College of Letters and Science
A265 Murphy Hall
Box 951571
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1571
Cluster Program
310-206-0831
Anthony R. Friscia, PhD, Director
Cluster courses are an option for satisfying both general education and Writing II requirements. Clusters are yearlong, collaboratively taught, interdisciplinary courses that focus on a topic of timely importance, such as the global environment or interracial dynamics. The courses are taught by some of the most distinguished UCLA faculty members and seasoned graduate students. During fall and winter quarters, students attend lecture courses and small discussion sections and/or laboratories. In spring quarter, the same students enroll in one of a number of satellite seminars dealing with topics related to the cluster theme.
Freshman clusters are designed to strengthen the writing, quantitative reasoning, critical thinking, and information literacy skills that students need to excel at UCLA. At the conclusion of the entire yearlong cluster, students complete 40 to 50 percent of their general education course requirements (if they maintain a D- or better each quarter) and fulfill the Writing II requirement (if they earn a C or better in spring quarter). Cluster students are eligible for three terms of honors credit, with the spring quarter seminar granting Honors Collegium credit.
For the current cluster course offerings and general education credit, refer to the Cluster Program website.
