Admitted students visit UCLA for second annual Bruin Day

Bright yellow and blue balloons and tents with signs that read “Welcome Future Bruins” filled UCLA this weekend as thousands of admitted students and their families streamed onto campus for the second annual Bruin Day.

In the midst of the noise and crowd, Frank Bakala, 17, continued to struggle with a decision he’s been grappling with for several months ““ what college to attend for his undergraduate study.

The senior from Hilton Head Preparatory School in Hilton Head Island, S.C. applied to UCLA because he was attracted to the prospect of living on the West Coast and Los Angeles’ stature as a global city. Earlier in the year, he received acceptances from UCLA and Dartmouth College, and he now has a decision to make.

After spending a day exploring the campus and staying overnight with a current student in De Neve Cedar, Frank said he is now leaning toward committing to UCLA.

“I liked how friendly and personable all the students that I approached were, and I really liked the overnight experience,” Frank said.

Frank was one of more than 4,000 students who visited UCLA for Bruin Day this weekend.

Bruin Day is dedicated to welcoming admitted freshmen to the UCLA campus, said Betty Glick, the associate vice provost of undergraduate education who helped plan Bruin Day. The day was established to consolidate the variety of activities and resources available on campus, she added.

“The purpose of the day isn’t to put everything together but to make important information available,” Glick said. “We really want students and their families to get as many of their questions answered as possible and hopefully attend UCLA.”

Last year, 4,285 admitted students attended Bruin Day, said Maria Blandizzi, director of student services and initiatives. About the same number of students indicated they would attend Bruin Day this year, although the exact number of attendees has not been calculated yet, she said.

The event may have played a part in increasing the number of admitted students deciding to attend UCLA last year, Glick said. Data from a report sent out last year showed that half the students who were uncertain about attending UCLA before the event said they would probably or definitely enroll after attending Bruin Day, Glick said.

“We can’t directly say that (there is a correlation), but we’d like to think so,” Glick said. “We thought it was very successful last year, which is why we are continuing it (this year).”

Even with rising tuition costs and budget cuts from the state, UCLA received 91,512 applications this year, increasing the number of applicants by around 10,000 from the previous year, which had already been a university record. UCLA continues to receive the most applicants in the country.

During Bruin Day’s Welcome event, Chancellor Gene Block mentioned UCLA’s high academic rankings, on-campus professional schools and leadership opportunities in numerous student organizations as resources that benefit students in planning their post-graduate career paths.

Once admitted, however, students still have a lot of questions on whether to commit to UCLA or not.

Brandon Patlan, 17, of Kingsburg High School in Kingsburg, Calif., came to Bruin Day with his family primarily to look into the university’s financial aid options. UCLA is Brandon’s first-choice university, but an insufficient financial aid package from the university made it difficult for him to commit to the school because his family would have trouble paying the full cost of tuition, he said.

The cost of education weighs even more heavily on out-of-state students, who have to pay more than double the cost.

Valerie Spell, a senior from Basis High School in Tucson, Ariz. said that she was still on the fence between UCLA and Arizona State University after the event.

Valerie, 17, said she likes the fact that UCLA enables her to pursue her passion for math by allowing her to major in both economics and engineering. To attend UCLA, however, she would have to pay out-of-state tuition, which would cost her about three times more than the tuition she would pay for Arizona State University as an Arizona resident.

Not all out-of-state students, however, are in the same financial predicament.

“I was offered a package of gift aid, and that along with loans, as well as work-study makes paying (out-of-state) tuition really no problem for me,” Frank said.

Some of the students in attendance had already made up their minds to attend UCLA, but still found information presented at the event helpful.

Rafay Haseeb, a senior from Clovis North Educational Center in Central California, signed his Statement of Intent to Register while at Bruin Day. Though Rafay, 17, was intent on committing to UCLA before coming to Bruin Day, he said he still had a few questions about the flexibility and resources available to pre-med students.

“(A session with) the Alumni Scholars Club reassured me that there were a lot of options for me to pursue pre-med here and to do it in the way I wanted to,” Rafay said.