Engineering transfer students have half the time to take advantage of the Bruin Engineering experience as those that started as freshmen.  Our job is to help you make the most of the next 2 – 3 years to help you succeed in the classroom, explore the world of engineering, identify the areas you want to work in as a professional engineer and help you gain the vital extra-curricular professional development experiences that will increase your chances of landing your first job or a seat in a competitive graduate program in engineering. We have a lot of work to do and half the time than the freshman-admit students that have the full 4 – 5 years to accomplish this. 

The goals of eTransfer 101 is to:

• Help incoming UCLA Engineering transfer students understand important dates, events, an opportunities through their first year so they can decide what they would like to participate in.  With only 2 – 3 years at UCLA, transfers could miss these important activities that will help them understand what they want to pursue after graduation and prepare them to be marketable to industry recruiters. 
• Fall recruiting for summer industry internships starts the day you arrive on campus.  Participating in an industry internship is a great way to increase your chances of having a job offer at graduation.  Many eTransfer 101 sessions are designed to inform incoming students on what to expect at fall recruiting events, prepare your materials to participate, help you prepare your remarks and build the confidence to attend. 
•  Provide an opportunity for eTransfer students to meet each other and build-community before fall quarter classes.

eTransfer 101 is designed to help you to ‘connect-the-dots’ and utilize the next years to accomplish your goals. 

There is no registration fee for eTransfer 101.  Sessions are free and open to all incoming 2025 UCLA Engineering transfer students.  Do not miss the these sessions!  Take a look at the details of each session below to learn more. 

Also, please note that eTransfer 101 is not the same as New Student Orientation. For information on New Student Orientation (which includes an academic advising), please visit the UCLA New Student & Transition Programs website. 

Welcome & Overview
Department Mixer

Wednesday, June 4, 2025
6:00 – 9:00 PM
Zoom session link (UCLA UID# required)
The panel discussion and department mixer will NOT be recorded.

To kick-off eTransfer 101, we will share the details of each eTransfer 101 session and what you will get out of attending.

The session will conclude with a break-out room mixer with other students from your department.  This will be a good chance to connect with others in your department and returning transfer students who can give you the details on how to prepare for your fall courses. We will also introduce the ETC Discord Server where you can connect with the other eTransfer students and where we will host peer mentoring and tutoring hours.

Homework for the next eTransfer 101 session:

• You will learn about important dates for year 1.  Bring your AY 2025 – 2026 calendar to mark important dates so you don’t miss the boat!

eTransfer Student Panel
Pathways Guide for eTransfer

Thursday, June 5, 2025
6:00 – 9:00 PM
Zoom session link (UCLA UID# required)

Pathways Guide for eTransfer Students – participants will receive a week by week, quarter by quarter guide on what to expect in year 1.  Hear about important opportunities, dates, and deadlines before the year starts to do some forecasting of what you want to get involved with.  Most all students run out of time to do everything they want to do throughout the year.  You will need to choose what to commit to and set a timeline to accomplish your goals.  Prep starts now! Bring your calendar!

Next, we will host a panel discussion of current UCLA Engineering transfer students on their perspective of year 1, things to think about before you start school, and what you should try to accomplish in year 1.  Topics will include testimony on what classes are like, grading, how to balance your time, how to prepare for fall quarter classes, etc.  We encourage participants to prepare their questions before the event!

See below for information on our student panelist.
Pathways Guide for eTransfer Students, Wes Uehara, Director, UCLA Engineering Transfer Center

eTransfer Student panelists:

June Lee

Aerospace Engineering Student
Transfer from Irvine Valley College

• Systems Engineering and Project Management Intern at Lockheed Martin
• Bruin Spacecraft Group

Resources from your student panel:

• From Julia Stoneburner: https://www.pathwaystoscience.org/Undergrads.aspx

Homework for the next eTransfer 101 session:

• Review the UCLA Samueli Engineering scholarship website and prepare your questions for our speaker.

UCLA Engineering Scholarships

Monday, June 9, 2025
6:00 – 9:00 PM
Zoom session link (UCLA UID# required)

UCLA Engineering Scholarships – The School of Engineering has over 100 scholarships to award to our students.  All you need to do is submit 1 application annually to be considered for these scholarships.  Join us to hear from our scholarship team on how to submit your application which is due by June 27, 2025. 

