uclafreshman

[uclafreshman]

Drilling in Rieber Terrace

From 9:00 am - 4:30 pm. Also how I spent my Presidents' Day. And no, I have no idea why construction work continued on a public holiday.

[uclafreshman]

[uclafreshman]

6th Fire Alarm of the Quarter

Title says it all. It astounds me how despite the fact that I've hardly been in my room this quarter, I've managed to experience all 6 fire alarms. Of these there were two consecutive ones during first week, two on the same day last week, one of which included burnt popcorn, and another that took place this morning at 9:20 a.m. And who knows, there may have been even more that I've missed. Suffice to say I had class at 10 a.m. so I blindly threw in all the books I got my hands on into my bag (turns out I ended up bringing the wrong books anyways) and rushed out the door. 

Fire drills suck, but not knowing which ones are accidental and which ones are scheduled drills is even more annoying. Oftentimes I can't be bothered to wait for 30 minutes and go to eat if it's mealtime, and even when I do wait nobody tells us what the reason was. I tried asking the RAs a couple of times and it turns out they don't know most of the time either. It would be nice to know.

On the upside, maybe this means we won't have any more for the rest of the quarter. #fingerscrossed

[uclafreshman]

Some possibly helpful advice for south campus majors as they think about their second year!

Not gonna lie guys, my second year at UCLA was intense. Maybe I just bit off more than I could chew since I actually got involved in clubs and what not in addition to classes and working, but let’s just say it was academically my most challenging year ever… here’s what I experienced!

Fall 2013 ...

[uclafreshman]

I've heard a myth that there may be a restaurant on campus that will take swipes. Is this true or have I been misinformed?

If only, right? During all my time here I have yet to find any such restaurant, but I've always talked/complained about wanting one. Granted, I never even knew such a rumor existed so maybe there IS some special restaurant hidden somewhere that accepts swipes. But sadly, as of now, swipes only work for the hill! It's why I hike up the hill for lunch during my 2-hour interval between classes - pretty determined, I know. ;)

[uclafreshman]

Just a reminder for people that starting from tomorrow you can be fined by $202 or more by police if you're caught riding any wheeled transport in the dismount zones! This includes bicycles, skateboards, scooters, and rollerblades.

Basically this is the path starting from De Neve crosswalk to Kerckhoff Hall, and the path by parking structure 8. While I myself have never collided/been in an accident on my scooter, it seems that there have been many reports on such cases, prompting stronger regulations to take place.

Personally, this policy will just discourage me from using my scooter, simply because most of my classes are near the end of bruinwalk, so I would just be walking my scooter all the way to class and lifting the heavy thing up the stairs. Things may be different if you have a class in the North Campus, as many people go down the Charles E. Young Drive North. But then again, who knows if the policy may develop and include more areas on campus as time passes?

Here's the link for the picture if you want a clearer view:

http://www.transportation.ucla.edu/portal/pdf/bikes/campusdismountzonemap.pdf

Ride safely everyone!

[uclafreshman]

Checking how many swipes you have left

So I was swiping in for a Chicken Teriyaki Bento Box last Wednesday when I saw that on my receipt I could no longer see any indication of how many swipes I had left. I asked about it and turns out basically the quick service restaurants have upgraded their cashier machines to new ones, so the swipe information will no longer show. I have yet to understand the benefits of this new upgrade, but to sum things up in order to check your swipes you will need to:

Ask the person at the counter

And I recommend doing this at quick service restaurants. UCLA Housing Services states that you can ask at any Dining Hall as well, but I've had a much higher success rate asking at Rendez, Bcaf or 1919. 

Bruin Card Office

Don't go out of your way to do this, but on your way to class or back you can just drop by the Bruin Card Office to check up on how many swipes you have left. It's at 123 Kerckhoff Hall, 9am - 4pm Monday-Friday.

Note: Your online BruinCard account will only display your Easy Pay money left, not your meal plan, so don't bother checking.

Wiffle

If you have a regular plan or are on P and follow a regular schedule of swipe usage unlike me, you can try out this service made by UCLA students to help you keep track: http://wiffle.info/ucla/

Keep in mind, though, that if you happen to be stocking up on boba and late night the site will only be a very rough estimate since you'll have to subtract all those extra swipes! (But who can say no to boba?)

[uclafreshman]

[uclafreshman]

College apps.

Reality?

Hardest thing to answer: Describe yourself.

[uclafreshman]

Firstly I congratulate you on your endeavors to be one of the few who actively set foot in the Test Bank. But before you go and realize what you've forgotten, resulting in many agonizing walks back and forth before getting your past papers (as I did), check these things, and don't waste your steps.

1. Money

Remember, no bills except $1. Bring all your coins you had nowhere else to use. I've forgotten quite a couple of times, and this means leaving your stack of freshly printed past papers with your name labelled on it for yet another walk to your dorm and back. Tiring.

