University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), USA

The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA’s academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California State Normal School (now San José State University). This school was absorbed with the official founding of UCLA as the Southern Branch of the University of California in 1919, making it the second-oldest of the 10-campus University of California system (after UC Berkeley).

UCLA offers 337 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines, enrolling about 31,600 undergraduate and 14,300 graduate and professional students. UCLA had 168,000 undergraduate applicants for Fall 2021, including transfers, making the school the most applied-to university in the United States.

The university is organized into the College of Letters and Science and 12 professional schools. Six of the schools offer undergraduate degree programs: the School of the Arts and Architecture, Samueli School of Engineering, Herb Alpert School of Music, School of Nursing, Luskin School of Public Affairs and School of Theater, Film and Television. Three others are graduate-level professional health science schools: the David Geffen School of Medicine, School of Dentistry and Fielding School of Public Health. The School of Education & Information Studies, Anderson School of Management and School of Law round out the university.

UCLA is considered one of the country’s Public Ivies, and is frequently ranked among the best universities in the world by major college and university rankings. As of October 2021, 27 Nobel laureates, five Turing Award winners, two Chief Scientists of the U.S. Air Force and one Fields Medalist have been affiliated with UCLA as faculty, researchers or alumni. Among the current faculty members, 55 have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, 32 to the National Academy of Engineering, 41 to the National Academy of Medicine and 167 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The university was elected to the Association of American Universities in 1974.

UCLA student-athletes compete as the Bruins in the Pac-12 Conference. The Bruins have won 119 NCAA team championships, second only to Stanford University’s 128 team titles. In total, 410 Bruins have made Olympic teams, winning 270 Olympic medals: 136 gold, 71 silver, and 63 bronze. UCLA has been represented in every Olympics since the university’s founding with one exception (1924) and has had a gold medalist in every Olympics the U.S. participated in since 1932.

The new UCLA campus in 1929 had four buildings: Royce Hall and Haines Hall on the north, and Powell Library and Kinsey Hall (now called Renee And David Kaplan Hall) on the south. The Janss Steps were the original 87-step entrance to the university that lead to the quad of these four buildings. Today, the campus includes 163 buildings across 419 acres (1.7 km2) in the western part of Los Angeles, north of the Westwood shopping district and just south of Sunset Boulevard. In terms of acreage, it is the second-smallest of the ten UC campuses. The campus is approximately 1 mile east of I-405 (the San Diego Freeway).

The campus is in the residential area of Westwood and bordered by Bel-Air to the north, Beverly Hills to the east, and Brentwood to the west. The campus is informally divided into North Campus and South Campus, which are both on the eastern half of the university’s land. North Campus is the original campus core; its buildings are more traditional in appearance and clad in imported Italian brick. North Campus is home to the arts, humanities, social sciences, law, history, and business programs and is centered around ficus and sycamore-lined Dickson Court, also known as the “Sunken Garden”. South Campus is home to the physical sciences, life sciences, engineering, mathematical sciences, health-related fields, and the UCLA Medical Center. The campus includes sculpture gardens, fountains, museums, and a mix of architectural styles.

Ackerman Union, the John Wooden Center, the Arthur Ashe Health and Wellness Center, the Student Activities Center, Kerckhoff Hall, the J.D. Morgan Center, the James West Alumni Center, and Pauley Pavilion stand at the center of the campus, bordering Wilson Plaza. The campus is bisected by Bruin Walk, a heavily traveled pathway from the residential hill to the main campus. At the intersection of Bruin Walk and Westwood Plaza is Bruin Plaza, featuring an outdoor performing arts stage and a bronze statue of the Bruin bear.

During the 2028 Summer Olympics, wrestling and judo will be held at Pauley Pavilion. The campus will also be the location of the Olympic Village for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

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