College admissions is competitive,

Not to sound so general, but the best thing about UCLA really is that it’s so well-rounded. I would challenge you to find another school that features such a high concentration of academics, athletics, social life, and networking. The size of the school is actually a huge advantage; more students means more interests, and it’s guaranteed that every individual will find students with similar goals. Once you realize that size translates to diversity, it’s very easy to make the school feel as small or large as you’d like, as we’re large enough to offer resources to support the smallest groups. If pressed, I’d change the distance between the apartments and classes, because to get from one end of campus to the other requires a good 25 minutes, which can be a pain if you’re running late. Something I didn’t realize until getting here was the reputation that the name “UCLA” carries; it’s very impressive without being unapproachable.

Honestly, the only thing I find myself complaining about is the length of time it takes to walk to campus, as it’s so large, and the residential part of campus is really separate from the classrooms. But, I’ll also be honest, the 20 minute brisk walk also often serves as my excuse for exercise.

A major selling point is the area—as it should be. Westwood sets the bar high for “college town”, with shops and restaurants catering (sometimes literally) to the collegiate lifestyle, both in their prices and hours. It’s a convenient and comfortable town that adds to the “home” feeling of campus by eliminating the pressing need for a car and creating an environment outside of the immediate campus that students can still feel connected to. Every UCLA student feels a sense of ownership over Westwood, relying upon it as much as it relies upon us.

The campus itself boasts an impressive set of buildings and common areas, and the sort of brick and ivy ambience that I think a lot of West Coast schools lack. I like that there’s enough of a variety of spaces to spend time in, like coffee shops if you enjoy noise and company, or quiet lawns if you like peace and quiet. You never quite feel as if you’re on your own, though, which is a comfort to me although it might be an oddity for some. Thankfully the weather not only accommodates but encourages me to spend gaps in my schedule outside, on a bench or a lawn catching up on some reading or napping. It’s not uncommon for students on campus to feel very at home, comfortable enough to fall asleep in such a public place—is it the anonymity afforded by such a common-minded but large public?

I’ve never experienced any problems personally with the administration, but if there’s any area in which the size of the school might get in the way it would be the bureaucracy. Like any formidable administration, though, it’s just a matter of doing a little research ahead of time and making appointments with those you need to reach.

Undoubtedly the largest recent controversy was the Taser Incident. (A student was tasered in the library, by campus police, after refusing to cooperate, and the event was caught by a student cameraphone, causing an outbreak of debate over police brutality and student rights). I think the biggest problem resulted from the flood of gossip that prevented many of the students from getting a clear picture of what actually happened. I was fascinated, if not extremely surprised, though, by how quickly a spectrum of opinion appeared—and on Facebook, of all places. I saw a flood of groups formed to discuss the incident, half of which supported the actions of the police and half of which called for their reprimand. Personally I found myself torn; I do like to know that the campus police take security seriously in a city where crime and danger can be pervasive stereotypes, but the response seemed alarmingly disproportionate, and that kind of display was a sobering reminder that campus police are, in fact, regular police, and not necessarily there to accommodate student comforts.

Undoubtedly the majority of school pride stems from our athletic program, and feeds off our crosstown rivalry with USC, but such pride and rivalry can only thrive in a place where there’s more to be proud of than simply sports. I’m extremely proud of our basketball team and it’s reputation, to be sure, but I’m also proud—and I feel my fellow students are too—of other equally impressive things that make up the blue and gold, like our campus, our library, our band, our school paper, and above all our academic reputation. Again, it’s all about our well-roundedness; there’s something at UCLA for everyone to be proud of, not just the all-star athletes. Our school pride goes beyond most.

The most unusual thing about UCLA is its versatility, resulting directly from our size, because there’s no single point about the school that stands out from the rest enough to define us. We don’t necessarily specialize in anything, because we seem to specialize in everything—which makes UCLA a better place for the student who isn’t done exploring yet. There are plenty of places you can go if you’ve got a specific interest, places that cater directly and singularly to those interests, but there aren’t many other places you can go to explore everything. Because of this diversity, I think the right people end up here, i.e. the ones who haven’t made up their minds yet and want a place to do it. Many students come here because UCLA allows for such a wide spectrum of possibility, and we come here with very open minds, which are difficult things to disappoint.

