Lessons from 1st year at UCLA

What I'd tell myself freshman year

1. Clubs follow quality over quantity - don’t follow the crowds. First, cast a wide net for all clubs that interest you (maybe some that don’t!). After the first few weeks you need to cut off non-essential activities and invest all your time into one technical club max. Leaving clubs is hard but understand you cannot have it all. Sense for taste and don’t be intimidated by groups - most clubs like BFR and Rocket Club will have 150 kids attend the info sessions, but by the end of the quarter most can’t figure out that quality > quantity and spread themselves thin, leading to 1-3 stressed students carrying the whole project. Be one of those students and pick.
2. Follow your curiosity, not your friends. If you find a club or activity or friend group interesting, attend the meetings even if you have no one to go with - nervousness is probably a sign you actually care about it, which is good. There’s a huge spontaneous trend at UCLA towards following set train tracks. College is about resisting those innate forces and utilizing its vast resources to pursue your self-centered goals. Learn to be selfish. If most of your friends think what you’re doing isn’t weird, chances are you’re on the train tracks.
3. Friends follow quality over quantity, probably even more so than clubs. There will be a natural gravity towards large friend groups and huge circles such as the frats and cultural clubs because everyone just wants to fit in, but learn to be ok alone and build from there with strong, secure relationships with likewise friends. Attend a few to scout out compatible people but avoid stagnant, closed circle mobs.
4. Join IM sports. I’ve found that while my social skills are mediocre, my confidence on the court is relatively strong, and so I find it much easier to approach people in this context. If you’re not super athletic, open gyms are a nice way to experience the community in a more casual context. It’s much easier to meet teammates than strangers.
5. Go to office hours. This has two major benefits: first, you can get a lot closer to TAs and your professors which gives you options for future letters of rec, mentorships, and just general advice about college and careers (TAs know everything you’re going through); second, you learn way faster because they can answer your questions directly. Oftentimes they’re so effective that:
6. You don’t need to go to class. To choose the most effective way of learning, first use every method you know of (textbook, OH, class, discussions) until the first test. After taking the test, you can decide what exactly you need to do for that class and cut out every non-optimal method, often including attending class. This is especially true for technical classes because typically repetition matters the most. The whole goal is to minimize BS and maximize exploring.
7. Learn alone, work together. If you actually need to get something done, work alone: learning happens one way - by you thinking hard about it a lot. This means finals and midterms weeks should be crunch time. However, spending mundane time with friends is one of the best ways to get close, so try doing most low-intensity work with others (like week 1-3).
8. Find one place with a low probability of encountering peers to study alone. Graduate buildings like Anderson and the med school are great, because you gain the benefits of being surrounded by focused students without the drawbacks of bumping into others and getting distracted.
9. Not all distractions are evil. Most of the advice above speaks to maximizing effectiveness, but the best memories I’ve had from first year are from random spontaneous rooftopping or tunneling or late-night skateboarding with friends at unreasonable hours. Routine is effective, serendipity is worthwhile.