UCLA Law c/o 2019 (2015-2016) Forum

[Jumpman32]

So I went to visit the school last week and I just wanted to share my experience. I really didn’t want to at first but after talking with a few people on here about it, I’ve decided to just do it.

First, I wanted to book like an information session, but apparently they don’t have them anymore because “it’s too late in the process; people are already picking schools.” Doesn’t make sense to me, but whatever. So I booked the tour and the classroom visit.
I couldn’t understand that teacher for the life of me. His accent was so thick. The students there seemed to understand though, so I’m sure that if I had been in the class for as long as they have, I probably would have by then too.
I spoke with someone from admissions. She really didn’t do a good job of answering my questions. She seemed to be kind of annoyed like she had answered these questions so many times today already.
The tour was alright. It’s a nice school, but nothing extraordinary. Same with the student leading the tour. He seemed nice and knowledgeable.

But the thing that I disliked the most about the school was that everyone just seemed so…idk how to explain it….like by themselves. For example, at other schools I have visited, the current students seemed interested in us. They talk to us, either after the class visit or just stopped to talk while we were taking the tour. I had several students come up after the class and ask us what schools we were interested in, tell us their story, share the goods and somewhat bads about the schools. No students talked to me or the group of us at all. And on the tour, students seemed to be off doing their own thing as well. No comradery I guess like there was at the other schools.
I’m not sure if this is because of the competitiveness of the school or if they’re just so tired of seeing 0Ls at their school or if they all have midterms/finals coming up or what. But I didn’t like the vibe at all.

My experience wasn’t a good one. But I’m trying not to base my decision on that 1 visit. And no one here should either. But I just wanted to share. And if others have had other experiences, please share!

I had the EXACT opposite experience, and I loved the "vibe" at the school. You may want to toughen up a little.

My experience leaned more towards LShopeful's - while it didn't bother me that none of the students came up and talked to us (they got their own shit to deal with), the students just didn't seem to be that happy. While I don't expect law school to be bubbles and rainbows, at every other campus I visited (while classes were going on) the students were talking and chatting and genuinely seemed like they were enjoying themselves. Not to show my nerd card, but it was like starting the Harry Potter movies with Prizoner of Azkaban, watching that movie 5 times, and then watching Sorcerer's Stone. That being said, I absolutely could have gotten the vibe all wrong, and assuming I'm accepted (fingers crossed) I'll visit again with a completely open mind.

Same, honestly.

I hate to pile on, but I had a very similar experience. Of course I was just on campus for 1 day, so obviously the smallest of sample sizes

You should be used to this if you're from LA. This is how everyone is here. USC is probably the same or worse..

[gtrs09]

So I went to visit the school last week and I just wanted to share my experience. I really didn’t want to at first but after talking with a few people on here about it, I’ve decided to just do it.

First, I wanted to book like an information session, but apparently they don’t have them anymore because “it’s too late in the process; people are already picking schools.” Doesn’t make sense to me, but whatever. So I booked the tour and the classroom visit.
I couldn’t understand that teacher for the life of me. His accent was so thick. The students there seemed to understand though, so I’m sure that if I had been in the class for as long as they have, I probably would have by then too.
I spoke with someone from admissions. She really didn’t do a good job of answering my questions. She seemed to be kind of annoyed like she had answered these questions so many times today already.
The tour was alright. It’s a nice school, but nothing extraordinary. Same with the student leading the tour. He seemed nice and knowledgeable.

But the thing that I disliked the most about the school was that everyone just seemed so…idk how to explain it….like by themselves. For example, at other schools I have visited, the current students seemed interested in us. They talk to us, either after the class visit or just stopped to talk while we were taking the tour. I had several students come up after the class and ask us what schools we were interested in, tell us their story, share the goods and somewhat bads about the schools. No students talked to me or the group of us at all. And on the tour, students seemed to be off doing their own thing as well. No comradery I guess like there was at the other schools.
I’m not sure if this is because of the competitiveness of the school or if they’re just so tired of seeing 0Ls at their school or if they all have midterms/finals coming up or what. But I didn’t like the vibe at all.

