121 Reasons
Here are some reasons why UCLA is an amazing place:
In 1965, UCLA cheerleaders were the first to use the plastic pompom when they developed the “Bruin High Step” style of pompom routine.
UCLA receives more freshman applications than any other U.S. university and the average weighted GPA of the incoming class is 4.25.
Thirty-one academic departments at UCLA rank among the top 20 in their field; 13 are among the top 10.
UCLA is the 10 th largest employer in the Greater Los Angeles region.
The UCLA Women’s Water Polo team has 33 consecutive wins - a UCLA and NCAA record.
In 1936, George and Ira Gershwin presented UCLA with a new school song, based on one of their biggest hits, and re-titled it “Strike Up the Band for UCLA.”
The Bruin Bear statue in the center of campus weighs two tons; rubbing the right rear paw is good luck.
Westwood.
UCLA offers more than 3,000 different undergraduate courses, covering all the principle languages and dialects on earth.
James Dean and Jim Morrison ’65 attended the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.
The Daily Bruin has a daily distribution of approximately 20,000, at more than 100 on- and off-campus locations. (The Daily Trojan has a daily distribution of a mere 9,000.)
Contrary to popular belief, the Arroyo Bridge, currently under Dickson Plaza, was the first structure erected at UCLA. Royce, Powell, Haines and Kinsey Halls were completed when the campus opened in 1929, and they still stand today.
UCLA has won more NCAA Team Championships than any school in the nation – 97 total.
The UCLA Bruin Marching Band was the 1993 recipient of the Louis B. Sudler Trophy, which is voted on each year by college band directors from across the country and is presented by the John Philip Sousa Foundation in recognition of the band's tradition of excellence. The UCLA Band is the first on the west coast to be so honored.
The UCLA Library is among the top 10 university research libraries in the nation, containing 8 million volumes.
In 1926, the first class gift was made: $300 worth of trees to landscape the new campus that was being constructed in Westwood.
UCLA sent 53 athletes and coaches to the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, representing 12 different nations.
BruinWalk.
The Inverted Fountain, inspired by the natural hot springs in Yellowstone National Park, recycles 10,000 gallons of water every minute.
During the 1984 Olympics, UCLA hosted gymnastics and tennis events, and the residence halls served as an Olympic Village.
UCLA holds a record 11 NCAA Basketball Championships, 10 of which were won under legendary coach John Wooden.
The UCLA Film and Television Archive is the largest university-based film and television archive in the world, and is second only to the Library of Congress.
Some things never change… The Daily Bruin ran this poem about Westwood in 1929: “Though you get here at dawning, at daylight or dark, be it ever so humble, there’s no place to park.”
Since 1983: Diddy Riese.
U CLA is home to the first Asian-founded sorority in the nation. Chi Alpha Delta was founded in 1929.
U CLA's diverse Greek Community includes chapters that represent Armenian, Latino, Persian, non-traditional age, and South Asian students.
The Sculpture Garden was once rated the #1 place in LA to make out by Playboy magazine.
Jackie Robinson, the first black player to play in the major leagues when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, was a four-sport letterman at UCLA, competing in football, basketball, track, and baseball.
Delta Sigma Theta became the first sorority chartered at UCLA and is also the first African American founded Greek-letter organization on campus.
Recent movies filmed on campus include The Nutty Professor (I and II), What Lies Beneath, Legally Blonde, How High, Van Wilder: Party Liaison, Minority Report, Old School and First Daughter.
The first open-heart surgery in the western United States was performed at UCLA Medical Center in 1956.
Recent television shows filmed on campus include 24, Alias, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Jack and Bobby.
Dinners for 12 Strangers, has been bringing together students, alumni and faculty since 1968.
Royce Hall is modeled after the San Ambrogio Church in Milan, Italy.
UCLA ranks #1 among American colleges and universities conferring Ph.D.s to minority students, and we rank among the top five major universities in granting baccalaureate and master's degrees to minorities.
One in every 140 Californians has a UCLA degree.
In 2003, a new vaccine based on UCLA research was shown to stop progression of a type of diabetes. Currently in clinical trials the vaccine is slated to become a preventative therapy in the next few years.
