Admissions Blog

The Simpsons Movie

Stacy and I took a stroll down to Westwood Village yesterday afternoon because we heard that the Fox Theater and the Bruin were being taken over by the Los Angeles premiere of The Simpsons Movie. The movie already had its world premiere in Springfield, Vermont on July 22. D'oh!

Our walk did not disappoint. The street between the two historic Westwood movie theaters was taken over by a bright yellow carpet. Marge's blue hair-do festooned the Fox and Homer's bald pate topped the Bruin. Many movies premiere in Westwood -- and UCLA students turn out in droves to peep celebs as they pull up to the red (or yellow) carpet.

Here, Stacy gracefully motions to the sacred Simpsons-colored ground with Marge's blue hair rising above.

Here's Homer's dome on the Bruin Theater across the street.

UCLA Undie Run 2007

As I frantically scribbled the last sentence of my beautifully composed essay for my Korean 50 class, I threw up my hands like Rocky in victory.

I succeeded in finishing my last final and did so with flying colors.

As jubilant and euphoric I was for finishing my finals and looking forward to my summer break, it was nowhere close the flurry of excitement and emotions that I experienced the same morning at 12:00 a.m. precisely. It was something that everybody who attends UCLA or who is going to attend UCLA should look forward to. It's a beautiful and tear-jerking event where people from all over UCLA join together in this harmonious mini-marathon, starting from the intersection of Strathmore and Gayley, through the tunnel, around Ackerman Union, up Bruin Walk, and finally ending at the Shapiro Fountain  right next to Royce Hall and Powell Library.

What is this UCLA-exclusive event?

That's right, the UCLA Undie Run.

The UCLA Undie Run happens on Wednesday at midnight during finals week. It is a great way to relieve stress from finals, as well as have some great PG-13 rated fun. There were also many people who came in clever costumes like the Spartans from the movie 300, pro wrestlers, and even chicken outfits.

Have a great summer everybody! If you want to check out some more of my photos, you can see them at EricKimPhotography.com

 

 

UCLA Jazz/Reggae Festival 2007

Hello everybody! This is Eric Kim, UCLA Undergraduate Admissions' official photographer.

I was lucky enough to attend the 2007 UCLA Jazz/Reggae Festival on May 27th. Many artists showed up such as Lupe Fiasco, Les Nubians, Soulive, J*Davey, Dujeous, Cham, General Degree, Mr. Peppa, Triniti, Joseph Israel, Syren, and Eljai.

All of the artists were very talented, and their soulful music truly moved me. It was also amazing how many people showed up to the event. The entire Intramural Field was filled with fans from all over Los Angeles.

I recommend all UCLA students to attend the event next year. If you sign up early enough, you can even get the tickets for free!

If you want to check out more of my photos, you can head over to www.EricKimPhotography.com.

Enjoy! (Artists in order: Hélène Faussart from Les Nubians, Célia Faussart from Les Nubians, and Lupe Fiasco).

Transfers: Are You Coming?

Transfer students: You have just about a week (until June 1) to submit your Statement of Intent to Register [SIR]. Visit your New Bruins page, and follow the steps to accept our offer of admission. Transfer students like you make up an important part of the undergraduate student body at UCLA, and we're very proud that UCLA admits the most transfer students of any school in the UC system. If you have any questions, be sure to get in touch with us, either by emailing newbruins@saonet.ucla.edu, or, if there are changes to your record, course schedule, or academic performance, you should head to the New Bruins page and submit a Provisional Problem Form [PPF]. Daniel went over this in his post, but it bears repeating, you know?

Right outside of Murphy Hall in Schoenberg Quad, the UCLA Clothesline Project is up through tomorrow. Women (and their relatives) who have been victims of sexual violence created color-coded t-shirts about their experiences. It's an amazing, and incredibly moving, project. Stop by and check it out if you're on campus.

UCLA Spring Sing 2007

Hey guys this is Eric again, UCLA Undergraduate Admission's official photographer/techie. Sorry that the pictures from Spring Sing are a little late, but here they are! They were hand-selected from over 900 photos taken for your viewing pleasure.

Spring Sing was truly an amazing event, and I was impressed by how many people showed up and how great the events were. It was full of fun skits, amazing dancers, talented singers, and energetic performers. The entire tennis court was packed from the bottom all the way up, with even some Bruins waiting for the event for up to ten hours outside!

I highly recommend everyone to go to the event next year. You will not regret it.

Spring Sing

Do you like fun? Do you like music? Do you like music and fun? If you do, then attending Spring Sing is like hitting the music and fun jackpot!

Hi! My name is Ginger Castle and I am a recruiter and an alum. UCLA’s many traditions helped me become the devoted Bruin that I am today. As a student, one of my favorite events to attend each year was Spring Sing. Talk about tradition! Spring Sing has been around since the 1940’s. Every year, UCLA’s most talented musicians put on a great show at the Los Angeles Tennis Center for a crowd of about 4,200 UCLA Students. Acts like Maroon Five and Linkin Park performed at Spring Sing before they made it big. The Student Alumni Association also presents one musician with the George and Ira Gershwin Lifetime Achievement Award. Past recipients include Stevie Wonder, Frank Sinatra, and James Taylor. Who will win this year? The suspense is killing me. The show also features a group of students called Company who perform hilarious skits and spoofs in between acts. Click on the link below to watch a video of Company’s take on Westside Story. As a future Bruin, Spring Sing is just one of many fun-filled traditions that you can look forward to. I can't think of a better way to spend Quatro de Mayo. Go Bruins!

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.

UCLA Soup

UCLA's got miles upon miles of corridors with all kinds of labs branching off of them, and I got to see a few of them when I was a psych student here. (I was mostly working on with people in rooms rather than pipettes in labs). Students in other disciplines get more lab time and often work closely with professors on projects. As I wander the corridors of the Med Center or the Center for Health Sciences (usually looking for shortcuts through campus -- UCLA is all about finding building hacks), I sometimes wonder what the researchers are cooking up in those labs. Right now, it's apparently UCLA Soup. Here's a snippet from the news release:

UCLA professor Thomas G. Mason and chemistry graduate student Carlos J. Hernandez produced microscale particles shaped like each letter of the alphabet. Graduate student James Wilking used "laser tweezers" to pick up the letters 'U, C, L, A' and move them in order "like skywriting in solution."

You can read the full news release here. For information about Mason's research, visit www.chem.ucla.edu/dept/Faculty/Mason. Science!

And thanks for all the questions and comments you've been leaving!