My experience wasn’t a good one. But I’m trying not to base my decision on that 1 visit. And no one here should either. But I just wanted to share. And if others have had other experiences, please share!

I had the EXACT opposite experience, and I loved the "vibe" at the school. You may want to toughen up a little.

My experience leaned more towards LShopeful's - while it didn't bother me that none of the students came up and talked to us (they got their own shit to deal with), the students just didn't seem to be that happy. While I don't expect law school to be bubbles and rainbows, at every other campus I visited (while classes were going on) the students were talking and chatting and genuinely seemed like they were enjoying themselves. Not to show my nerd card, but it was like starting the Harry Potter movies with Prizoner of Azkaban, watching that movie 5 times, and then watching Sorcerer's Stone. That being said, I absolutely could have gotten the vibe all wrong, and assuming I'm accepted (fingers crossed) I'll visit again with a completely open mind.

Same, honestly.

I hate to pile on, but I had a very similar experience. Of course I was just on campus for 1 day, so obviously the smallest of sample sizes

You should be used to this if you're from LA. This is how everyone is here. USC is probably the same or worse..

I visited both USC and UCLA this past weekend and felt an entirely different vibe, like the stories above, compared to USC. Students at USC seemed much more interested in helping us. Was pretty disappointed in UCLA tbh

[spencercross]

So I went to visit the school last week and I just wanted to share my experience. I really didn’t want to at first but after talking with a few people on here about it, I’ve decided to just do it.

First, I wanted to book like an information session, but apparently they don’t have them anymore because “it’s too late in the process; people are already picking schools.” Doesn’t make sense to me, but whatever. So I booked the tour and the classroom visit.
I couldn’t understand that teacher for the life of me. His accent was so thick. The students there seemed to understand though, so I’m sure that if I had been in the class for as long as they have, I probably would have by then too.
I spoke with someone from admissions. She really didn’t do a good job of answering my questions. She seemed to be kind of annoyed like she had answered these questions so many times today already.
The tour was alright. It’s a nice school, but nothing extraordinary. Same with the student leading the tour. He seemed nice and knowledgeable.

But the thing that I disliked the most about the school was that everyone just seemed so…idk how to explain it….like by themselves. For example, at other schools I have visited, the current students seemed interested in us. They talk to us, either after the class visit or just stopped to talk while we were taking the tour. I had several students come up after the class and ask us what schools we were interested in, tell us their story, share the goods and somewhat bads about the schools. No students talked to me or the group of us at all. And on the tour, students seemed to be off doing their own thing as well. No comradery I guess like there was at the other schools.
I’m not sure if this is because of the competitiveness of the school or if they’re just so tired of seeing 0Ls at their school or if they all have midterms/finals coming up or what. But I didn’t like the vibe at all.

My experience wasn’t a good one. But I’m trying not to base my decision on that 1 visit. And no one here should either. But I just wanted to share. And if others have had other experiences, please share!

I had the EXACT opposite experience, and I loved the "vibe" at the school. You may want to toughen up a little.

My experience leaned more towards LShopeful's - while it didn't bother me that none of the students came up and talked to us (they got their own shit to deal with), the students just didn't seem to be that happy. While I don't expect law school to be bubbles and rainbows, at every other campus I visited (while classes were going on) the students were talking and chatting and genuinely seemed like they were enjoying themselves. Not to show my nerd card, but it was like starting the Harry Potter movies with Prizoner of Azkaban, watching that movie 5 times, and then watching Sorcerer's Stone. That being said, I absolutely could have gotten the vibe all wrong, and assuming I'm accepted (fingers crossed) I'll visit again with a completely open mind.

Same, honestly.

I hate to pile on, but I had a very similar experience. Of course I was just on campus for 1 day, so obviously the smallest of sample sizes

You should be used to this if you're from LA. This is how everyone is here. USC is probably the same or worse..