I do hear a lot of complaints about the enrollment process, and the difficulty of planning a schedule or getting into specific classes. Unfortunately, this is one of the drawback to a school of our size; space can be limited. But this can usually be avoided by some planning and foresight, such as designing multiple possible schedules and perhaps simply emailing a professor—they are very good about responding, and usually very quickly—with questions about enrollment capacity or waitlists.

It’s a misconception—even an excuse—that the professors will not know your name. Yes, there are enormous lectures, but I’d rather be in a large lecture from a world-class professor than a seminar with someone less qualified. The professor can and will get to know you if you make the effort. Sitting in the front, raising your hand a few times, and attending office hours are small prices to pay for the recommendations and connections you could gain from the first-class professors at UCLA.

As a north campus major, my classes subsist on a healthy balance of professor lectures and student discussions, usually both within the same hour period. The academic expectations of UCLA translate into a competitive student body, which means that discussions can actually be useful. And, while it may say something about my “party life”, more often than not I find myself in intellectual conversations outside of class, because in the end, most of us got here and remain here because we value intelligent thought and discussion.

UCLA has designed a totally optional one-year program for freshmen, a class known as a “cluster”, which focuses on a certain theme with multi-disciplinary approaches. For example, I took one on “History of Modern/Social Thought”. (Topics vary from “The 1960s” to “Global Environment”, “Interracial Development, etc.) The class spans all three quarters, and features lecturers from related and overlapping fields—my cluster was taught by professors and teaching fellows from the history, anthropology, philosophy, and sociology departments. It was difficult, and intense, especially for a freshman, but I have used the knowledge I gained in that class in literally every class that has followed. In addition, some perks include priority enrollment for cluster students and early training in seminar writing and discussion, which not only trains students for upper division classes but satisfies otherwise often tricky seminar and writing requirements for the university. I have recommended the cluster program to literally every student that I’ve talked to about coming to UCLA.

I came to UCLA as a physics major, impressed with and excited about the well-respected science department. However, after a few quarters I realized that my strengths and interests lay instead in the English department. I was incredibly satisfied, therefore, to experience UCLA’s versatility, because the English department here is as world-renowned as its science department, if not more so, allowing me the same academic excitement that had brought me here on a different academic track. My experience within the department has been quite inspiring, as I’ve gotten the opportunity to study with some big names within the field. I would stress the influence of the study abroad program within my major as well, because it’s afforded me the opportunity to get to know some of these professors in a very focused setting, plus it’s studying abroad. It’s been within seminar settings such as the study abroad classes that I’ve been able to really experience some awe-inspiring intellectual discussions that ensure my enthusiasm for the subject. After taking a Fiat Lux—a small, one-unit, pass/fail class meant purely for fun—I got to know the professor, who every summer took students to a major English conference for professors and graduate students, that we might get to observe, and participate in, a higher level of discussion than most undergraduates. This experience allowed me to make the absolute most out of my major, and I’ve been thrilled about studying English, with the UCLA English department, ever since.

There’s a lot of opportunity for a student to make the most out of their major here, because all it takes is the time to get to know one professor, and suddenly a wide range of connections and opportunities opens. I feel that individual departments are very good about rewarding those students that want to be there, and when you’re already in a big pond, getting to be a big fish carries some considerable rewards and renown. Thus, it’s often easy to get a little intimidated by the minds teaching the classes—for instance, when your professor has written the textbook which you’re assigned—but my experience has been that, during office hours or appointments, these world-recognized professors are here to encourage students to get as excited about their field as they are, and so they reward students who show a little more interest or willingness to do well. The one thing to remember is that it’s a student’s responsibility to make him/herself memorable. Sitting in the front is a small price to pay for a letter of recommendation from a top-ranked professor. I’ve gotten to know a few of my favorite professors by taking multiple classes from them, visiting their office hours to discuss everything from a specific paper thesis to my academic career and possible future opportunities. Also, I’ve had overall a pretty good experience with TA’s, who, I’ve found, are great sources of information on things like grad school, because they’re so close to my own age and experience. To sum up, the professors here, while they’re gods during lecture, are approachable and helpful human beings as soon as you approach them as such.

