Extracurricular Activities at UCLA

For a good reason, the University of California, Los Angeles consistently earns a spot near the top of the list of the best-ranked public universities in the United States. The incredible opportunities that are available to students at UCLA are spread across the university’s diverse academic programs, extracurricular activities at UCLA, and vibrant campus life. We will learn more about the extracurricular activities at UCLA accessible to its students and faculty.

Why is UCLA Popular?

Why is UCLA Popular? UCLA, also known before as the California State Normal School’s Southern Branch, was established in 1882 and has since become the flagship institution of the illustrious University of California system.

Although it is the second oldest of the campuses in the system, UCLA is a pioneer in a number of areas including education, athletics, and innovation.

The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), which is considered to be one of the rare “Public Ivies” (public schools with academic output and reputations similar to those of the illustrious Ivy League schools), has a long list of impressive alumni and faculty.

Students at UCLA have access to a wide variety of resources, both on and off campus, as a result of the university’s enviable location in Southern California, which boasts a campus that spans 419 acres and is situated in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, only five miles from the coast. In addition, the sheer size of the Bruin alumni network.

As of the fall of 2020, the institution will have a total undergraduate enrollment of 31,636 students and will be ranked 20th among the best universities and colleges in the country.

The undergraduate curriculum at UCLA consists of more than 90 minors and 125 majors, which are offered through 109 academic departments. Biology, Business Economics, Political Science, Psychology, and Psychobiology are the most common majors chosen by students enrolling in undergraduate programs.

The university places a significant amount of importance on the research conducted by its students and awards close to one billion dollars in grants and contracts for research each year. Because of its close proximity to Ronald Reagan Medical Center, the campus’s thriving research community is highlighted here.

In addition to its College of Letters and Sciences, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is home to a number of prestigious graduate schools and programs. These include the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, the Anderson School of Management, the School of Law, and the David Geffen School of Medicine.

The School of Theater, Film, and Television at UCLA, also known as TFT, is one of the best in the world, and the university’s performing arts programs are consistently rated highly.

What’s it like to attend UCLA?

What’s it like to attend UCLA as a student? The 419-acre Westwood campus was intended to be a “college in a garden,” and it sprawls across the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains and south into the Los Angeles basin. It is a picture-perfect campus that is located in Southern California, which is known for its beautiful weather. You have the option to remain anonymous if that is something that is important to you.

However, it is a small enough community that you frequently run into the same people, allowing you to quickly establish a core group of close friends. There is something that will interest everyone, and the ratio of serious study to lighthearted activity is just right.

If you’re willing to put in the effort, being a student at UCLA can open up a lot of doors for you, including invitations to exclusive screenings of movies and talks given by prominent figures in their fields. You will have a wide variety of options available to you at UCLA in terms of your academic career, social life, and personal life.

What Extracurricular Activities are Available at UCLA?

What extracurricular activities are available at UCLA for its students? Students at UCLA come from all corners of the world and all walks of life; as a result, students who attend UCLA are bound to make new friends, discover new sources of inspiration, and perhaps even alter the course of history.

As part of the extracurricular activities at UCLA, there are over 1,200 student clubs and organizations at UCLA, many of which have a long tradition of contributing to the development of a sense of community.

Arts and Culture

On campus, there is a wide variety of artistic and cultural events to attend as well as opportunities to participate in their production. Students volunteer their time as disc jockeys for Campus Radio, as writers and editors for the Daily Bruin, and as attendees of Melnitz Movies, a student-run repertory cinema program where they watch films together.

The world-famous Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA has a student organization that is dedicated to the arts, and it is called the Student Committee for the Arts at UCLA. As part of the extracurricular activities at UCLA, Students who are involved with SCA collaborate regularly with the CAP UCLA staff in order to increase awareness of performing arts opportunities on campus and to organize events that highlight the work of student artists.

Sport and Recreation

Students participate in virtually every kind of sport and recreational activity imaginable, whether it’s for the purpose of competition or simply for fun on their own. UCLA Recreation sponsors instructional classes, and an intramural sports program that includes 30 leagues, tournaments, meets special events, and 50 club sports which is a part of the extracurricular activities at UCLA.

The 15 multipurpose workout facilities and six pools that are spread throughout the campus are just some of the amenities that are offered by UCLA Recreation. Rowing, kayaking, sailing, surfing, windsurfing, and paddle boarding are just some of the water sports that can be learned and practiced at the UCLA Marina Aquatic Center, which is located in Marina Del Rey.

