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Here are 25 major reasons why attending UCLA is so special:
1. UCLA finished as the #1 overall Collegiate Athletic Program of the 20th Century and is #1 in the 2000’s in overall NCAA titles won.
2. UCLA enters the 2008-09 academic year with 103 NCAA team championships, more than any other school in the country. All 103 championships have been won since 1950. No school can match UCLA’s variety of successful teams.
3. Since the 1976 Olympics, UCLA has produced more Olympians and Olympic Medals than any other university. UCLA was #1 in overall gold medals won among all colleges since 1976. From the 1984 Olympics in LA to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, UCLA would have been 5th overall as its own country in gold medals won.
4. Since 1998, UCLA has been the nation’s most popular university to attend, with over 50,000 applications for admission currently. More students apply here than any other college for UCLA’s 5,000 admission spots per school year. The average student applying has over a 4.0 gpa and combined SAT over 2000.
5. In the U.S. News & World Report surveys on top academic universities across the nation, UCLA is among the Top 4 public universities and top 25 overall. UCLA has five times as many individual academic departments ranked in the Top 10 as its cross-town rival USC. In fact, UCLA had over 60 more departments ranked in the Top 20 in the annual academic survey. Several UCLA academic departments rank with the Ivy Leagues in overall recognition and prestige. Newsweek has called UCLA "the hottest mega-university in the country."
6. UCLA won the National Championship in football in 1954. The Bruin men’s basketball team has won a record 11 NCAA titles, more than any other university. The Bruins have appeared in more championship games than any other school. UCLA won the 1978 Women’s Basketball National Collegiate Championship, the first major university to ever do so in front of a record crowd of 9,351 that stood for 8 years. UCLA is one of only a handful of universities that have won national championships in football and basketball.
7. The most successful active team coach in NCAA history is UCLA’s Al Scates, with a record 19 NCAA men’s volleyball titles. Scates is believed to be the only current NCAA coach to have won titles in five decades – 60’s (two USVBA’s), 70’s (seven NCAA’s), 80’s (six NCAA’s) and 90’s (four NCAA’s) and the first title of the new millennium (2000) plus another title in 2006. He was the first volleyball coach to 1,000 career victories.
8. Since the early 1970’s, UCLA has lost only one head coach to another Division I university. This stability in coaching is because UCLA is the nation’s No. 1 school to desire to be a head coach. If a head coach leaves UCLA, it is usually for a position in professional sports.
9. If you add the current UCLA professional players in major league baseball, pro football, pro basketball, pro soccer, pro tennis, pro golf and pro beach volleyball, there are more Bruin representatives playing professionally than any other school by a wide margin.
10. UCLA alumni are known world-wide for their success from entertainment to medicine to business to education to politics. The UCLA name is in more media publications and on television and radio every day than any other college in the world. Academy Award and Emmy Winners are from UCLA; Nobel Prize winners are from UCLA; new discoveries in medicine happen annually at UCLA. UCLA is constantly in the public eye.
11. The internet was invented at UCLA. This university awards more doctoral degrees to minority students than any other college. UCLA was the first university in the Western United States at which open-heart surgery was performed. UCLA’s Medical Center has been ranked No. 1 on the West Coast every year since 1989. It is the #1 on-campus college facility in the nation.
12. Since national athletic department overall sports rankings began in 1971, UCLA is one of two universities to be ranked in the Top 10 every year. UCLA was honored 21 times as the #1 men’s or women’s program, more than any other university. UCLA was honored 21 times as the No. 1 men’s or No. 1 women’s program, more than double of any other university. The first time a combined athletic program was recognized, it was UCLA. Since the Director’s Cup rankings began in 1993-94, UCLA has ranked in the Top 6 every year, a record matched by only one other university.
13. UCLA is the only university to produce an NFL player who has helped his team win three consecutive Super Bowls — Ken Norton, Jr. — and the first quarterback to win three Super Bowls in four years — Troy Aikman. In only three years in Super Bowl history has UCLA not had a player in the game. Most of the previous years UCLA has had a member of the championship team.
14. On the USA Women’s Pro Beach Volleyball Tour (AVP), a UCLA player has been in the championship match of either the men’s or women’s finals over 80% of the time from 1993-2004. During that same time frame, a UCLA player won over 75% of the men’s and women’s events on the pro tour. More players have come from UCLA than any other college in the world to participate in the Olympic Games Beach competition. Beach Olympian medalists include gold medalists Karch Kiraly and Kent Steffes and bronze medalists Holly McPeak and Elaine Youngs. Kiraly, Singin Smith and Steffes are all UCLA graduates and top the AVP all-time win list along with another former Bruin Randy Stoklos. McPeak became the all-time women’s pro beach winner in 2004. McPeak, Youngs, Jenny Johnson-Jordan and Annett Buckner-Davis are 4 of the top 10 players on the women’s tour. Olympian Stein Metzger and 3-time Olympian Jeff Nygaard are two of the top 10 players on the men’s tour.
