thrill3rnit3 said:
How are you guys liking your specific experience? I'm applying to both schools for similar majors.
Overall, it's pretty decent. If you were eyeing plasma or condensed matter, I'd give it a look. If you haven't decided on a concentration yet, that's okay too. There is a fair amount of freedom simply because the number of upper-division classes is somewhat small (I could get away with only doing 1 GE, 1 elective, and credited research each quarter this year). The classes are a mixed bag: the E&M sequence is easily my favorite of my upper-division classes, but only because I went out of my way to take it earlier than most people do, and with a better professor than otherwise. During your last 2 years, you take a core sequence of 1 Thermo class, 3 QM, 2 Classical mech, 2 E&M, and then you're given 3 upper-div electives of your choice + 2 upper division labs.
The electives include things such as Plasma, Electronics Lab for Measurements, Solid State, Elementary Particles, etc. etc. For a lot of these, they serve as a 'prequel' for the upper division lab course of the same topic.
There is some freedom to choose though. If you wanted to get a minor in Math, you would only need 5 math upper-divs of your choosing, and you can count 1 of them as part of your 3 UD electives.
There's a sense of arrogance in the Department. When I asked about getting involved in student research, someone told me to bypass two of the student-supporting undergrad research programs here, mainly because they cater to life science students and "Bah, we've been getting students involved in research before they were even created." If I had followed that line of thinking, I wouldn't have applied and gotten funding from those same programs for my tuition (it was a significant amount of money). Also, excluding your choice of electives, you might find yourself not doing a whole lot of hands-on stuff. With that said and looking back, I kind of regret not joining up with the student chapters of IEEE and Baja SAE to maybe learn a few more things. Then again, I'm looking at switching to engineering, so YMMV.
It's also not as technical as it may have you believe. There's no programming requirement at all. In fact, the only reason I even took the non-engineering C++ class here was so that I'd be allowed to transfer into engineering, back when I was undeclared. They're trying to change that, but I have no idea when that'll be.
There was also a topic on transferring to UCLA for Physics, which is here. It may give you a sense of the transition from lower-divs to upper-divs:
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=314555
