This post was updated April 17 at 11:41 p.m.

Avalon Dwight remembers the moment she opened her admission portal.

“I open it up, and I see the word ‘congratulations,’” Dwight said. “I immediately just start screaming. I don’t read the full letter – it’s just a lot of yelling. Honestly, I have the video.”

Dwight was among thousands of admitted students, family members and friends who visited UCLA on Saturday for Bruin Day, where visitors toured campus and learned about academic and residential programs.

Dwight – who committed to UCLA as a microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics student – said she enjoyed seeing the campus architecture, speaking with advisors and students in her major and learning more about on-campus activities, such as undergraduate research and Filipino student organizations.

Dwight’s parents, who are both first-generation college graduates, said seeing their daughter get into UCLA was a particularly special moment.

“I don’t think we knew how to go to a school like this,” said Aileen Dwight, Avalon Dwight’s mother. “To see her accomplish this is really a big deal.”

Reminisce Glenn, another admitted student who attended Bruin Day, said she did not expect to get into UCLA because she attended a small high school with few opportunities to pursue her interests. Her older sister, a UCLA alumnus, inspired Glenn to pursue her dreams in higher education, she said.

Glenn said that she grew up in a low-income community and had a speech impediment in addition to being diagnosed with autism while in middle school. She added that she was not sure what she wanted to do in the future, but getting into college with the support of her family helped her gain self-confidence.

“I feel like me getting accepted into all these colleges, it kind of proved to me that ‘Oh, I am enough,’” Glenn said. “I can make a change in the world. People do want me to succeed.”

She added that she hopes to become a speech language pathologist to increase representation of people of color in speech therapy and help others feel reaffirmed in their identities as her speech therapist did for her in high school.

“She really made an impact for me and pushed me to accomplish my goals and supported my aspirations and hobbies,” Glenn said. “I want to be that same person to someone.”

Bryce Jekat, an accepted student who hopes to major in psychology and attended Bruin Day, said part of the reason she committed to UCLA was the diverse student population and the connections she knew she could make with people from different backgrounds.

“I just grew up in a really small town and majority one race,” Jekat said. “I think that it’s really important to be broad and know what everyone’s going through and everyone’s experiences in life.”

Her sister, Tara Jekat, who graduated from UCLA in 2024, said she hopes Bryce Jekat will have her own authentic experience at UCLA.

“I don’t want it to be like a ‘part two’ of my experience,” she said. “I’m acting like a tour guide, but I want her to go explore and figure things out for herself as well, because that’s just a quintessential part of college – it’s just trying new things.”

Aadi Simmons, an accepted student who said she wanted to major in biology, said she applied to colleges with QuestBridge, an organization that supports low-income students with the college application process, adding the process was very stressful for her.

She said getting into UCLA felt like a weight off of her chest.

“I can say for my mom, it’s an accumulation of all the hard work that both she and I have done over the years – all the sacrifices,” Simmons said. “All my hard work that paid off definitely.”

She said she’s looking forward to meeting more people at UCLA who are equally as driven to pursue their passions.

“(In) high school, I was kind of limited to the volunteering opportunities I could do,” Simmons said. “At UCLA, being my own person – or an adult basically – I’ll be able to do so much more.”