UCLA has more students than any other college in California, public or private.
The 1952 Spring Sing emcee was then Screen Actors Guild President, Ronald Reagan.
University of California’s motto is Fiat Lux or “Let there be light.”
If UCLA were a country, it would have been 14 th in the medal count in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.
Eugene Hilgard, Joseph Le Conte and Charles Mills Gayley were UC Berkeley professors of Herbert Foster – the engineer who helped lay out the streets of Westwood.
The Doors, Maroon 5, and Linkin Park all boast Bruins among their members.
William Ackerman ’24 coached the UCLA Men’s Tennis team to its first NCAA Championship in 1950.
UCLA is involved in 1,654 community partnerships throughout Los Angeles County and one-third of UCLA undergraduates participate in community service activities.
The basketball teams coached by John Wooden over 11 years lost only two games in Pauley Pavilion.
In ’N Out.
UCLA is host to over 100 film and television productions every year.
The UCLA campus includes six major performance venues, two museums and three gardens.
Things to do: UCLA has over 12,000 special events a year.
UCLA has over 70 commencement ceremonies over four days drawing 70,000 moms, dads and families.
Spring Sing!
In addition to several buildings on campus, wireless Internet is also available outside at the Sculpture Garden, Kerckhoff Patio and Royce Quad.
UCLA operates the second largest physicians’ practice in the state (next to Kaiser Permanente) and trains 60% of California’s doctors.
More Bruins – not fewer – have traveled with the Education Abroad Program since 9/11.
Bruin alumni in the film and TV industry include Carol Burnett ’54, Lloyd Bridges ’36, Sean Astin ’97, Francis Ford Coppola ’67, Rob Reiner ’66, Tim Robbins ’82 and Gabrielle Union ’96.
NFL players who took their hits as Bruins include Troy Aikman ’89, Drew Bennett ’00, Mike Flanagan ’02, DeShaun Foster ’04, Tommy Maddox ’92, Ricky Manning ’05 and Freddie Mitchell ’00.
The UCLA Medical Center has been named “Best Hospital in the West” by US News & World Report for 16 consecutive years.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar ’69, Baron Davis ’99, Jason Kapono ’04, Dan Gadzuric ’03, Reggie Miller ’89, Bill Walton ’74, Earl Watson ’01 and Jamaal Wilkes ’74 represent the Bruins in the NBA, past and present.
More than $1 million in UCLA Alumni Scholarships was awarded in 2004.
Kerckhoff Hall is the only gothic building on campus.
UCLA Alumni Henry Waxman ’61, Linda Sanchez ’95, Jerry Lewis ’56, Diane Watson ’56 and Ted Stevens ’47 represent California in the U.S. Congress.
Five UCLA faculty members and four alumni are Nobel Laureates.
California politician Sheila Kuehl ’62 and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa ’77 hold UCLA degrees.
Thai Princess Ubol Ratana and Prince Chatri Chalerm Yukol are both Bruins.
Bruin Woods.
The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, held every spring on campus, is the largest annual gathering of publishers and authors in the country.
From 1971 to 1974, UCLA basketball won 88 consecutive games – a record still standing.
UCLA boasts the largest Greek Community in California with more than 60 Chapters, constituting 13% of the student population.
Michael Dukakis, Warren Christopher and Al Gore have all taught at UCLA.
UCLA’s cooling requirements last year were equivalent to melting an ice cube bigger than Pauley Pavilion and 50 stories tall – 10 billion gallons of chilled water had to be pumped through the system.
Dorm Food.
DeNeve goes through approximately eight gallons of peanut butter a day.
UCLA gives more than 600 campus tours per year.
UCLA generates $6 billion of economic activity each year.
“The Mighty Bruins”, UCLA's newest fight song, was composed by Academy Award-winning composer Bill Conti in 1984 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the UCLA Alumni Association.
LA Weekly called the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History “the most reliable place for a fix of the unexpected.”
More than 550 alumni volunteers review more than 2,500 prospective student scholarship applications, from which the Alumni Association offers awards ranging from $4,000 to $12,000, paid over four years.