I visited both USC and UCLA this past weekend and felt an entirely different vibe, like the stories above, compared to USC. Students at USC seemed much more interested in helping us. Was pretty disappointed in UCLA tbh

I can't speak to this year's cycle, but I had the exact same experience last year. I visited UCLA multiple times and it always felt uptight and stressed out. At ASW, I said thank you to the professor that taught the mock class and he basically grunted at me and turned away without saying anything. On the other hand, USC (which I expected to hate), UCI and even Loyola, of all places, struck me as very positive, supportive environments. That said, while it's not something to be ignored, it's hard to say a single visit, or even a handful of visits, really reflects the true day-to-day environment of a school. It might serve as a tie-breaker, but I'd be considering a number of other inputs first.

[Kaizen428]

Current UCLA 1L here. I'm sad to hear you guys didn't have a great experience when you visited. Your observations seem very out of character to what my friends and I see/experience on a day to day basis. I will say that I think prospective student tours seem to happen at the most stressful time of 1L year. Your spring semester of 1L year is kind of a mess. Unlike the fall, classes start at a sprint and never slow down. Plus students are dealing with the summer job search, journal applications, learning about the insane clerkship post-grad application process, learning about fall OCI, graded memo time, and eventual law review write ons. I know a lot of students feel completely overwhelmed right now. So I'm sorry we didn't put on our best face for you, but I hope you'll join us next year or come back again for another visit before making a decision.

[Holodigm]

Current UCLA 1L here. I'm sad to hear you guys didn't have a great experience when you visited. Your observations seem very out of character to what my friends and I see/experience on a day to day basis. I will say that I think prospective student tours seem to happen at the most stressful time of 1L year. Your spring semester of 1L year is kind of a mess. Unlike the fall, classes start at a sprint and never slow down. Plus students are dealing with the summer job search, journal applications, learning about the insane clerkship post-grad application process, learning about fall OCI, graded memo time, and eventual law review write ons. I know a lot of students feel completely overwhelmed right now. So I'm sorry we didn't put on our best face for you, but I hope you'll join us next year or come back again for another visit before making a decision.

Awesome, I'm glad you joined us here! Your perspective is way more valuable than anything any of us can get from a group tour. So from your perspective, overall it's a good environment, am I reading that right? Would you be able/willing to expand on that?

[Kaizen428]

Current UCLA 1L here. I'm sad to hear you guys didn't have a great experience when you visited. Your observations seem very out of character to what my friends and I see/experience on a day to day basis. I will say that I think prospective student tours seem to happen at the most stressful time of 1L year. Your spring semester of 1L year is kind of a mess. Unlike the fall, classes start at a sprint and never slow down. Plus students are dealing with the summer job search, journal applications, learning about the insane clerkship post-grad application process, learning about fall OCI, graded memo time, and eventual law review write ons. I know a lot of students feel completely overwhelmed right now. So I'm sorry we didn't put on our best face for you, but I hope you'll join us next year or come back again for another visit before making a decision.

Awesome, I'm glad you joined us here! Your perspective is way more valuable than anything any of us can get from a group tour. So from your perspective, overall it's a good environment, am I reading that right? Would you be able/willing to expand on that?

I really love the environment at UCLA and have very few complaints at the moment. The reality is that law school is stressful, and its full of people who are used to succeeding and who really want to do well. So it can create a tense environment at times, but that definitely doesn't mean people are mean, aggressive, or rude. Even when people are feeling overwhelmed with their own stuff, I still find that other students are willing to help with notes or whatever. I think the school does a great job at picking 1L professors. I think they really go out of their way to ensure that the people teaching first year students are really passionate about the law, about students, and about seeing us succeed. Even my least favorite professor (teaching style and my learning style just didn't mesh) was still an incredibly accessible. They would go the ends of the earth to help any of us. And I think thats a pretty common experience across all sections. Also, I think the school is very attuned to the fact that 1L year is hard, and they want to make it as easy as possible for us. They put on a variety of programs to ensure everyone has access or is aware of the resources that the school offers. And I think the new Dean is really into getting student feedback. She has hosted a bunch of happy hours, she's brought in coffee and snacks for students, she's created a council for students to give her feedback. I think she's really invested in making UCLA the best it can be for the students, and has shown very little favoritism toward professors and research. I'm sure that's still very important to her and the school, but it really does feel like a school that is students first. Also, I think the class size in general does make a big difference. 300 kids vs 500 kids (Georgetown, Harvard, GW, etc.) is a big difference. UCLA has big school amenities, but small school environment in terms of relationships with professors and the administration. Hope this helps and I'm happy to answer any more questions anyone has!

