Reply to Overcrowding/Overenrollment Issues at top tier schools

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I also have a DD graduating from UCLA this year, and her experience is aligned with the reports of other actual UCLA parents in this thread. She's graduating in 4 years, in one of the typical pre-med majors, with a foreign language minor, and has completed additional courses to fulfill the college honors program requirements. It absolutely took careful planning and flexibility, but it wasn't as daunting as has been presented here (and, yes, that includes the chem 20/30 series).

The largest lecture hall at UCLA holds 442 kids. So, tales of 1000+ classes there are simply untrue. However, I agree with the PP (19:14) who noted that after a certain point, it just doesn't matter. The nature of the lecture doesn't change beyond about 50-100, and there are simply more discussion sections available.

I haven't seen this myth in this particular thread yet, but to head it off, there seems to be a belief that the top public universities primarily use graduate teaching assistants to lead classes. In my daughter's experience, this simply was not true. All of her seminars and lectures were professor-led, often with associated TA-led discussions and labs. She took a class taught by a Pulitzer Prize winner, and another by a Booker Prize winner. She worked in the lab of a National Academy of Sciences member.

Did she have to advocate for herself?  Yes, strongly and repeatedly. Did she learn how to politely decline to take "no" for an answer in doing so? You bet. These are skills she never had to acquire in her private high school, and they will serve her well.

My biggest complaint (consistent with PP 19:54) is the serious lack of advisement. This is a legitimate issue, and not easily circumvented (although being in the College Honors program does provide students with staff advisors, which can help a bit).

As for housing, yep, most freshmen and many sophomores are in tiny triples. There are larger, double rooms available as students gain seniority, but the first year is very tight. This is the trade-off for having 4 years of guaranteed housing, something that is not available anywhere else in the UC system, nor at many elite private colleges. I must say, though, I have not heard the horror stories about rats, mold, etc., that are frequent in discussions of private colleges on this board.

Whether it's worth the cost OOS is a personal question. I do know that my daughter's OOS friends are glad they made the choice. Given the below 10% rate of freshmen admission, few will have to entertain the question.
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Four years of guaranteed housing is common at private colleges.[/quote]

Not at Cal Tech, Yale, Princeton, Penn, Duke, JHU, or Brown, at least in my experience.[/quote]

You think Yale does not guarantee four years of housing?  You must really know nothing about Yale if you are unfamiliar with its residential college system.[/quote]

https://housing.yale.edu/undergraduate-housing/housing-policies

States that housing for all four years is not guaranteed. Is that not the case?[/quote]

DP wtf cares about guaranteed housing? Of everything I want in a college experience for my kid, 4 years in a residential hall with residential housing rules is nowhere on the list. A 21 year old needs an RA?? Gimme a break. 
4 years housing is not the flex you think it is.  [/quote]

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