UCLA

[Live Free or Die]

Anybody have anything to say about UCLA? I'm particularly interested to here from people who went there from the east coast, since I have lived in New England my whole life. I've visited the school and it seems like an exciting location (with a beautiful campus), but I'm concerned about the reputation southern California has for being superficial. Maybe I have misconceptions about socal, so please correct me if I'm wrong.

[Jamie Stringer]

Anybody have anything to say about UCLA? I'm particularly interested to here from people who went there from the east coast, since I have lived in New England my whole life. I've visited the school and it seems like an exciting location (with a beautiful campus), but I'm concerned about the reputation southern California has for being superficial. Maybe I have misconceptions about socal, so please correct me if I'm wrong.

I've lived on the West Coast for my whole life and specifically in LA off and on for the last 8 years and attended UCLA for UG.  Granted, there are some parts of the LA area that can be more materialistic (Malibu, Beverly Hills, Bel Air), but they're also rich enclaves.  I don't find that the average person here is superficial at all.  Within the UCLA community, I think it's the furthest from superficial.  In my experience at UCLA, people tend to be pretty friendly and down to earth.  It's like any typical public school with a broad range of diverse people.

It's hard to give you specifics because there's so much I could say about the campus, the people, etc.  If you have specific questions, please feel free to ask (this includes specific questions in also dealing with single grad student housing as I was also a grad student there).

[moonpie]

The smart, ambitious people in LA are in technology, entertainment, finance and business.  In that sense it has similar demographics to New York, and a similar culture of excess that New York has.  Spoiled valley girls or spoiled long island bridge and tunnel crowds don't vary.  There's less entertainment and more finance (or at least there was in New York), and the girls are skinnier in New York, though more athletic in LA.  I think the advantage for that one goes to NY.  But I don't see the city comparing unfavorably in terms of people to NYC.  It's a similarly large, hard to generalize city.

However, I think it's less uniformly politically aware/ecoconscious than a Boston or an SF, and like every other city in the union, less wonky/brainy than DC.  But there are lots of niches in LA.  LA is probably only a conglomeration of niches...

[Live Free or Die]

Well, I'm not a big fan of New York either, and unlike LA I have experience living there. This was helpful, though, so I appreciate the input.

[bloomlaw]

The smart, ambitious people in LA are in technology, entertainment, finance and business.  In that sense it has similar demographics to New York, and a similar culture of excess that New York has.  Spoiled valley girls or spoiled long island bridge and tunnel crowds don't vary.  There's less entertainment and more finance (or at least there was in New York), and the girls are skinnier in New York, though more athletic in LA.  I think the advantage for that one goes to NY.  But I don't see the city comparing unfavorably in terms of people to NYC.  It's a similarly large, hard to generalize city.

However, I think it's less uniformly politically aware/ecoconscious than a Boston or an SF, and like every other city in the union, less wonky/brainy than DC.  But there are lots of niches in LA.  LA is probably only a conglomeration of niches...

You know what you're implying here, right?

[Jamie Stringer]

The smart, ambitious people in LA are in technology, entertainment, finance and business.  In that sense it has similar demographics to New York, and a similar culture of excess that New York has.  Spoiled valley girls or spoiled long island bridge and tunnel crowds don't vary.  There's less entertainment and more finance (or at least there was in New York), and the girls are skinnier in New York, though more athletic in LA.  I think the advantage for that one goes to NY.  But I don't see the city comparing unfavorably in terms of people to NYC.  It's a similarly large, hard to generalize city.

However, I think it's less uniformly politically aware/ecoconscious than a Boston or an SF, and like every other city in the union, less wonky/brainy than DC.  But there are lots of niches in LA.  LA is probably only a conglomeration of niches...

I'd agree that LA is probably less politically aware/eco-conscious than SF, but I wouldn't agree with the assertion with regard to Boston. 

One thing that I like about LA (and don't appreciate as much until I go to other cities) is the relative smoke-free attitude of the area.  When I go to other cities, I realize how much people love smoking and it's just not the case in LA.  People look at you funny if you light up a cigarette.

Again, please feel free to ask questions about the city or UCLA specifically. 

[sluglaw]

The smart, ambitious people in LA are in technology, entertainment, finance and business.  In that sense it has similar demographics to New York, and a similar culture of excess that New York has.  Spoiled valley girls or spoiled long island bridge and tunnel crowds don't vary.  There's less entertainment and more finance (or at least there was in New York), and the girls are skinnier in New York, though more athletic in LA.  I think the advantage for that one goes to NY.  But I don't see the city comparing unfavorably in terms of people to NYC.  It's a similarly large, hard to generalize city.

However, I think it's less uniformly politically aware/ecoconscious than a Boston or an SF, and like every other city in the union, less wonky/brainy than DC.  But there are lots of niches in LA.  LA is probably only a conglomeration of niches...

I'd agree that LA is probably less politically aware/eco-conscious than SF, but I wouldn't agree with the assertion with regard to Boston. 

One thing that I like about LA (and don't appreciate as much until I go to other cities) is the relative smoke-free attitude of the area.  When I go to other cities, I realize how much people love smoking and it's just not the case in LA.  People look at you funny if you light up a cigarette.

Again, please feel free to ask questions about the city or UCLA specifically. 

I think the trade-off to being smoke free is the air quality of the city as a whole, which might be a contributing factor to people there not smoking as much (which all the hazardous gasses you breath on a daily basis, why add more with cigarettes?)  Heart disease, lung disease, asthma and other air-pollution related illnesses are more common in LA than other places.  Personally, going to LA can make me physically ill if the smog is particularly bad.

Beyond that, I agree that LA is a hard to classify city.  If you can put up with traffic and smog, then you will be able to find somewhere that you can fit in.