My bachelor's in Communication Studies at UCLA (community college transfer), Part 1

This post covers

1. Bottom line

2. Why UCLA & communication studies

3. Campus life

4. Academics

I'm the author of this post

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GSAT English 8 points -> community college, architecture -> UCLA Communication Studies bachelor's with honors (Cum Laude) (GPA 3.807/4.0) -> Columbia master's in Education Leadership

1. Bottom line

“Broad but not deep” sums up how I feel about studying Communication Studies

Pros

1.0: “Your English listening, speaking, reading and writing all get really strong”

After all, you have to absorb a lot of information in a short time and then quickly explain it through different media, such as documentaries, newspapers and magazines, social media writing, graphic design, etc.

1.1: “Broad but not deep, so you need to know which field you want to go deep in”

We live in an age of information overload, so we have to read a lot of articles. That makes you widely informed but not necessarily deep; it depends on each person's choices. I focused on one-on-one communication across cultures and on disadvantaged groups, but I also had friends who focused on international trends, social movements, finance or legal debate. In the end I went deeper into international education through work and my master's, and this year I just graduated with a master's in Education Leadership from Columbia University.

1.2: “You get much better at telling each person what they want to hear”

From small talk to public speaking and debate, you learn and practice it all in class, so you get very good at picking out key points and reading people when you communicate. I remember one class analyzed US presidential debates and speeches, looking at what tiny details revealed about different emotions, like lying & nervousness & confidence.

Cons

1.0: “Low pay & high job stress”

Because it's broad but not deep, jobs are very wide-ranging and careers change fast. Everyone speaks English, so you're easy to replace, which leads to low pay & a lot of job stress

1.1: “International students work twice as hard because of the English gap and missing background knowledge”

If you didn't grow up immersed in English and American culture, your English and your knowledge of the US will be weaker than the locals', so you have to work twice as hard to improve. After all, the locals are native English speakers, and the ones in communication studies are among the sharpest minds there, so competing with them is tough. On top of that, my local background knowledge was thinner: others understood all kinds of social issues well, but I had to look up the causes and context myself.

Example 1: the factors behind the Asian “Model Minority” and its real-world effects

An analogy for example 1: if I tell a Stephen Chow joke, a Chinese learner may understand every word but still not laugh, because Chinese learners didn't grow up with the movie culture or pop culture behind it~

1.2: “Two years is tight for experiencing the resources and learning environment of a four-year university”

In year 1 you've just arrived and are adjusting to the teaching, assignments, social life and so on, and in year 2 you already have to get ready to graduate and find a job!

2. Why UCLA & communication studies

At community college I switched from architecture to communication studies, and in the end I was torn between UCB and UCLA. I chose UCLA for 3 reasons.

2.1: “Curriculum differences ”

UCB: feels more academic, focused on scholarly research on mass media & its processes & its role and influence across fields (sociology, psychology, anthropology...). Since I didn't study there, anyone who did UCB Media Studies is welcome to share!

UCLA: more flexible, with four main tracks (mass media, interpersonal communication, digital media, political communication). Since I knew I'm not very academic and I was interested in interpersonal communication and digital media, I leaned toward UCLA's curriculum

2.2: “ Campus life”

UCB: feels less safe + no good dorm food + no sports games to watch

UCLA: relatively safe + 8 dorm dining halls with different cuisines + all kinds of top-level US college sports you can watch cheaply, giving me a more complete American college experience

2.3: “Rankings”

Like everyone, I noticed UCB was ranked higher back then, and I agonized over it for a long time. But in the end I felt the rankings weren't that far apart, and UCLA had both the curriculum and the campus life I wanted, so I chose UCLA. And then I get to say “I got into UCB, but I turned it down” XD

“Why switch from architecture to communication studies?”

Without legal status, I might face a few situations after graduating.

1: If I went back to Taiwan because of visa or job-search problems, I'd have to relearn architecture from scratch...

“Building codes” - Taiwan's and the US's building codes always differ

“Design creativity” - California is sunny, uses wood and has no high-rises; Taiwan is rainy and humid, uses reinforced concrete and has tall buildings. What I learned in California might have to be torn down and rebuilt (!?)

“Architecture software” - the software used might differ, so I'd have to relearn it

“Architect license” - I might need a master's in Taiwan to sit for the Taiwanese architect license, etc.

(PS: If I've got any of this wrong, feel free to share! If I could do it over, I'd probably want a bachelor's in architecture in Taiwan and a master's in architecture in the US)

Based on all this, plus my interest at the time in American multicultural issues, for example why the same sentence feels so different to people of different races, which I couldn't understand coming from relatively homogeneous Taiwan. Because I couldn't understand it, I wanted to, and so I ended up switching to communication studies.

3. Campus life

1.0 Physical:

1.1: “A 5-minute walk and US$10 to watch top-level sports. What a deal!”

