Home Bio Friends Great Sites Guestbook Literature Mermaids Photos Princess Bride Site Design UCLA

University of California at Los Angeles

This page is meant not only to help current and prospective UCLA students find out more information about their school and community, but also to let non-students get to know the school a little better and find a little entertainment. Sites related to UCLA run from informative to amusing to goofy. Hopefully by starting here you will find something of interest.

Page Contents:
General Information
Classes & Academic Services
Departments & Programs
Student Activities
What I LOVE and LOATHE About UCLA

General Information

UCLA Home Page Royce Hall
This is a good starting out point that can lead you to a wealth of information about academic departments, news, weather, activities, and basically anything related to UCLA. If you want to find some of the department or student homepages, you can find them from here.
Index/Search of Academic Department Pages
Electronic Directory
You can look up UCLA students, faculty, and staff really easily based on limited information and find out their e-mail addresses, phone numbers, and other facts useful for harassing them with.

Classes and Academic Services

Career Center
The Career Center is an excellent and perhaps underused resource for UCLA students and alumni. They provide all sorts of counseling and advising services to help students at every point in their education: choosing a major, doing well in school, choosing a career, writing resumes, interviewing, finding jobs, plus more. They have a library of books about available jobs and graduate schools, and also about job search strategies and interview techniques. They also sponsor some student groups.
General Catalog
Here you can find descriptions of all the courses, major requirements, G.E. requirements, and tons of other class- and department-related information. It was recently updated and the site was redone.
MyUCLA
A new site for UCLA students, which features pages about every single class currently being taught and "personalized" pages for students.
Schedule of Classes
A listing of the classes, teachers, meeting times, enrollment, etc. for the upcoming quarter. Or you can view information about other quarters and read the other material published at the front of the Schedule of Classes.
URSA Online
Here you can access much of the information available over URSA telephone, without the hassle of typing in all those numbers and listening to URSA ramble. You can view your Study List, enroll in classes, print Degree Progress Reports, and more.

Departments and Programs

Bruin Bear Statue Classics Department Homepage
This site has information about the department's programs and instructors. If you would like to debate the relevance of studying classical history and language in today's society, then e-mail me, and I will be happy to explain.
Earth and Space Sciences Department Homepage
I include this link because I like this department. It encompasses a lot of interesting ideas and topics, and if I were a science major, I would major in E&SS.
English Department Homepage
My home department! Go here to find out more about the program and the instructors.
Women's Studies Program Homepage
Along with information about the program and instructors, this page gives a listing of all the Women's Studies courses offered each quarter. This is very helpful, since the indisciplinary nature of the subject matter spans many departments and it is hard to know what Women's Studies courses are available. If you are planning your schedule, and have room for an extra course and don't know what to take, TAKE A WOMEN'S STUDIES COURSE! It will be one of the best things you will ever do, male or female. Especially if you can take WS 10.

Student Activities

BruinGold Joe Bruin
I hear from a good friend that this is the premiere site covering UCLA sports. Too bad our men's football and basketball players have such attitudes and get in such trouble with the law. In my opinion, until the coaches teach them to get rid of their arrogance and get down to business like true athletes, they won't win any championships (nor do they deserve to). But don't get me wrong: I'm a diehard Bruin fan.
English Graduate Union
Regents Scholar Society
This page is for and about Regents Scholars. It provides all sorts of information, including current activites, meeting times, the study list, test file, and more. I was an officer of the organization for three years during my undergrad, and originally wrote their web site.
UCLABruins.com
Official site providing excellent sports coverage.
UCLA Marathon Reading

What I Love and Loathe About UCLA

Trust me, I should know most of the in's and out's of living near and going to UCLA. I grew up in the area, attended sporting events and shopped on campus as a child, went to school there for four years for my B.A., and after surviving all that I decided to continue on there immediately to earn my Ph.D. in English. I love UCLA, despite its many flaws. I think I am one of the few people in this world who truly would bleed blue and gold.

These are my reasons to like or dislike UCLA:

I love: I loathe:
the excellent academic programs, course selections, and instructors the major construction that is always going on
that it is a tolerant campus for ethnicities, sexualities, feminists, etc. (and remains committed to diversity) PARKING (the costs, the searching, the 2-hour time limits, the 7 minutes for a quarter meters!!)
the high level of intellectual activity, all the conferences and research the sheer amount of pre-med people
the great faculty in my department (English/Women's Studies)
the quarter system (it lets you take a greater variety of classes) having trouble getting the classes I want for the first few quarters
being in the heart of L.A. (you can find ANYTHING you're looking for) the unsafeness of campus/West Los Angeles
Westwood (has lots of great restaurants and movie theaters) the food on campus
being able to ride the Santa Monica Blue Bus for free
the excellent sports teams and sporting events the athletes' attitudes
having so many people to choose friends from
that lots of students here are serious students--not just beer-guzzling morons--yet they still know how to have fun
how so much of the school is "online" new Orion2 library search system - irritating and inaccurate
having some form of counseling or info provided on any aspect of school/career/personal life that I could ever want to know about
being able to get lost in an impersonal crowd
never having to talk to an administrator face-to-face
being near the beach and lots of amusement parks
the weather
our current chancellor, Albert Carnesale
the Sculpture Garden
Diddy Riese in Westwood (25¢ cookies!)
Top Shoes in Westwood--lots of cute shoes for cheap :)
being close to family and friends (yet far enough away to avoid them if I want)
living in an area I'm familiar with always being compared to UC Berkeley

About the age-old Berkeley vs. UCLA debate: it seems that most people comparing the two schools somehow feel that Berkeley is the better school. It has a long and good reputation because it was the first UC campus, and it always likes to think of itself as an elite school. But I think its "superiority" is a bunch of nonsense. The fact is that UCLA and Berkeley are very similar schools. They both have a diverse student body (with lots of political stuff going on), famous research facilities, great academic programs, and other characteristics that lead to excellent experiences for students. But I think UCLA is underrecognized for its value whereas Berkeley is overrecognized. UCLA is really a "cutting-edge" school, its reputation and success is on the rise, but Berkeley doesn't seem to be moving up in the same way. Many of my professors (I'm an English grad student) definitely feel that way.

Both schools are big campuses, so students have to deal with "finding their niche" and seeking out the resources and help rather than waiting for them to come. Both have high living expenses. And both are near great cities: LA and the Bay Area. I like LA better. The weather is nicer, and things are closer to campus. I think San Francisco is a little ways away from Berkeley.

I whole-heartedly think that UCLA is the better university, but of course you may not agree with me.

Lair Home | Bio | Friends | Great Sites | Guestbook | Literature | Mermaids | Photos | Princess Bride | Site Design | UCLA

Web site design and original graphics by Heather Wozniak.
E-mail Me
This page hosted by Yahoo!GeoCities. Get your own Free Home Page.
Last updated on October 5, 2003