2. Professors/Courses on the list

Now, some professors are more aware of this system than other professors, and this results in their request that their past exams/papers not be submitted. Most of the time this either means that they plan on giving you their own resources to prepare for exams, or (more likely) they're planning not to change their past exam questions. There will be a list of the professors/courses that don't allow past papers, so check this list before you realize the class you are taking has no past exams available (and try asking your professor for resources instead if you can).

This also means that when you want to submit your past exam/paper at the beginning of every quarter, you want to make sure the course you were taking isn't on that list!

3. A back-up plan

This could be something only I do, but I can't be the only one who wants to make the best of the time I'm given. Especially when I've taken 15 minutes to walk down to the Test Bank. The first few times you go, it'll take you a while to get used to how fast the time goes. I remember the first time I went I got so stressed because of the whole timing thing (particularly when the person at the counter says "1 minute left!"). On a sticky note, or in your head, plan which resources you need. You might find that your course only has one or two past exams available. You have a maximum of 5 exams you can print. List out your other courses you're taking. If you're an awesome student and have already collected past papers for courses this quarter, use your extra time to print papers out for possible courses to check out for next quarter! They give you a pretty good idea of the course content and rigor.

4. The Facebook Test Bank

I have talked about how great the campus Test Bank is, but it would be even greater if it were online (a rant I shall save for later). Meanwhile, some UCLA students on Facebook created an online Test Bank of their own (free!). While it isn't as frequently updated or as widely used, it is worth a try checking it out, particularly for South campus (non-humanities) courses.

5. Keep your time

You have one 5 minute slot. I repeat, 5 minutes. You check the clock and your slot should have begun already? Tell the person at the counter. Tap the person using the computer ahead of you. Sometimes you will get computer access on time, but sometimes you won't, and it's up to you to keep track of the time and do what you have to do. I didn't know this when I first went and tried patiently waiting behind the student in front of me who was in a printing oblivion. I tried asking the person at the counter. The person in front of you went over time? Well, that's just time cut out of your slot. Unfortunately you don't get extra time to make up for it. 'Tis a tough world out there.

6. Another slot

Can't take the heat from number 5? Consider getting another slot. I can't guarantee this 100%, but a person working at the counter did, so I'm going on her words. While the rules say you're only limited to one slot per day, she told me some people get... well, understandably frustrated at the incredibly short span of time in which they have to print their papers, so they sign another slot with their friend's email. I'm just putting it out here to say this does happen, but I haven't and won't try this, just because it makes me shaky inside.

7. Avoid peak periods

Try to go to the Test Bank maybe during the first two weeks of the quarter. Midterm weeks are crazy. Once I went to sign up at 9:30 a.m. and there were only five slots left. Week 10 also had strangely a great lack of people... methinks during the midterm period the students pulled out prep papers for finals as well. I normally go one more time during Week 10 to print past papers for courses I'm considering for next quarter. It's pretty efficient if you ask me :)

Until the day we get an online Test Bank... may your walk to the Test Bank not be in vain.

[uclafreshman]

There can never be enough resources :)

With so many people either going back to school soon or already being back, I thought I’d help out and offer some resources that I’ve found useful. Also this will probably be forever a work in progress.

Apps:

Quizlet - Make flashcards and test yourself where- and whenever

30/30 - Sets you an automatic 30 minute timer for each task in a list

Evernote - Everyone’s probably heard of this, but it enables you to keep your notes in ‘the cloud’ so that you can access them at any time

Calm - Teaches you calm, which can be very helpful when stressing over school

Websites:

8tracks - (Also an app) Allows you to browse playlists by tags, that have been created by other people. I recommend trying the #study tag

Coffitivity - (Also an app) Plays coffeshop sounds. For those of you who can’t work when it’s too quiet.

TED - Lots of smart people talk about important things. This website is gold.

Writing

10 tips to improve your grammar

Daily writing tips

Oxford Dictionary’s Grammar Tips

Other ways to say …

Keep it concise

How to write an abstract

How to write an essay

Study tips

22 Science-backed Study Tips to Ace a Test

How to pull an allnighter and still do well on your exam

Tips for effective study

And other things

Super rad tumblr post about college

Cheaper textbooks!

40 Breakfast On The Go Recipes

How to fall asleep fast

[uclafreshman]

[uclafreshman]

Couldn't have said it better myself.

For those who are going to a new high school, starting college, or just wanting to start this school year anew, here are some very simple tips that will change your routines for the better!  As simple as some of these may sound, we all need to be reminded every now and then that your education and your well being is of highest priority, and to do that, you must know what kind of help is available to you, how to be yourself, and how to reduce as much stress as possible!  I wish I could have covered more but there was no more space in my comic, so feel free to add any other tips if you’d like!  I hope you guys will have a wonderful school year.