Thanks to the academic rigor at UCLA, while each class is structured and taught as if it were learning for learning’s sake, it’s as effective and applicable to the working world as if it were taught that way. Since our professors are so knowledgeable and our students so competitive, what feels like “learning for learning’s sake” is effective job training in itself. Some of the academic requirements have forced me outside my field of interests, but in hindsight I am glad that I’ve had to take south-campus science and math classes despite their utter irrelevance to my future degree in British Literature. The GE requirements are tedious at the outset—they make schedule-planning seem like a chore and they often result in a lecture-long nap session. But, every once in a while, a GE class in a field which you thought you disliked can offer some uncanny and interesting connections. Luckily, the quarter system allies particularly well with GE requirements, because they go very quickly. Also, with just a little bit of research or counseling, you’ll find that there is more than one way to fill a requirement—for me, History of Rock and Roll fulfilled a performing arts requirement, and Linguistics fulfilled a life science requirement, which means that even if your interests lie firmly and solely in one area of study, there’s still a little room to tailor those “unrelated” requirements to round out, if not parallel, your preferred fields.

UCLA is a public school in every sense of the word; we represent the public quite well. There are some interesting racial and gender breakdowns between majors; for instance, there are more Asian students in south campus majors than in north campus, and more women in the humanities classes than men, etc. In my experience, students develop different circles of friends based more on shared experiences than upon demographic—you’ve got friends from your dorm, friends from your classes, and friends from your clubs. These circles are usually as diverse as the places you form them.

UCLA has its artery—Bruin Walk, the main walkway between the dorms/off-campus apartments and the classrooms and lecture halls. Naturally, clubs use this to advertise themselves, meaning that in a five-minute stretch you can (and will) come into contact with activist groups for either side of the political spectrum, Greek representatives, job recruiters, religious/antireligious debaters, and literally everything else you could imagine. Sometimes it’s a pain, because often these groups are ones I would never be interested in, but if there’s a group you want to find and join, then they’re more than likely out there. All in all, most of the groups on campus feel really comfortable getting themselves out there because it’s such a diverse (and overall tolerant) campus. You’ll hear too many rather than too few opinions, which I think stimulates a pretty healthy environment for debate and learning things outside the classroom. Basically you can be as involved or uninvolved as you like, as always, but open-mindedness really is the key in such a place as UCLA, where there are plenty of people with opinions so strong that they have no qualms about questioning yours. Overall, the only discrimination I see is against ignorance. There’s enough diversity and large enough numbers here that there’s no real minority except in the numeric sense—even a “minority” group has a voice and an opportunity to use it, often very publicly on Bruin Walk.

Most UCLA students are from California, and specifically the Southern California LA/Orange County area. But luckily the fact that we’re a public school eliminates a lot of ethnic or socioeconomic exclusivity; you’ll see a lot of very wealthy students, but you’ll also see just as many on a financial need scholarship, and because we’re not a private school, those demographic separations aren’t often the topic of conversation. Ethnically, you might see some cohesion, because we’re in LA, and that means that if you’re Persian or Korean, there are plenty of stores, restaurants, religious centers, etc, that cater to these cultural traditions and therefore attract specific audiences, making it easy to spend time with people of similar backgrounds. But, conversely, because we’re in a city that can support that kind of diversity, it’s just as easy and acceptable to overlap as it is to separate.

Politically speaking, we’re California, and it’s a university, so it should be no real surprise that we’re fairly left-of-center. But Bruin Republicans are still a pretty strong and respected presence on campus, and while they may not have the number of Bruin Democrats, it seems to me that they make up for a lot of that difference in strength of participation. Essentially, the only significant singling-out you’d face as a political minority is a heightened opportunity to debate your opinions.