Speaker:

Flannery Weiss
Academic Counselor
UCLA Engineering Office of Academic and Student Affairs

Homework for the next eTransfer 101 session:

• Visit the UCLA Engineering Undergraduate Internship program website & create a list of questions
• Visit the UCLA Engineering Undergraduate Research program website & create a list of questions

Academic Research & Industry Internships – how to apply and available resources

Tuesday, June 10, 2025
6:00 – 9:00 PM
Zoom session link (UCLA UID# required)

Securing a job offer at graduation is a very complex process that involves:

• Learning as much as you can in your engineering classes,
• Discovering the area in engineering you want to work and the problems you want to solve,
• Gaining technical experience and being able to communicate that with other engineers,
• Building your brand and preparing your materials to apply,
• Developing the confidence and finding the time to attend networking and recruiting events and applying for jobs.

Additionally, there is a lot to learn from your experiences and you will want to improve on your tactics.  The process takes patience, persistence, and grit.  It also requires students to have a faith in the process.

Technical experiences are key in demonstrating your ability as an engineer to companies that are hiring summer interns or career-positions after graduation.  Academic research and internships in industry are valuable experiences to help you explore what you want to do after graduation as well as provide you some excellent content to share with industry recruiters who are looking to hire.

Preparing to apply for academic research or an internship can take some time.  It includes identifying the positions you want to apply for, preparing your resume and cover-letter (or statement of purpose for research positions), preparing what you will say to a recruiter, and an interview for those of you fortunate to get that far. You will also need to strategize what recruiting events to attend in consideration of your busy Fall quarter schedule.  You might want to prepare a LinkedIn account, website, or Git to help you network with recruiters and those working in industry.  Attendees of this session will learn how our UCLA Engineering Undergraduate Internship & Research Program and the UCLA Career Center work together to provide resources, events and opportunities to support you through this journey.

UCLA Engineering Undergraduate Internship & Research Program

There are many opportunities at UCLA Engineering to gain technical experience.  Some of these include getting involved in student organizations and design teams, taking an Intro to Engineering Design (Engineering 1) course, participating in engineering research in a faculty lab, and securing an internship in industry.  This will provide you an opportunity to apply what you learn in the classroom to solve an engineering-problem or work on a technical project.  Data suggests a correlation between these activities and securing a job offer at graduation.

Join us to learn more about this and to hear about the many resources offered by our UCLA Engineering Undergraduate Internship & Research Program to help you.

Speaker:

William Herrera
Director, UCLA Engineering Undergraduate Internship & Research Program

Homework for the next eTransfer 101 session:

• Visit and review the Technical Resume Sample in the UCLA Career Guide on page 40.
• Create a list of your employment (jobs you were paid to do).
• Create a list of all your technical experiences. Here are some ideas to get you thinking:
  • Research you have done in a lab
  • Internships in industry,
  • Design project (robotics, etc),
  • Systems you coded (video-game, etc.),
  • DIY at home (built a circuit, etc.)
  • Class project
• Create a list of skills you think you have mastered.  Here are some ideas to get you thinking:
  • Coding languages
  • Software
  • Electronics
  • Equipment & tools
  • Lab tools, equipment or processes
  • Languages other than English
•  Create a list of activities, awards, and affiliations

Crafting your engineering-tailored resume – for Fall recruiting for summer industry internships

Wednesday, June 11, 2025
6:00 – 9:00 PM
Zoom session link (UCLA UID# required)

The Fall UCLA Engineering & Technical Career fair typically occurs in week 3 of the quarter when students are gearing up for their first set of midterms.  Preparing your resume, LinkedIn accounts and other artifacts can be a time-consuming process.  Join us at this session to learn how to craft your resume for engineering jobs before recruiting begins.

Incoming transfer students are highly-encourages to attend recruiting and networking events in year 1.  First, some transfer students are able to secure internships in their first year.  Regardless of your ability to secure an internship, you will want to attend so that you are able to gather information, reflect on your experiences, and improve your performance the following year.

Speaker: Wes Uehara, Director, UCLA Engineering Transfer Center

Networking 101

Thursday, June 12, 2025
6:00 – 9:00 PM
Zoom session link (UCLA UID# required)

Speaking to recruiters and engineers can be an intimidating experience.  Join us at the Networking 101 session to gain some insight on speaking about yourself as an engineer.  We will share some common questions asked by recruiters to allow students to prepare their responses ahead of time.  This will enable them to focus on delivery, rather than attempt to think of content to share.  Participants will also learn what kinds of questions to ask recruiters that will leave a good lasting-impression.  Finally, this session will provide information on networking opportunities.