Eight UCLA students have received prestigious Rhodes Scholarships, recognizing scholastic ability, force of character and leadership qualities.
Each year, alumni return to campus for Interview With A Bruin, a program in which students can hone their interview skills before testing them out in the “real world.”
Eleven students founded UCLA’s official charity, UniCamp, in 1935. More than 60,000 needy children have since been campers.
The Academic Advancement Program works to ensure the academic success, retention and graduation of its more than 6,500 students.
Students give back to UCLA each year through the Senior Class Gift. The Class of 2005 pledged $92,000 for the class gift, setting a new record as the largest Senior Class gift to the UCLA Fund.
The approximately 4,827 graduate students admitted last year were selected from a pool of more than 20,000.
The UCLA Education Abroad Program allows students to study at more than 150 institutions in 35 different countries.
There are 84,000 UCLA Alumni Association members.
Five hundred student, staff, and alumni dancers participated in the fourth annual UCLA Dance Marathon this year, raising more than $200,000 for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.
UCLA has more than 339,000 living alumni.
More 40,000 UCLA students have studied abroad since the Education Abroad Program began in 1962.
Annual attendance at UCLA visual and performing arts programs is more than 500,000.
Ninety-seven percent of UCLA entering freshmen were in the top 10th of their high school graduating classes.
More than 5,000 research projects are being conducted on the UCLA campus at any given time, with 1000s of undergrads conducting their own research with top UCLA faculty.
2,411 of the 2,460 UCLA instructional faculty members hold a doctorate, first professional, or other terminate degree.
Student to faculty ratio of 18:1.
The majority of undergraduate classes have 10 – 19 students.
More than 9,000 alumni volunteer their time with UCLA programs, activities and advisory board.
Nine UCLA faculty members have been awarded the National Medal of Science.
From San Diego to Hong Kong, from Portland to New York City, you're bound to meet a fellow Bruin wherever you go.
Janss Steps – all 87 of them!
4,300 alumni are available for informational interviews for students and fellow alumni, through the UCLA Career Network.
Each year, 2,500 kids from economically disadvantaged Los Angeles neighborhoods are bussed to UCLA, where they trick-or-treat in the residence halls at All Hill Halloween.
UCLA draws its faculty and students from 125 different countries.
Eighty members of the UCLA senior faculty have participated in the award winning Freshmen Clusters program, pioneered six years ago.
Two words: Carpe Noctem.
Charles E. Young ’57 was the first UCLA graduate to become UCLA chancellor. At the age of 36, he was the youngest administrator ever to head a UC campus.
Physician Dr. Michael Gottlieb identified the world's first cases of AIDS at UCLA Medical Center in 1981.
UCLA is the birthplace of the Internet.
The 8-Clap!
ASUCLA offers nine on-campus restaurants and cafes, plus a full food court in the center of Ackerman Union.
UCLA supports more student organizations than any other university in the country, more than 800 in total.
Channel 22 is the UCLA residential TV station, featuring announcements, student productions, and an award-winning bulletin board.
The Residential Life staff comprises 30 full-time staff members, 230 student staff, and 16 Faculty in Residence.
The UCLA campus is located only 15 minutes from the famous Sunset strip and five miles from the Pacific Ocean.
UCLA captured the 2005 Lexus Gauntlet trophy by a score of 70-40, the largest point differential in the history of this UCLA-USC all-sports head-to-head rivalry.
The Central Ticket Office offers tickets for all campus athletic and entertainment events, as well as bus passes and tickets to movies and other off campus athletic, cultural and entertainment events.
The annual Young Alumni Reunion offers seniors a chance to mingle with recent graduates at a party in Pauley Pavilion.
UCLA Student Media publishes seven print magazines.
The UCLA name is the most widely recognized university logo in the world.
The newly expanded John Wooden Center offers such activities as cardio and weight training, golf, gymnastics, rowing, windsurfing, swimming and a rock wall.
Students, alumni and faculty unite to show their Bruin pride at the Beat ’SC Parade, Bonfire, and Rally!