15. When ‘Sports Illustrated’ rated the nation’s collegiate athletic programs for the first time, UCLA was selected No. 1. UCLA was recognized for its balance in academics, athletics and social life. UCLA remains a national fixture when thinking of top schools. UCLA is still #1 in SI Cover appearances.
16. UCLA’s Paul Caligiuri scored the goal that advanced the USA team to the 1990 World Cup in Italy, its first appearance in decades. In virtually every international USA match since that time, UCLA has had more players on the USA team than any other college. A record five former Bruins —Cobi Jones, Brad Friedel, Eddie Lewis, Frankie Hedjuk, and Joe-Max Moore were contributing members for the 2002 USA World Cup squad that advanced to the quarterfinals.
17. The Pac-10 named UCLA’s Natalie Williams as its first female Athlete of the Decade for her All-America play in both volleyball and basketball. She followed a long line of multi-sport Bruin athletes which included stars such as Jackie-Joyner-Kersee, Rafer Johnson, Jackie Robinson, Ann Meyers-Drysdale, Jonathan Ogden, Kristee Porter, Freddie Mitchell (football & baseball), Lauren Fendrick (volleyball & softball), Whitney Jones (basketball and track & field), Ryan Hollins (basketball and track & field), Matt McKinney (basketball and volleyball), Darius Savage (football and track & field) and Brittany Ringel (volleyball and basketball). UCLA’s Academic Quarter System makes multi-sport student-athletes a strong possibility.
18. UCLA was the first university in history to win seven consecutive football bowl games. UCLA has played in the Rose Bowl game in five straight decades. UCLA traditionally produces at least one first round NFL draft choice. UCLA ranks in the top 10 in professional players in the NFL
19. UCLA is situated in one of the nicest areas in Southern California, just five miles from the Pacific Ocean. The campus is surrounded by Bel Air, Beverly Hills, Westwood and Brentwood. The average home price within a three-mile radius of the Bruin campus is valued at over 2 million dollars. The average year-round temperature is 74 degrees with little humidity. There are roughly 334 sunny days a year at UCLA.
20. Located in the nation’s No. 2 media market, UCLA student-athletes receive national exposure as well as local coverage from a dozen newspapers, seven television stations and cable networks such as ESPN and Fox Sports Net. UCLA’s web site is one of the 10 most looked at college sites in the nation. The UCLA Daily Bruin is as large as any college newspaper in the nation for parents to be able to follow their sons or daughters on a regular basis.
21. In the sport of tennis, UCLA is the only university to have two players from the same school play for the prestigious Wimbledon title—Jimmy Connors and Arthur Ashe in 1975. On the collegiate level, UCLA has been one of the two most dominant programs, winning numerous team and individual titles.
22. The UCLA job placement system for college students to locate full-time and part-time jobs plus internships is #1 in the nation as an important academic resource. UCLA is a clear No. 1 in placement of its students and student-athletes in these positions, and the Quarter System allows internship experience with class credit around playing sport seasons. The most internships are in business, communications, science and education.
23. UCLA had the longest streak in NCAA history for consecutive winning seasons in the sport of men’s basketball, a record that lasted over 50 years in length dating back to 1948-49 and extending through 2002. No other major program was/is close to that figure.
24. UCLA is the university/country that has produced the women’s 100-meter dash winner in four straight Olympics – Evelyn Ashford in 1984, Florence Griffith-Joyner in 1988 and Gail Devers in 1992 and 1996. UCLA is the only university to produce Olympic gold medalists in the decathlon (Rafer Johnson in 1960) and heptathlon (Jackie Joyner-Kersee in 1988 & 1992).
25. When you combine UCLA’s prestigious academics (its graduates average over $77,000 per year in income), a great all-around athletic program that produces championships and professional athletes, and an incredible social life so close to the beach, there is no university that can match the "total package" that UCLA offers.
Notable Bruins include Garret Atkins, Chase Utley, Eric Byrnes, Troy Glaus, Dave Roberts, Eric Karros, Tim Leary, Shane Mack, Chris Chambliss and Jackie Robinson
Despite over 100 National Championships in all of their varsity sports, the Bruins have never won a National Baseball Championship.
