UCLA, or the University of California, Los Angeles, offers a big school experience in a big city. It’s sort of like ‘maximum’ college. UCLA is prestigious, it’s fun, it’s creative, it’s community focused, and it’s academically intense. It’s everything, and that’s why students love it. There are over 33,000 undergraduates at UCLA, and nearly 50,000 total students. The student body represents over 100 countries, and over 9% of students are international — one of the highest ratios of international students in the country. Students in the undergraduate colleges are able to pick from over 125 majors, and over 90 minors, and many mix and match subjects and arenas. People who love to explore, to challenge themselves, and to collaborate with others thrive at UCLA. Two out of three classes have less than 30 students.
It also doesn’t hurt that the UCLA campus is beautiful. The students love to be on campus. There are over 50 club sport teams, 30 intramural sports leagues, and more than 1,000 clubs ranging from social justice to environmental, to career oriented, to faith. 74% of students participate in clubs.
Given how amazing UCLA is, no one is surprised that the acceptance rate has been dropping steadily for years. Today, they receive well over 100,000 applications and the rate of admission is around 9%.
If UCLA is a dream school for you, we break down below how you can best use your summers to strengthen your application to increase your chances of admission.
UCLA is hard to get into, so send us an email if you want the best guidance for how to turn a dream school into an acceptance letter.
What does the University of California, Los Angeles want to see from your summer?
UCLA receives so many applications (well into the six figures), that the first few layers of filtering by admissions are pretty dry. They want to see that you have the grades and the scores that they expect. They also want to see that you have taken upper-level courses, and excelled in them. They want to see a leadership position — ideally more than one — and strong recommendations from teachers. Once you make it through those initial filters, it’s all about differentiating yourself from the digital pile of other applicants who also checked those boxes.
So how do you do that? Well, summers are a key part. Below we break down exactly what you need to be pursuing over the summer to differentiate yourself from other top UCLA applicants.
Augment Your Academics
The University of California school system has strict academic requirements that all applicants must meet to be considered for admission, and UCLA is no different. These requirements include two years of foreign language, and one year of visual or performing art, so you need to make sure that you will exceed the minimums through your in-school work or plan to use part of your summer to fill in the gaps.
This could especially be necessarily if you’ve decided to apply to UCLA during your junior year, and so don’t have a ton of time to adjust your course load during the school year. Taking courses at a local college can offer a solution, or some high schools also accept online course credits — but you’ll want to ensure that the credits will be accepted in advance of taking the classes.
You can study nearly anything at UCLA, so there isn’t any one thing they want to see you doing beyond the minimum course requirements. But what they really do want to see beyond those minimums (and you do need to go beyond minimums) is that you are seeking out challenge. There are three ways to do this during the summer that we love:
Internships: 73% of undergraduates at UCLA do at least one internship, and so they like it when applicants already have an internship under their belt before applying. Doing an internship over the summer shows that you are looking beyond the classroom towards your professional future. UCLA doesn’t expect you to have everything figured out, but they do want to see that you’re exploring and testing out different paths. Of course, finding an internship isn’t as straightforward as Googling, especially as a high school student. We recommend that student look for internships with nonprofits they’ve volunteered with previously, or with business professionals or local academics they admire. Prepare to have to ask a few people before someone agrees to take you on, and the ideal internship should be at least four weeks long. You should never pay to do an internship, but an internship is often unpaid.
Research: Undergraduate research is a big part of the UCLA experience, so they love to see that you’ve pursued research under a mentor, academic, or teacher outside of what’s available at your school. This could be working as a lab assistant or humanities research assistant for a professor or graduate student, or it could even be independent research you do on your own. If you are going to undertake independent research, it’s important to have an outcome or result you are shooting for, such as publication by a journal open to high school students or presentation at a relevant conference or event.
Courses: You may have already augmented your transcript with summer courses to meet the UCLA minimums, and you shouldn’t fill your entire summer with classes, but if you aren’t already taking summer courses we recommend exploring whether there are for credit (either high school or college) courses available to you at a local college that would allow you to explore a subject you are passionate about more deeply. Many big-name schools also offer summer courses, online or in-person, for high school students who want to accumulate college credit in advance. These programs can be quite expensive, so it’s really only worth it if the class both offers credit and is in something that you are truly passionate about. The matching of the intensive nature of the course with the alignment of the course with your passions is crucial to having this investment pay off.
Emphasize Your Interests
But you’re not going to spend your whole summer taking classes and doing research and showing up to an internship, right? Right. There’s more to do, and a lot of fun to have…but also some work. Let’s break it down.
UCLA wants to see that you are passionate and have true drive to learn and explore — and give back. We recommend that all students applying to UCLA do at least one long-term volunteer commitment with a local non-profit or community organization. This should be linked to something you care about, and that will show up elsewhere in your application. For example, if you are interested in issues of hunger and food insecurity, you could volunteer over the summer with a local food bank, soup kitchen, or food redistribution initiative. If you are interested in environmental issues, you might volunteer with an eco-initiative in your town.
You’ll notice here that we are strongly emphasizing that this volunteering be local, and that it is grounded in your community. This isn’t random. We find that volunteering linked to travel is far less impactful for your application that volunteering and community work that is close to home.
Outside of volunteering that is relevant to what you are passionate about, we also recommend that potential UCLA applicants get a summer job at least once before applying to college. UCLA has been ranked the #4 college for aspiring entrepreneurs, and they take business seriously. They have amazing business and entrepreneurship courses and programs of study, plus clubs like Bruin Entrepreneurs and the entrepreneurship fraternity Sigma Eta Pi.
Have Fun
It may feel like all these recommendations don’t leave a lot of time for fun. We don’t want it to feel that way. Ideally, some of these things — an internship, a job, a volunteering gig, or a course — are genuinely fun for you. But you should also take some time to simply have fun. Go to the pool, discover a new city, taste test every flavor of potato chips at the gas station. You know, the important stuff.
But Not Too Much
Remember what your long-term goal is, though. Sometimes students treat summer like time that ‘doesn’t count.’ If you embrace that concept, it’s pretty easy to make a mistake that can significantly impact your chances of admission. So be smart, please.
UCLA is a wildly popular college, and, while the acceptance rate is about 9%, it is significantly lower for out-of-state students. So, remember, the minimums they give are for all applicants, but California kids have a leg up. If you want to stand out as an out-of-state applicant to UCLA, you really do need to go above and beyond.
If you’re considering applying to a top college, get in touch. We help outstanding students get into their dream schools.