United States Los Angeles, CA

Summary

The University of California—Los Angeles, commonly referred to as UCLA, is a public institution that was founded in 1919. It is one of the most applied-to universities in the U.S. Around 70 percent of the university's student body studies at the undergraduate level, and roughly 12 percent of undergraduates and more than 20 percent of graduate students at UCLA are international. Students who are not California residents must pay a supplemental tuition. UCLA guarantees three years of housing to freshman undergraduates, and some university housing is available for graduate students as well.

Undergraduate studies take place across five academic divisions at UCLA: letters and science; arts and architecture; engineering and applied science; nursing; and theater, film and television. Some of the most popular majors for undergraduate students are political science, business economics and biology. Among the university’s highly ranked graduate schools are the Anderson School of Management, the David Geffen School of Medicine and the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science. The Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, the university’s primary teaching hospital, is a highly regarded medical facility. Most of the university’s schools use a quarter-based academic calendar, and English is the language of instruction. Since 2009-2010, the university has received an average of $1 billion for research each year. UCLA has more than 350 research labs, centers and institutes, and nearly 300 of these facilities are dedicated to medical research. Undergraduates can assist faculty with research at UCLA – and earn academic credit – by participating in the Student Research Program.