My Greatest Mistake

Introduction
I chose my school based on its reputation for academic excellence, not to mention the fact that it's smack in the middle of the classiest parts of Los Angeles--Bel Air, Westwood, and the Hollywood Hills. Our rival, USC, can hardly say the same (don't go out at night past the campus gates or a drive-by is sure to ensue). However, if you're a hard partier or someone looking for a beach blonde California hunk, STAY AWAY from UCLA. This is not the place to be to meet the man of your dreams! If you're the kind of person who loves to work, study, and read, then this is the place for you. UCLA is one of the hardest public schools (if not THE hardest) to get in to, so consider yourself very special to receive an acceptance letter, ESPECIALLY if you're from out of state. The biggest piece of advice I would give to a high schooler looking at UCLA is visit the campus before you make your decision. Meet people, sit in on some classes, maybe go to a frat party if that's what you're into, because that will give you the best feel for what it is that UCLA is all about. Looking at it on the internet is one thing, but living it is quite another.

Campus Life and Social Life
The best part of campus life is UCLA SPORTS! As the *only* school to claim 100 NCAA championships, we've got something right: athletics. Football, basketball, even water polo and gymnastics: students pack the stadiums to show some Bruin pride at every single event. The only downside to the football games is that our "home" games are really about 45 minutes away in Pasadena, at the Rose Bowl. Never fear, students without cars, because for a nominal fee you can catch student busses to all of the Rose Bowl events. Another amazing thing about UCLA is the plethora of activities and student groups one can get involved with. There's Dance Marathon, student government, fraternities and sororities, and hundreds of other clubs to choose from. And now... the worst part about campus/social life is... JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING ELSE. UCLA, as much as it may claim to be, is NOT a party school. My freshman year, a "party" to my floormates was watching anime and eating popcorn... far from the "college coeds gone wild" we see on tv late at night. There is a large social scene within fraternities and sororities (well... large for UCLA) but frat parties seem to get old after about one quarter. What to do? Oh yes, my friends, you are in the middle of the most amazing city in the world. Use that to your full advantage: go out to dinner, go clubbing, shopping, to the beach... anything to get off the drab, dreary campus. It seems that everyone works so hard that when it comes to partying, there's no energy to be found. Keep in mind the kind of people (generally) that get accepted into UCLA: NOT your typical hard-partying, keg-standing, crazies. We're looking at the well-disciplined kind of crazies that will fight you for a seat in the front row of a class. If you're looking to get buck-wild, try U of A. Academics
UCLA academics are, literally, and you can quote me on this, on par with the Ivy League schools. You may think I'm crazy, but hear me out. UCLA is consistently ranked one of the best academic programs in the nation (and I'm not talking top 100, I'm talking top 20) and it has the professors to prove it. Most professors at UCLA are well-respected, well-known, and published researchers, scientists, or experts in their field. It comes as no surprise, then, that UCLA is T-O-U-G-H. Getting a B (or even a B+!) won't cut it here--to be on par with the academic crazies, you have to pull A-'s at the least. And getting an A- isn't a cakewalk, even in "easy" general education classes. For undergraduate work, pulling the top tier grades is even harder because professors at this level are usually visiting professors who teach classes at UCLA while at the same time teaching classes somewhere else. The workload is manageable, but you HAVE to know how to manage your time. Yes, you can enjoy all aspects of social life and balance a full workload, but you probably won't have time to sleep. One thing that compounds this problem is the quarter system, which consists of Fall, Winter, and Spring quarters at 10 weeks each (you can also thoroughly enjoy classes during summer quarter at UCLA if you so choose). This means that within 3 weeks of starting a class, probably even before you figure out what the class is about, you're hit with midterms. Some classes even have two midterms, so theoretically from week 3 on you could have a test or a paper due each week until finals. Some people even have a midterm one week and a final the next! Most of the departments are wonderful, (sciences, economics, and political science to name a few), but the only complaint I have is that there is no business program, only business economics (which is next to impossible to get in to).

Student Body
Well, the academic crazies pretty much rule the campus, which sucks for people like me who expected to see picture perfect surfer dudes walking around campus every day... but overall, there are so many people here that it's not hard to find a group that you fit in with. Weekends at UCLA are pretty dead, Thursday and Friday are the big nights to "go out," leaving Saturday and Sunday with scantily clad girls walking up and down frat row with nothing to do. A lot of people go home on the weekends, which is understandable, and also quite depressing to kids who live far away. I got pretty unlucky with people living on my floor, who walked straight out of "Revenge of the Nerds," and I noticed a lot of them in my classes and walking around campus... in fact a lot of the people at UCLA look like they walked straight out of "Revenge of the Nerds"! Imagine the shyest, nerdiest, smartest kid you know, multiply that by about 30,000, and you have UCLA. But, I feel like its some kind of consolation that LA is considered to be full of beautiful people, so the fact that my school, well... isn't, is okay.

In Closing...
UCLA is a great, diverse, demanding school with a lot to offer. The campus and surrouding areas are absolutely breathtaking (hey, the Playboy Mansion is right across the street!) and if you can't find something fun to do in Los Angeles, then you can't find something fun to do anywhere! Academics are rigorous, and students may not exactly be Playboy Bunnies, they're great people and UCLA is a great school. I feel like I have all the opportunity in the world and UCLA has given me the chance to do things I have never thought I would. I mean opportunities besides studying alongside James Franco at Jerry's Deli during finals week, or seeing movie premiers with stars like Brangelina... yeah, besides all that...