The University of California - Los Angeles

Date: Mar 14 2005
Major: Perfomance Arts (This Major's Salary over time)
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.