By the time I got to the sunny beachside campus in La Jolla, I still knew very little of my upcoming major other than what I had read in the catalog. It seemed like it was sort of math/computer-focused, and also had art classes like “Introduction to 2D Art-Making” and “Introduction to Photography”, so it sounded really legit. Nevertheless, I wanted to know more about what I would be investing my time for the next four years, so I attended a so-called orientation to the major, held during my first quarter there. The staff started out the orientation saying that this was “absolutely not a special-effects, graphic design, architecture, etc. major. You will not be studying how to use a particular program or any of that.” They then proceeded to say that this major was more about these other things, but I wasn’t really listening; I had heard enough. I walked out, asking myself why I hadn’t had this orientation before I accepted to come and invested all my scholarship money into this now-forsaken school.

The orientation staff was not lying; the major truly was more conceptual than practical, as I found out firsthand that first difficult year. Nevertheless, I continued to practice my theretofore unknown design inclination, moving from print to web as I tweaked online personal profiles to my liking while learning valuable Web design skills.

Needless to say, by the time I got to summer, I was not looking forward to another year, much less four years, of this crappy major, so I started looking at majors at other universities just as I did my senior year of high school. By this time I had more-or-less figured out what computer arts, graphic design, digital arts, etc. meant, and their differences, so I had a better idea as I skimmed through the catalogs of universities looking for the correct major this time.

I had actually looked at the Design | Media Arts major before, during those blissfully ignorant high school years. What turned me off from this major, though, was that it required a portfolio to get in, unlike UC San Diego which admitted you into the pre-major and then into the major once you satisfied its prerequisites. So back then I ignored UCLA’s major because of the portfolio requirement, but now that I had been in the UC San Diego major for a year and had racked up some artwork (though not a greatly significant amount), I felt more confident about sending a portfolio and having a legitimate chance of being accepted. So I sent off my application and later my portfolio, keeping my expectations low because I didn’t want to set myself up for disappointment.

I needn’t worry, though, because the following spring, good news came to my door, and soon enough I was packing my bags headed to Bruin Town.

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