Admissions Blog

What they had to say.....

When asked "What do you think is the most surprising thing about UCLA?," Undergraduate Admissions student workers had the following to say.

• How friendly the people are and how great the professors are.
• I am still waiting for a surprise.
• You really feel like you’re at the center of the action.
• The diversity of the staff and instructors. There’s much more diversity among instructors than expected.
• It’s always so clean. There’s never a stray leaf on campus.
• That more people don’t know how amazing we are.
• The surprising thing about UCLA is that every year it feels that the year goes by so quickly. Before you even know it, you’re already a sophomore and then a junior after your freshman year.
• That we have around 800 student groups/clubs available on campus.
• Parking is ridiculous.
• Links. I find the campus to be very powerful with resources and the opportunities available beyond the initial contact. One can easily become active in a personal interest to develop into a passion.
• How small the campus feels. How accessible and friendly the faculty are.
• People go home on the weekends.
• The amount of resources available to students.
• Something new surprises me every day.
• So many different things going on at the same time.

I'm curious to know what surprised our readers that recently tackled the application process and are waiting for admissions decisions. Let me know by sending your comments!

Do You Hear What I Hear?

Silence. I’m not talking about that old time favorite Christmas song; I’m talking about absolute silence. That’s right, it’s dead out there on campus.  In fact, its dead week at UCLA: the week heading into Final exams.  The UCLA vs. USC football game is this weekend and there isn’t that familiar buzz that I am so used to the time of year. As a recent alum, and especially when I was a student at UCLA, I always look forward to that oh so famous Blue and Gold week when everyone on campus comes together in preparation for the biggest game of the season, the rivalry game.

However this year is different.  No sound of smashing windows form the famous Blue and Gold car smash.   No solid gold sound of the UCLA Marching Band from the Blue and Gold Parade.  No screaming and cheering from the Blue and Gold Rally.  No sweet crackling wood sound from the burning blaze of the Blue and Gold bonfire.  Instead it’s the sound of turning pages, pens furiously writing, clacking of laptop keyboards, and countless stressful student sighs.

When Your Professor is a Former Univesrity Chancellor

This quarter, one of the classes I've taken is called, "The 2008 Presidential Election."  I remember sitting in a hotel lobby in Spain over the summer, enrolling in courses and I saw the name of the instructor listed on the course.  "Who is this 'C.E. Young?" I asked myself.  It dawned on me a few months later that it was Charles E. Young - the same former chancellor whom a research library in the north part of campus and a road that wraps around camp is named after.

Young was chancellor of UCLA from 1958 to 1997 and was responsible for developing the school into one of the nation's top research universities. He was the youngest person, at age 36, to run any American university and retired after an almost 29 year career.  I had known that he was still involved at UCLA through the School of Public Affairs and last year, he was a guest speaker in one of my classes. However, I did not know he was still teaching.  In fact, up until this semester, he was not teaching. Chancellor Young came out of retirement (for the third time) to teach the course, because, as he said to our class, "it was such an important historical election."