For $10 you can watch US Olympic gymnasts compete, sometimes watch US college basketball for free, watch UCLA vs USC football with dorm friends, or see famous NBA players practicing at UCLA. The gym and pool are of course above standard too

1.2: “Student ID in hand, great food is mine!”

8 dorm dining halls: 4 all-you-can-eat and 4 restaurant-style, each with a different cuisine, from American and European to Asian and South American. Honestly... the part I miss most!!

2.0 Social:

2.1: “Finding different ways to meet people from different cultural backgrounds”

Pros & cons: the upside is you come to understand many different cultures and experience culture shock; the downside is it's easier to lose touch after returning to Taiwan~

- Dorm roommates: intramural basketball & volleyball, floor KTV Night, going to bars, joining all kinds of campus events

- Friends from my campus job (GRIT Life Coaching): learning the stories behind each person and meeting a group of like-minded friends interested in personal & spiritual growth

- Vietnamese language club: I have no Vietnamese background, but I was interested in Vietnamese culture and working in Vietnam. I took a year of Vietnamese taught in English at UCLA, made quite a few Vietnamese American friends, joined their New Year events, and once even sang in Vietnamese in front of a group of Vietnamese people

- Taiwanese Student Association: I was more on the fringe, occasionally helping out & joining events and meeting some Taiwanese people. Running into fellow Taiwanese while living abroad always creates a special bond! But because I was so busy and sometimes feeling low, I wasn't very active.

Probably my only regret is not going to more stand-up comedy shows... ...

3.0 Emotional:

3.1: “Panic Attack & post-meal blood sugar at early diabetes levels”

My 2 years there were even harder than community college! In year 1 I'd just transferred and was still adjusting to everything, and the coursework pressure and social situation that came with it were very stressful. So I got support from a campus student life coaching group (GRIT Life Coaching), got through year 1 more smoothly, and grew a lot. Year 2 was already senior year, preparing to graduate and find a job, which is another kind of pressure! As a community college transfer, it feels like you're tested every 2-3 years: transfer successfully, congratulations, you passed the four-year university's test! But 2 years later, as you get ready to graduate, society tests you!

3.2: The academic pressure was much heavier. Around almost every midterm and final, I had nearly a week straight of going to bed at 3 a.m. and getting up at 6, and now and then I'd see dorm friends from my floor getting cozy in the common area... That made me feel even more resentful, but all I could do was swallow it. Because of my own high expectations and demands on myself, I could only smile awkwardly and get ready to study. I'd pick different spots in the library depending on my mood, but I also really did have a Panic Attack with dizziness in the library, which felt... strange and absurd. My blood sugar was also too high once, around 112 I think, already prediabetes. Of course I got it under control later and I've recovered now. I also realized I was eating emotions, not food, and that's when I recognized my body could no longer take it, and was finally willing to cut myself some slack and slow down.

4. Academics

“The peak of my English listening, speaking, reading and writing”

4.1: Types of assessments I did include a documentary (about the Asian Model Minority and Hollywood's influence), in-class writing, 2-3 single-spaced pages due within 1 day, multiple choice, short answer, presentations, groups of 3-4 designing and teaching a class to classmates, in-class debates, etc.

4.2: The courses that left the deepest impression

- 1 course taught specifically on social movements. The professor took part in the 1964 Free Speech Movement at UCB, once worked for Martin Luther King Jr., and has a signed autograph from Rosa Parks (the mother of the modern civil rights movement) at home, so his social movements course was really moving. He was also my thesis advisor, and his house is full of items related to American social movements.

- 1 course specifically on cognitive warfare (propaganda), analyzing historical and modern propaganda materials & speeches & films, etc., showing us how we take in information (get brainwashed (!?))

- 1 law course that got me thinking a lot, about issues like whether professors can date students, whether flying the flag upside down is illegal in the US, how to define consensual sex, etc.

- 1 course on gender issues, analyzing how historical and modern ads and propaganda portray different genders and races. My group's project explained how Hollywood films portray Asian Americans today

- 1 course specifically on American politics and media, where I learned that Trump initially spent very little on advertising, because he generated so much buzz that the media were scrambling to interview him

In the next post I'll cover these 4 topics

5. On-campus jobs

6. Where my classmates ended up working

7. Advice

8. Why I chose to return to Taiwan

IG: jimmy_intledu

ImAdmitted (匯錄取) international education news site: https://imadmitted.org/

ImAdmitted international education news IG: imadmitted

Hello~ I'm Jimmy Lin, with a master's in Education Leadership from Columbia University and a bachelor's with honors in Communication Studies from UCLA. I've worked in study-abroad counseling in the US since 2015, served as a committee member of a US association for international university admissions, and in 2023 founded “ImAdmitted (匯錄取)”, which provides first-hand information on overseas universities, such as international education news and data on admitted students at overseas universities. I hope it becomes the Google of studying abroad, so everyone can find first-hand overseas university information quickly and accurately.