The University of California - Los Angeles

First I should mention to you that I am an "out-of-stater" who was given the prestigious Regents and Chancellors Scholarship at UCB and opted to come to UCLA. I graduated from a nationally and internationally competitive high school from the mid-atlantic region of the east coast with a 4.11 weighted, 3.9 unweighted GPA. I won several national and a few international awards in such well known competitions as Science Olympiad and for those of you who are well versed in music, both All-State and All-Eastern music ensembles. I did so many activities I could beat every one of my "friends" here if compared to the sum of theirs. At UCLA I was invited into the College Honors Program with a very small scholarship and have held many leadership positions in extracurriculars here. I have been doing directed research since my freshman year. In case it really matters to you, I am South Asian.

Since you know a little about my stats I should tell you my opinion of UCLA. So to move on, in general my experience at UCLA has been entirely disappointing. My initial view of this place was that it was a campus where students were self-motivated degree-seeking individuals who were intellectuals and came to UCLA to take advantage of the vast resources available to them. The professors I felt were pioneering in their research and would thus be interesting to speak with if not the best educators. The administration seemed friendly. These chracteristics seemed a bit lacking at Berkeley, and so I came to UCLA. I also thought that the school's quarter system would be more beneficial as far as learning material thoroughly was concerned. I never thought that population would be intimidating.

Unfortunately after the first quarter of classes, all of these disillusions were revealed to me. I realized quickly that the people I had met were all very fake and were friendly until class was out. Then they were off to hang out with their SoCal or NorCal posse. This left me pretty much alone in my dorm nearly every night of the week. I couldn't even find the other out-of-staters on campus because I felt as though they didn't exist. Basically the people I met are no longer my friends just after one year. As for the professors, they are so entirely absorbed into their research and trying to produce results, they find their students uninteresting and barely teach worth the money it cost me to attend here. Not only are they horrible educators, but also they lack in personality. Very very few of my professors have been approachable, which reflects the teaching style of the chemistry and biochemistry department. They are very rude and find it threatening when students ask intelligent questions. The administration doesn't do its work, and I have found myself lobbying my advisors many-a-time to fix a misnoted transcript, which doesn't change for at least a year after filing my complaint. Finally,the quarter system is an excuse for professors to teach as much as they can in 10 weeks so that it makes it easier for the "curve to happen." Every class I have taken was graded on a curve, from biology to chemistry to physics to math. Only my humanities and general education units were not so. What makes it worse is with no-so-amiable professors, ineffective grading methods, and vengeful if not lazy TAs grades are not at all reflective of one's knowledge. That said, my current GPA is a 3.7 sadly enough. Did I mention I was Pre-Med? I hope that this dissuades you readers from attending this university. It is not a good environment to be in if one is serious about their education, especially if you come from a background like mine and know what it takes to succeed. I agree with these other foolish people. The population gives you a "number" and that is intimidating for antisocial nerds who tend to gather in the engineering buildings. but that is not me. so if you are smart and you are motivated and you know where i am coming from, take my advice and don't come here. it is a waste of your money and your intellect. that said good luck where ever you go.

2nd Year Female -- Class 2007

Campus Maintenance: B, Education Quality: F

After graduating from Stanford with a PhD in electrical engineering and rising to middle management, I started UCLA's MBA program to learn more about business development. I was very disappointed with the UCLA business program because it lacked the reality of the real business world. In addition, I found the program did not promote development of leadership skills. After wasting a year at UCLA, I started the Pepperdine MBA program and found it to be much more rewarding. In my company, I find that UCLA grads tend to be hard workers but they are not especially adept at dealing with the give & take required for teamwork.

Alumnus Male -- Class 2000

I am a third year student in the School of Theater, Film and Television. It's an excellent school for people who are interested in acting or musical theater, and there are few resources for those interested in anything else. For my concentration (playwriting) there are only three classes offered, and they're not offered consistently, and only a couple teachers for them. The school is incredibly cliquey, and techies tend to hang out with techies, actors with actors. Also, this is not the place to figure out whether or not you want to be in the arts. The GE requirements are different from those for the rest of the university, and so if you get to your second or third year and decide that you don't want to be a writer or a director or an actor, you're pretty much stuck. As for UCLA itself... well, it sure is manicured. I have found all the complaints about big universities to be true for UCLA-- it's hard to meet people after your first year, and there are a lot of clubs and activities that exist but are hard to find. The GE classes are huge and formulaic, and sometimes you never meet the professor, although I have found most of them to be friendly and helpful. Offcampus, Westwood is just a bunch of restaurants and movie theaters. There's really nothing to do, and if you want to go to the state parks or to a club, you need a car. Also, it's not big on things like bookstores (nearest one is two miles away!)But most importantly, people are very 'normal' here. It's pretty lethargic politically, and it's like this sea of Abercrombie and miniskirts. There's one hippie here. He kind of stands out. If you're interested in this sort of atmosphere, you'll probably do fine. But I've realized I need to be in a place with more trees and fewer Uggs.

3rd Year Female -- Class 2006

Friendliness: B+, Education Quality: F