UCLA Bruins

The UCLA Bruins compete in NCAA Division I as a member of the Pac-12 conference. They have won 119 NCAA team championships, which is the second-highest total in the country behind only their in-state rival Stanford.

The women’s softball team has won a total of twelve championships, while the men’s basketball team has won a total of eleven championships.

Although the football team has only won one national championship, which came in 1954, it has won multiple division titles and a number of conference championships. In addition, UCLA has 11 varsity sports programs for male students and 14 for female students.

Men’s sports

• Baseball
• Basketball
• Cross country
• Football
• Golf
• Soccer
• Tennis
• Track & field
• Volleyball
• Water polo

Women’s sports

• Basketball
• Beach volleyball
• Cross country
• Golf
• Gymnastics
• Rowing
• Soccer
• Softball
• Swimming & diving
• Tennis
• Track & field
• Volleyball
• Water polo

UCLA Competitive Sports

The UCLA Competitive Sports program, which includes both club sports and intramural sports, gives members of the Bruin Community the opportunity to participate in competitive athletic events.

The Competitive Sports program oversees the management of hundreds of home club sporting events and thousands of recreational sporting events each year with a staff that is comprised of both full-time professional employees and part-time student employees.

UCLA Club Sports

Teams that compete against those from other universities are directed and managed by student officers. The majority of these teams are members of intercollegiate leagues that are not affiliated with UCLA. Each team is responsible for determining its own competitive structure and may have both competitive and non-competitive teams available.

Some teams will conduct tryouts before beginning the process of cutting players in order to determine who should play at what level. Members of the team are required to pay dues in order to participate in their sport, and the university provides them with resources to help them fundraise.

Additionally, it is mandatory for team leaders to participate in leadership and professional development training that are put on by the staff of competitive sports organizations.

UCLA Intramural Sports

There are a variety of recreational and competitive sports leagues that members of the Bruins can join with their friends and coworkers. Many classic sports, such as basketball, flag football, and soccer, are included in IM Sports, along with a wide variety of more recent and innovative games, such as spikeball, ultimate frisbee, and electronic sports.

Students pay a flat fee once every three months to receive an all-access pass, which entitles them to participate in any number of sports of their choosing.

There are 15 different intramural sports offered, and each year there are more than 5000 different people who participate. Teams compete in a four-week long regular season, then move on to the postseason, and if they emerge victorious, they are awarded an official UCLA Intramural Champion t-shirt.

The following is a selection of the sporting activities in which students at UCLA take part:

Men’s Sport 

• Baseball
• Basketball
• Cricket
• Ice Hockey
• Lacrosse
• Rowing
• Rugby
• Soccer
• Ultimate
• Volleyball
• Water Polo

Women’s Sports

• Basketball
• Beach Volleyball
• Field Hockey
• Lacrosse
• Rugby
• Soccer
• Softball
• Ultimate
• Volleyball
• Water Polo

UCLA Clubs 

The culture and life on campus at UCLA are like a mosaic. As part of the extracurricular activities at UCLA, students have access to more than 1,200 different student UCLA clubs and organizations, which means they will have ample opportunities to discover new interests and make friends with other Bruins who share similar passions.

Dancesport at UCLA

Students with a range of previous dance experience have been able to take advantage of the Dancesport club’s Latin dance classes over the course of the past academic year. The cha-cha, samba, rumba, and salsa are some of the dance styles that are covered in their beginner and intermediate classes, which are held on Friday evenings and Saturday afternoons.

Bruin Leaders Project

Applications are taken on a rolling basis for the Bruin Leaders Project at UCLA, which offers a leadership certificate program, teaches a civic engagement class, and staffs a student facilitation team.

This club helps to promote leadership skills through peer-interaction workshops and group discussions by providing students with three distinct options, each of which is based on the students’ unique interests and the amount of time commitment they are able to make.

Foundations Choreography

Have you ever been interested in learning modern or hip-hop dance? Beginner and intermediate dancers benefit from participating in Foundations Choreography because it provides them with the opportunity to engage in strenuous training alongside a group of other students who come from comparable dance backgrounds. The efforts of the team will ultimately result in an end-of-quarter exhibition, at which point even the most inexperienced dancers will have the opportunity to perform on stage.

Disney Club at UCLA

You can relive your childhood, go on trips to Disneyland, and catch up on the most recent Disney films if you join the Disney Club, which is a fun and interactive group of people who share a love for all things Disney. Disney Club is a place where you can catch up on all the Disney movies.

