The University of California - Los Angeles

3rd Year Male -- Class 2004

The intellectual atmosphere here is very lax. Students are passive and classroom discussion is often dull. Apparently (at least by looking at the numbers) the students are relatively smart, but I guess undergrads who want to come to LA are looking for a good social life, rather than highly challenging academics.

The library is top-ranked and has a huge collection. Unfortunately, no one here will really mentor you, and it's rare that a professor provides a bibliography for a class to help with research and term papers. Some profs have an attitude that students should have to trudge through the catalog and the stacks for hours looking for things and trying to figure out how to obtain the info they are looking for. Even though the prof could help the student out. But, they have their own worries. I've been told by many that it is "publish or perish". I love walking through the stacks here - there are excellent foreign language resources - but when I think about the wasted hours, using the wrong search terms, not getting the right items in search results, and finding out later that the info I was looking for is actually there...grrr. It is then that I wish I had gone to a smaller college.In fact, I was very disappointed with the experience at UCLA, overall. When I came here, I was expecting my courses to be really challenging and engaging; instead I found myself in these huge lecture halls, taking multiple choice exams at the end of term. If I had the decision to make over again, I would have gone to a small liberal arts college.

5th Year Female -- Class 2003

Collaboration/Competitive: A+, Individual Value: F