University of California-Los Angeles Top Questions

The friendly stoned persons

The stereotype is that a typical student is probably Asian, very smart, and not very social. This is definitely not an accurate stereotype. UCLA is full of students of diverse cultures, backgrounds, and ethnicity. The students here are the most social students I have ever been around. The city, campus, and neighborhood is always filled with lots of social activities to enjoy.

Given UCLA's academic prestige, I think people expect us to be antisocial nerds who study all day. While our grades mean a lot to us, that's not all we do. We have so many student organizations on campus, and being so close to the beach and other fun places means that there's always something to do. So yes, we study, but no, we have friends and things to do aside from studying.

UCLA students are typically thought of as academically-inclined nerds with little in the way of a social life. In my own experience, that's far from accurate - we live in the middle of Los Angeles! If anything, there's too much 'social life' distracting from 'academic life'. The student body is so large and diverse that it's impossible to stereotype anyone - either that, or we have a solid representation of every stereotype imaginable.

UCLA is considered a very competitive school to get into. Thus, the student body may be considered to be mostly nerds, but that's not always the case. True, that you must've to had worked hard in high school to get accepted to UCLA, but once you're here, it's you that makes the best of it. Personally, I study hard and am involved in many other extracurricular activities that provide that social aspect to my college experience. There are a ton of things to get involved with here--fraternities, sororities, clubs, philanthropy, just to name a few. Everyone is hardworking here and at the same time very involved with student life.