[meowatme123]

IN today via phone call!

[jdanz]

IN today via phone call!

Congrats! Mind sharing when you went complete ?

[meowatme123]

IN today via phone call!

Congrats! Mind sharing when you went complete ?

Thanks, went complete 2/5!

[queenb921]

Waitlisted today via email shockingly. I applied to UCLA as my ultimate reach and was expecting a quick rejection. 2.95 GPA (huge upward trend), 161 LSAT. I already emailed Admissions to schedule a campus visit (I'm in SoCal, so I can take a day trip) and am currently considering retaking the LSAT in June to boost my chances...

Currently my top choice is Loyola LA, and I'm in the middle of negotiations with Hastings.

Did you have strong softs? And when did you apply?

Sent my applications out 1/26, went complete at UCLA on 1/29, and I got my decision on 3/29. I guess my softs really did carry me this cycle because I am doing much better than I expected - URM female, first generation college student, AmeriCorps, interesting undergrad major.

What kind of URM are you, if you don't mind me asking?

Sorry for the long time to reply, missed this comment. I am Latina - dad is from Puerto Rico and mom is Mexican-American (and a small % Native American, which I indicated on all apps that didn't require me to list a tribal ID or whatever).

[KL10]

IN today via phone call!

Exciting congrats! Cool to know they work throughout the weekends too haha

[16to19]

.

[ls2k16]

Still haven't heard back - is it worth doing a loci at this point? I mean, I think first deposits are Friday or something?

[The_Lorax]

Still haven't heard back - is it worth doing a loci at this point? I mean, I think first deposits are Friday or something?

They are indeed. I'd imagine more decisions will come out next week after people either withdraw or miss the deposit date.

[ls2k16]

Still haven't heard back - is it worth doing a loci at this point? I mean, I think first deposits are Friday or something?

They are indeed. I'd imagine more decisions will come out next week after people either withdraw or miss the deposit date.

So would you advise against sending a loci (for reference, I applied early January)?

[jmark1]

Just got the acceptance call!

[wellitsover]

Just got the acceptance call!

Congrats!!!

[The_Lorax]

Still haven't heard back - is it worth doing a loci at this point? I mean, I think first deposits are Friday or something?

They are indeed. I'd imagine more decisions will come out next week after people either withdraw or miss the deposit date.

So would you advise against sending a loci (for reference, I applied early January)?

I'm not really sure I can give a opinion on that, as it would pretty much just be guess-work

[LShopeful2016]

Current UCLA 1L here. I'm sad to hear you guys didn't have a great experience when you visited. Your observations seem very out of character to what my friends and I see/experience on a day to day basis. I will say that I think prospective student tours seem to happen at the most stressful time of 1L year. Your spring semester of 1L year is kind of a mess. Unlike the fall, classes start at a sprint and never slow down. Plus students are dealing with the summer job search, journal applications, learning about the insane clerkship post-grad application process, learning about fall OCI, graded memo time, and eventual law review write ons. I know a lot of students feel completely overwhelmed right now. So I'm sorry we didn't put on our best face for you, but I hope you'll join us next year or come back again for another visit before making a decision.

Thank you for your input! Like I mentioned, I'm not going to base my decision off that 1 visit, just wanted to share my experience. I'm glad people can hear the other side as well.

[calgoldenbear]

Just got the acceptance call!

Congrats! When did you submit and go complete?

[jmark1]

Just got the acceptance call!

Congrats! When did you submit and go complete?

Submitted 1/11, complete around 2/5.

[The_Lorax]

Withdrew today, good luck everyone still waiting!

[16to19]

Will be doing so this evening. some money back in the pot as well. Good luck!

Withdrew today, good luck everyone still waiting!

[niiiightnurse]

Don't even know if this still matters because I am certain I am the last applicant they notified (ha) but waitlisted today and withdrawing, the northeast already got me

[jdanz]

Don't even know if this still matters because I am certain I am the last applicant they notified (ha) but waitlisted today and withdrawing, the northeast already got me

Mind sharing when you went complete ?