: Edit

Try www.bruinwalk.com

Click around...at one point I found several ratings categories for professors, along with comments from professors about being rated. It's a much broader site than that, though, and I didn't spend much time there...one of the math students pointed me at the site. I don't know that the two best/two worst thing is at all current.

By Shitakirimusume (Shitakirimusume) on Friday, May 02, 2003 - 02:51 am: Edit

blah