Admissions Blog

Freshman SIR Deadline: May 1

Hello, friends! I’m writing to remind our admitted freshmen that May 1 is the deadline to submit your Statement of Intent to Register (SIR) to UCLA (and many other universities). I remember how tough choosing a university was, and I wish you the best of luck with your decision-making process. UCLA is a great choice, but I definitely advise all students to trust your instincts when making your college decision. Choose the campus where you think you’ll be the happiest. I know first-hand how amazing our admitted students are, and I’m sure you’ll all do great wherever you go. Whether you’re coming to UCLA, a sister campus, or another university, you’re about to set off on an amazing journey, and I wish you all the success and happiness you deserve.

Okay, enough about you. I got to go to NorCal last week for Bay Area Bruin Days, an effort to bring UCLA to Bay Area admits who couldn’t make it down to campus for Welcome Days. Representatives from UARS, Financial Aid, Summer Sessions, and Honors, as well as some current students, journeyed up to Santa Clara and Emeryville (near San Jose and Oakland, respectively) to meet admitted students and their parents and answer all of their questions about UCLA. We met a lot of great New Bruins and had a bunch of fun, as you can see from the picture below. Thanks to all the students and parents who came to our presentations. We look forward to seeing you this fall!

L to R: Jennifer Wilson (Honors); Ginger Castle, Jared Zack, Bank Chantaruchirakorn, me (UARS); John Dilamanta (current student); Eligio Martinez (UARS).

FINALLY, we are ALMOST THERE!!!

Decisions will be released today for most of our 13,400 transfer applicants to Fall 2007! While this may represent only 21% of our applicant pool, the review of transfer applicants to UCLA takes a lot longer than the freshman review. Though many factors we look at are the same—such as employment, extracurricular activities, community service, awards, personal achievements, and hardships—unlike freshmen, transfer students’ college work becomes part of their permanent course record. Furthermore, since we expect transfers to enter UCLA as college juniors ready to take on upper division course work in their majors, we review every last course listed on each application to make sure students have made progress toward major preparation requirements. And where our freshman reviews are conducted by a combination of admissions employees and outside readers (over 100 people), transfer reviews are done by only 12 people called evaluators. Every college employs people with this title. Their job is to determine how courses taken at other schools translate to their school. Sounds simple but, believe me, it isn't—especially for a place with such a wide draw as UCLA. Collectively, our evaluators hold detailed knowledge of educational systems not just in the US, but throughout the world. (Some of our evaluators recently penned education profiles on China, Mexico, and Oman that will be used by colleges and universities nationwide.) As of today, my evaluator colleagues can take a short but well-earned breather before the transcripts start rolling in, and they are once again scanning lists of courses.

(Above, from top: Evaluators Laura Macchia Amescua, Christy Blaine, Bob Hantsch, and Stephanie Ingvaldson.)

Virginia Tech Vigil

Hey guys, my name is Eric Kim, and I am a first year at UCLA studying Sociology and Korean. I work in the UCLA Undergraduate Admissions tech office with work study, and go around helping anyone from UARS with computer problems, or helping setting up network and stuff like that. Also, on the side, I love taking lots of photography for the university and myself. You can see some of my work at www.erickimphotography.com

Anyways, I am sure you all know about the tragedies that happened at Virginia Tech. In response to this, UCLA organized a candlelight vigil at the DeNeve Plaza quad on April 20th, which had a huge turnout of students and faculty who showed their support for the victims of the Virginia Tech incident. The night was very solemn and inspirational, with many people coming up to talk about the incident, and to show their personal regards to those who had lost family or friends in the tragedy, and there were even a handful of students from Virginia Tech who came to speak as well.

I am so proud for our entire UCLA community for coming out and showing their love and support for Virginia Tech. Here are some photos from the event:

Festival of Books

As Justine mentioned in her most recent post, there’s always something cool happening at UCLA—whether it’s a lecture or film or performance or exhibit—but the weekend of April 28-29 marks my favorite on-campus event: the Festival of Books! This amazing weekend-long bookstravaganza is sponsored by the LA Times and held right here at UCLA. Incredible authors come to sit on panels, read aloud from recent works, and sign autographs for grateful fans—all for free! I’ve been stalking the Festival of Books website for the past month, anxiously awaiting this year’s schedule of panels. Justine and I are very excited to attend the "New Media: Blogging & Beyond" panel at our favorite on-campus venue, the Fowler Museum. But there are tons of other panels and stage readings with a variety of interesting topics and impressive speakers; there’s definitely something for everyone at the Festival of Books. If you’re in the LA area, I definitely recommend you come check it out, and for all of our newly admitted students who aren’t in the area, keep the Festival of Books in mind for next year. Check out the website for information about times, locations, and ticketing. If you do come and see a brown-haired girl salivating at the sight of literary celebrities like Jane Smiley and KCRW’s Michael Silverblatt, come say hi! She’s probably me.

The Fowler Museum

The Fowler Museum is truly one of the my favorite places on campus. Being inside of the Fowler is quite different from walking down busy Janss Steps or Bruin Walk nearby. The atrium at the center of the museum is just about the most peaceful spot at UCLA. I often go there on my lunch breaks to look through their collections of world art and artifacts, and the Fowler also hosts some wonderful events in addition to its exhibits. I would highly recommend that new students (and current students) check out Fowler Out Loud  on Thursday evenings. The music, theater, and spoken word performances will give you a glimpse of UCLA's cultural diversity and how many different kinds of things that there are to do on campus.

Eric Kim, current freshman and expert photog, joined Stacy and me at  Fowler Out Loud last month. The Afro-Brazilian percussion ensemble BatUCLAda performed along with some talented, twirly dancers. The music was so powerfully loud and fun, and it was especially cool to see UCLA students performing.  BatUCLAda is based in the UCLA Ethnomusicology Department and directed by Beto González, who you can see on the right in the photo below. You can see parts of the performance on YouTube here.

New Bruins

For those who you who have been admitted, either on the UCLA Undergraduate Admissions website or through official mail, I would like to say CONGRATULATIONS and WELCOME to the Bruin family! My name is Roni Lavi, and I work for the UCLA Undergraduate Admissions Office. My duties include advising prospective and newly admitted students regarding acceptance into UCLA and successful completion of acceptance procedures. Now that decisions are out, I know that many of you admitted students are wondering about the next steps. The admissions website is very helpful in guiding you through the acceptance process. The following link will provide you a checklist of what needs to be done before you start classes in the fall:  http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/newbruins.htm Please make sure that you click on the appropriate class level (freshman or transfer).

For those students who have made changes to their course work or have received poor grades, please make sure to fill out a Provisional Problem Form. An evaluator will review your changes and notify you within fifteen working days if the changes will affect your admission. The following links will guide you to the correct forms to fill out the Provisional Problem Form. Freshmen, please visit: http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/NewBruins/NSG_Freshmen.htm. Transfer students, please visit: http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/NewBruins/NSG_Transfer.htm.

And please feel free to e-mail the New Bruins email account at newbruins@saonet.ucla.edu with any questions you might have regarding your admission to UCLA. 

Again, congratulations and best of luck to you as a New Bruin!