Toastmasters

Toastmasters International, a worldwide organization whose mission is to help people become better public speakers, offers opportunities for speakers of all experience levels to learn how to interact effectively with audiences. Always keep in mind that being able to confidently communicate your ideas could be the deciding factor in whether or not you are offered a job in the future.

UCLA Aikido

The Aikido team welcomes new members and offers to instruct them in traditional forms of Japanese martial arts by providing a training environment that is not focused on competition. This group also connected with their instructor to offer a Fiat Lux on Martial Arts and Game Theory!

Fresh Produce

Fresh Produce from the UCLA Farm Students who are interested in manga and anime drawing styles can take part in Fresh Productions, a club that began as an offshoot of the Japanese Animation Club but has since developed into its own distinct organization.

Fresh Productions offers workshops, drawing lessons, and a collaborative environment to its members. Students even have the opportunity to have their artwork published in the company’s annual anthology if they submit it to the company.

Quidditch Club

A fan club for Harry Potter in which every member can fly on a broomstick. Learn a new sport while socializing with other people who are into the franchise and getting some much-needed exercise.

Bearing Witness

The mission of Bearing Witness is to educate the community about war crimes and the importance of tolerance by establishing connections between Holocaust survivors and students.

Every student is matched up with a Holocaust survivor so that they can gain a better understanding of the survivor’s life during the Second World War. Applications for mentorship pairings are accepted during the fall quarter, but students who join the program later can still take advantage of other opportunities.

Creative Labs UCLA

The goal of Creative Labs is to broaden students’ horizons by introducing them to new fields through student-led workshops and activities. This will be accomplished by addressing differences in the teaching methods used on the south and north campuses.

Creative Labs fosters many new connections between south and north campus majors by providing students with the opportunity to work together on a project lasting an entire quarter and drawing from the students’ previous academic experiences.

UCLA Traditions

The student body at UCLA is steeped in history and tradition. Students at the institution have access to an app called “True Bruin Traditions Keeper,” which allows them to record their participation in any of the more than one hundred different traditions that are observed on campus.

These traditions include things like academics, arts/culture/food, and campus leadership. Students will be awarded a medal to wear at Commencement if they have participated in a predetermined minimum number of traditions.

Volunteer Day is an annual event that provides every student with the opportunity to participate in community service activities in and around the Los Angeles area.

More than 5,000 students, faculty members, and other people affiliated with UCLA travel to dozens of service sites not only in the Greater Los Angeles Area but also in other parts of the United States and around the world. Free t-shirts are provided to volunteers, in addition to the amazing opportunity to learn about and make a positive impact on their community.

The Inverted Fountain, on the other hand, is where you will participate in the most ubiquitous tradition during your time at UCLA. Freshmen go through the process of being “Bruintized” during orientation by dipping their hands in the fountain. The process comes with the caveat that they can’t touch the water again until they graduate, or else they won’t be able to finish their education on schedule.

Seniors can be seen finishing their graduation photoshoots at the end of the spring quarter by wading into the fountain while wearing their sashes and holding champagne in their hands. This takes place near the end of the quarter.

Why Are Extracurriculars Important?

Why do students at UCLA consider extracurricular activities to be so important? The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is dedicated to fostering student engagement and development both on campus and in the surrounding community.

The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) strives to create opportunities across all of its programs and activities that are educational, inclusive, focused on leadership, environmentally sustainable, and healthy.

Students at UCLA have access to a wide range of programs that provide them with meaningful experiences that are packed with educational opportunities. These programs help students live lives that have a healthy balance of academic pursuits, extracurricular activities, and personal wellness.

The vast majority of students at UCLA participate in a variety of extracurricular programs and activities. These include participation in one of the university’s more than 1,000 student organizations, club sports or intramural teams, leadership experiences, or community service initiatives. Students are given the opportunity to plan and direct their own activities both on and off campus through participation in certain programs.

Students who participate in other programs have the opportunity to earn academic course credits (by participating in service-learning projects), receive grants and scholarships, and obtain certificates for achieving a specific goal or for completing some form of professional training.

In a nutshell, for the student body at UCLA and beyond, participation in extracurricular activities is crucial to helping develop and nurture meaningful engagement both on and off campus. This is true for both on-campus and off-campus activities.

If you need help putting the finishing touches on your early applications, or want some advice on whether or not applying Early Decision or an Early Action is a good option for you, at AdmissionSight, we have over 10 years of experience guiding students through the competitive admissions process, including our athletic recruitment program.

AdmissionSight can help you put your best foot forward when applying to college this fall. Contact us today for more information on our services.