Group-wise, the school has too many to judge them by order of popularity. Athletically, I’d say the basketball following is the largest. Within intramural and sports, Frisbee and softball have a pretty big following. But Greek life is by far the biggest social “club” on campus, as we’ve got a very large number of fraternities and sororities, most of which are very large in and of themselves. UCLA is one of the schools that originates the frat boy/sorority girl stereotypes—it’s usually not hard to pick out the Greek students in a crowd, but an equal number of people thinks that’s a good thing and think it’s a bad thing.

If you’re not in a frat or sorority (first of all, don’t worry, there are plenty), the next most likely source for friends and social groups is probably your neighbors, as the dorms are a pretty well-oiled social machine, in that everyone wants to get to know everyone. As a rule the residences get more social as the quality of the building itself decreases, as the older returning students with priority usually have already established groups of friends (and are more than likely living with these people) and thus are less dependent upon their neighbors. Freshmen seem to coagulate in the older dorms, trading a private bathroom for a social atmosphere which I wouldn’t hesitate to call priceless. Three years later, I live with friends from my freshman dorm, who have become my inseparable friends. If you’re in one of these predominantly freshman dorms—which I would recommend—you’ll find doors open to eager neighbors just as excited to meet new people and try new experiences as you are.

There’s also a big sports culture that comes out of IM and club sports, which are generally more relaxed and recreational than the varsity sports, and, in my opinion, a matchless source for a rewarding extracurricular and a group of extraordinary people. I’m a member of the Sailing Team, which is at once incredibly rewarding and enjoyable, and also a formidable experience in team-building and cooperation. At the beginning of the year, every year, there’s an Activities Fair, featuring every single club and group on campus with a booth, representative, and information. I must emphasize—it is overwhelming. But it’s also the best way to find some way to soak up your spare time with something more worthwhile than Facebook. If you can’t find something that interests you, you didn’t look hard enough—there are cultural clubs, volunteer organizations, intramural and club sports, and hobby groups.

The school is very self-sustaining, in that we’re large enough to function like a small city, thus the students rarely need to go outside school to find something to do. On-campus events, like sports games and movie screenings, become the main gatherings. But even if you venture into Westwood, you’ll find it very easy to connect with other students, because, like I said, the campus and immediate surroundings provide a very magnetic center for student life. There are plenty of activities, whether organized by groups or by individual circles of friends, that don’t require any drinking. Simply exploring the town of Westwood is exciting by itself, as there are plenty of comedy clubs, theaters, restaurants, coffee shops, museums, etc, that allow students to go out and mingle outside of a party, and lots of those opportunities are free. If you’re interested in getting out of Westwood for a day or night, the Big Blue Bus of Santa Monica offers a student discount, so you can get to essentially the best parts of town for 25 cents.

We also have a pretty well-developed sense of tradition. Some highlights include the Beat ‘SC Week (I think it’s been changed officially to “Blue and Gold Week” for political correctness) and the culminating bonfire, which is a must for any sports fan. In addition, on the Wednesday of every finals week, thousands of students gather for the “Undie Run” across campus, which is exactly what it sounds like, in an attempt (usually successful) to blow off the steam from the pressure that builds up at the end of the quarter.

The party scene, like many aspects of life here at UCLA, can take up as large or small a part of your life as you’d like. There’s no overt pressure to “go out” unless that’s a feature of your social circle, because while there’s no shortage of parties if you’re looking for them, there are just as many people who stay in the dorms on a Thursday night (typically the busiest night in the frat party circuit) and watch movies in the common room or play group video games. Again, it’s one of the perks of such a large school—regardless of your preference, there will be others who share it.

We are often painted specifically as a school that revolves around athletics and the related celebrations--a feeder school for professional sports that happens to hold classes by day and countless parties by night. UCLA absorbs many of the stereotypes of Los Angeles in general, in that we're often seen as anonymously large and superficial.

If you're visiting the school, perhaps. But in joining the large community of UCLA you're also accessing countless opportunities to make that community smaller and more intimate. With a large student body comes a proportionally large range of activities and interest groups; it's harder to NOT find something to channel your interest and energy. And while the athletic and social influences play a big part of what we do with our spare time, most of us have no trouble remembering why and how we're here--the academics. UCLA presents an above-average academic challenge, and that's the first priority.