Speaker: Wes Uehara, Director, Engineering Transfer Center

Homework for the next eTransfer 101 session:

• Activate your UCLA Handshake account
• Visit the UCLA Career Center website, review their resources & create a list of questions
• Visit and review the UCLA Career Guide & create a list of questions. 

UCLA Career Center

Friday, June 13, 2025
6:00 – 7:00 PM
Zoom session link (UCLA UID# required)

Join us at this session to meet Wendy Nix, Assistant Director of Career Education and Development at the UCLA Career Center who will work with engineering students through the year.  You’ll learn how to harness the power of UCLA Handshake as your portal to recruiting events and company info-sessions.  Wendy will also share all there is to know about the plethora of resources (including drop-in hours during the academic year) and events and resources offered by the Career Center that will help you as your work toward securing a job at graduation. Freshman-admitted students have 4 -5 years to figure this out.  We encourage our engineering transfer students to attend to get this process started now!

Speakers:

Wendy Nix, MBA
Assistant Director of Career Education and Development
UCLA Career Center

Homework for the next eTransfer 101 session:

• Visit the website of the professional engineering organization for your department:
  • • Biomedical Engineering Society (Bioengineering)
    • American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (Aerospace Engineering)
    • American Institute of Chemical Engineers (Chemical Engineering)
    • American Society of Civil Engineers (Civil & Environmental Engineering)
    • American Society of Mechanical Engineers (Mechanical Engineering)
    • Association for Computing Machinery (Computer Science)
    • Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (Electrical & Computer Engineering)
    • Materials Research Society (Materials Science & Engineering)
• Explore their site to see what they do and their history.
• Look to see how to join the organization
• Look to see if they have any conferences and what its about
• Look to see if they have publications and what they are about
• Next, look up the student chapter of your professional engineering organization at UCLA:
  • • Biomedical Engineering Society at UCLA (Bioengineering)
    • American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics at UCLA (Aerospace Engineering)
    • American Institute of Chemical Engineers at UCLA (Chemical Engineering)
    • American Society of Civil Engineers at UCLA (Civil & Environmental Engineering)
    • American Society of Mechanical Engineers at UCLA (Mechanical Engineering)
    • Association for Computing Machinery at UCLA (Computer Science)
    • Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers at UCLA (Electrical & Computer Engineering)
    • Materials Research Society at UCLA (Materials Science & Engineering)
• Explore their site to see what they do and their history.
• Make a list of the things you think you might want to do or resources you want to take advantage of
• Look to see how to join the organization or get involved
• We have over 120 student organizations, design teams, and honor societies at UCLA Samueli.  Take a look at the others by hitting this link.

Engineering Student Organization nuts, bolts, and opportunities!

Monday, June 16, 2025
6:00 – 9:00 PM
Zoom session link (UCLA UID# required)

Participation in one of our over 120 engineering student organizations, design teams, or honor societies is a great way to round-out your experience at UCLA Engineering.  They offer support to their members in and out of the classroom.  Some offer study tables or tutoring.  Others offer skills-workshops and prep for recruiting that is specific to your discipline.  The student orgs are also a great way to gain some technical experience that you can share with recruiters.  They can also help connect you with engineering alum who are already working in industry.  Data suggests that there is a correlation between being involved in a student organization or design team and a student’s ability to secure a job offer at graduation.  We highly-recommend students to get involved!

Join us at this session to learn about a few of our student chapters of professional engineering organizations and design teams. You’ll learn how to get involved and what it might involve.  You will also hear testimony from our panelists on what they gain from participation in their organization.

Student panelist:

Elizabeth van Blommestein
Mechanical Engineering
President, Bruin Racing
LinkedIn

NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates program
Global Internship Program
ABCs of Faculty Advising

Tuesday, June 17, 2025
6:00 – 9:00 PM
Zoom session link (UCLA UID# required)

This session will highlight additional technical experiences for engineering students.  Learn about the National Science Foundation’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program that offers paid summer research internships to undergraduates.  Learn how students can leverage these experiences to pursue graduate school or land an internship in industry.  

Next, we will share information about UCLA’s Global Internship Program that offers engineering students the ability to travel abroad. 

Finally, we will share the importance of attending your Faculty Advising appointments (which are required) to gain valuable information that will help you identifying what you want to do after graduation.  Additionally, a faculty mentor can be valuable when you need a letter of recommendation or reference for a job. .  

Finally, we will share information about our three Master’s Programs in the School of Engineering and information about the Exceptional Student Admissions Program (ESAP). 

Speaker: Wes Uehara, Director, Engineering Transfer Center