[uclafreshman]

To stressed prospective Bruins

First off, let me just say my heart goes out to the poor high school seniors who are preparing for college apps, and the high school juniors, sophomores, and freshmen who have college apps lying in store for them.

After answering the question from chinup--princess I realized that I forgot to mention one of the most important tips you'll need:

Dealing with stress

While most people treat this lightly, during the college app period I was the one making full use of "Bang head here" posters. More than getting into a dream school, I was more overwhelmed by the prospect of getting rejected everywhere.

Don't bottle up your frustrations and find ways to let it out. Well, I ended up heavily relying on comfort food and drama-watching, but don't let that deter you. Try healthier habits, say, going to the gym? Just getting up from your computer every hour and walking around can cool your head and make a huge difference. Having alone time is necessary sometimes, so make sure you speak with your friends, family, or counselor, and others who are there for you. And hey, I'm always here too :)

[uclafreshman]

I know this is a guide for mostly UCLA Freshmen but I was wondering if you had any advice/tips for applying to UCLA and the application process?

Not at all! In fact, I should be getting around to setting up an about page to clarify that this blog is for both prospective and current students, and even just college students in general.

Off the top of my head, there were just so many time-wasters in high school I became pressured to do, and I regret this a lot.

Extracurricular activities

Everybody knows how much people stress this. But there isn’t really a point to doing a whole range of activities that don’t really say anything about you. I think it’s more about focusing on a small number of activities you are truly passionate about (hopefully related to a major you’re also interested in) and being actively involved, perhaps showing your leadership skills while your at it.

Honestly though, at my school at least, everybody was a president of some club and had an astonishing list of activities on their resumes. I regret not looking beyond making clubs and searching for competitions or organizations (acknowledgment outside school) that would help me stand out and show that my my passion was legitimate.

Essays

What I did was just open a blank document and write a huge list of little anecdotes or some things I felt strongly about, with little details by each one. Afterwards, I looked through them to give me inspiration for my essays. Spend time carefully picking and fleshing out your focus. Always check if your essay shows who you are. For example, if you write about how much you like eating nachos, that’s great, but if the only thing the reader can get out of it is that you like nachos, that’s not really helpful is it? Show your counselor, parents, and other people for guidance but don’t let them change your style. It will end up making you sound a bit awkward.

Grades, SAT scores

This might sound hypocritical of me but personally I believe this may hold a bit more weight for UCLA applications. I am by no means discounting the value of the essay, but with thousands of applications every year (over 100,000 applications this year), they’ve got to start somewhere right? I’ve obviously never been an admissions officer, but just from reading a couple of “chance me”s on College Confidential I already get that it’s probably quite a monotonous process.

Once again my opinion, but your GPA counts more than your SAT score. If you just think about it, the SAT is a one-off aptitude test, whereas your transcript shows a four-year trend of your academic achievements. What’s going to count more, do you think? I’m just saying this because I spent too much time on the SATs. My GPA wasn’t terrible, but it could have been better.

Recommendations

None needed for UCLA!

Just to make it clear, these are my personal opinions based on my experiences with the application process. I hope this helped. I’m afraid I didn’t detail things as much as I had hoped, but maybe I should save it for a future post. (Another thing on my to-do list...)

Best of luck filling out your applications!

[uclafreshman]

... And we're back on BruinBill

With the approaching school year, so comes the inevitable bill paying. For any of you incoming bruins who need a reminder, the deadline to pay for our Fall 2014 registration fees is the 20th of September!

But what I actually wanted to point out is this:

I was going to upload a screenshot of the breakdown of my bill, but after I paid it the receipt only showed the total amount, so I'm posting this official link instead:

http://www.registrar.ucla.edu/fees/description.htm

My point being, if you take a look at all the things we pay for but keep thinking is free... And also since beginning from Fall 2013 everybody pays for Bruin Bash as well, we need to get our butts there definitely! Take a scroll through the list, but I just want to point out that we pay for the Wooden Center. People, we need to treadmill the heck out of the gym.

But in all seriousness, it's good to know where your money's going, even if you don't really have a choice in the matter.

Tuition

And as for how paying tuition works, I think I've figured it out after a year. Before the quarter starts we pay a base tuition fee (an extremely huge amount). Then after we confirm our courses by the end of Week 2 of the quarter, we get billed a smaller fee for these based on the number of units we take (eg. $120 for 15 units). Silly me, thinking my tuition was super cheap (if only).

If you're still confuzzled hit me up and I'll try my best to help! :)

[uclafreshman]

20 Life-Saving Apps Every College Student Needs Now

I don't have a mac for some of these apps, but this is pretty cool stuff!