"Welcome Home. Your future is Bruin."
Every year, thousands of prospective students log in to their UCLA admissions portals and read these momentous words. The freshman class of 2026 and transfer class of 2024, however, received an additional piece of surprising news alongside their admissions decisions.
In April of 2022, UCLA announced a new housing guarantee for all incoming freshman and transfer students, promising four consecutive years of UCLA accommodations for freshmen and two years for transfers. This guarantee includes all university-managed housing, including the university apartments in Westwood.
For the freshmen in the class of 2026, this program announcement represented housing security and convenience. But as transfer, commuter and nontraditional students navigate this new housing paradigm, they are discovering benefits and nuanced drawbacks that may complicate an already stressful housing application process.
UCLA has not always focused on its university housing options. From its opening in 1919 until 1959, when Dykstra Hall officially opened as the first on-campus residence hall, UCLA was a commuter campus, said Assistant Vice Chancellor of Housing & Hospitality, Pete Angelis. Today, for the 2023-2024 academic year, 97% of admitted freshmen live in university housing.
With the announcement of the housing guarantee, UCLA became the first and only of the nine undergraduate University of California campuses to offer a guaranteed housing program for its students. Angelis explained that over the last few decades, development of student housing and the residential experience has been a large priority for the university.
"Everything they need is here," he added. "That’s been valuable for them because students that reside on the Hill save a lot of time. All of our students are very much time-pressed, and they have all those resources available nearby."
Besides university housing, students might choose to live in private apartments in Westwood and its surrounding communities or potentially commute from neighborhoods throughout Los Angeles.
To qualify for the guarantee, students must continuously live in university housing while at UCLA, limiting who can qualify for the guarantee, explained Director of Housing Services and Strategic Initiatives Sarah Dundish. Students who chose to move out of university housing for an academic year lose out on their guarantee.
If these students choose to move back into university housing, they must submit a housing lottery application, and students who forfeited the guarantee are the last to receive offers via the lottery. Second to last are incoming transfers, then incoming freshmen, then finally at the top are returning students whose housing offers have priority.
While Luna Quiroz Beltran, a first-year physiological science student, initially applied for and received housing at UCLA, she ultimately made the decision to withdraw her shot at the four-year housing guarantee and commute – a decision that she said was primarily a financial one. Quiroz Beltran receives reimbursement from the university for her commute because of her financial aid.
"The drive doesn't seem too bad, since the school is not super far, so I’m just going to take one for the team and just drive to school every single day," she said with a laugh.
Quiroz Beltran said she commutes from Canoga Park, which can sometimes take over an hour. From navigating congested roads to dealing with car trouble, Quiroz Beltran stated that the ordeal of commuting is quite time consuming and lonely, especially when stuck in traffic on Interstate 405.
Beyond the time spent in commute, Quiroz Beltran said she is missing out on the college community. She has to calculate precisely when she leaves campus to make it home at a reasonable time, impacting her ability to join clubs and engage with other aspects of the on-campus experience.
"I definitely have a lot less time to do my work and study," Quiroz Beltran said. "I’m not really so engaged in student life because ... I can’t really stay on campus super late."
Because of these challenges, Quiroz Beltran stated that she is definitely considering moving to campus in the future.
"I know that we have the option to apply for housing for our winter and spring quarter," she elaborated. "So I have been thinking about that, where it’s, ‘Oh, should I do it?’"
Under the four-year guarantee, students who make this choice are still included in the guarantee, as they have lived in university housing at some point during their first year. However, they will be in the lottery when initially applying for housing.
While Quiroz Beltran explained that she is currently able to balance commuting and classes, for others, that may not be an option. Emily Wang, a fourth-year public affairs student and second-year transfer student, chose to move closer to campus to make it easier to schedule classes and bring Wang’s daughter to and from school.
Wang currently lives in the University Village Apartments, which is UCLA’s family housing located on Sawtelle Boulevard. Reserved for students with spouses or families, the building offers one to three bedroom apartments, as well as amenities such as a childcare center, playgrounds and swimming pools.
"When I got accepted to UCLA, ... I lived in the city of Gardena," Wang said. "We decided to move because once I moved to the family housing, when I come to the UCLA campus I don’t need to go on the freeway ... when there’s no traffic it’s only 15 to 20 minutes."
Despite being a transfer student, and therefore not top priority under the housing system, Wang was able to secure another year of this specialized housing. Wang is pleased with the initiative’s inclusion of parenting students.
"I think that (the housing guarantee) is a really good idea, and family housing was in that category," Wang said. "When I renewed my housing application for the second year, I didn’t experience any problems."
Though Wang has found success navigating UCLA’s housing system under the guarantee program, other transfer students are wary of their position under the new initiative.
Nicholas Robinson, a fourth-year political science student and second-year transfer student, did not initially realize how much proximity to campus mattered to him. He lived in an apartment on Wilshire Boulevard during fall quarter of his first year but found the long walking distance to campus and lack of nearby students physically and mentally draining.
"It kind of just got to me, and I was just like, I can’t do this anymore," Robinson said. "It’s just too far. I feel too isolated."
Robinson switched to the university apartments in Gayley Heights at the beginning of the next quarter, where he spent the rest of the year. Currently, he resides in the Tipuana university apartments. While he recounted that the process of obtaining housing under UCLA Housing was relatively straightforward, he sees shortcomings.
Because transfer students rank low on the housing priority list, they are often placed together into the same unpopular buildings, Robinson said. He added that he has rarely heard of a transfer who received their first choice of housing and that most are funneled into university apartment buildings, such as Tipuana, Palo Verde and Laurel. These apartment buildings include the four bedroom apartments housing eight people.
He added that these buildings can become filled with a high number of transfer students – which some students might see as a good thing for community building. However, Robinson explained that he did not want to be labeled as solely a transfer student, distant from the rest of the UCLA community and grouped together with other transfer students.
"I love the transfer community, but we only get so much time [at UCLA]," Robinson said. "It’s good to diversify."
Additionally, Robinson stated he wishes there was more transparency and details regarding all housing options at UCLA and what the housing guarantee entails for transfers’ building options.
"There was not really an upfront conversation about what the two-year housing guarantee would look like," he said. "The biggest thing I would say is just be more open with the new transfers, and just let them know that this is it."
Although transfer students like Wang and Robinson face systematic issues accessing prioritized UCLA housing, four-year students have also been perplexed by the process of acquiring housing.
Some students have taken the initiative to streamline the process through websites or apps such as BruinRent. This start-up, created by the student organization DevX, is an apartment hunting website akin to Zillow, containing housing options for the Westwood area.
Natasha Cheung, a fourth-year business economics student and a BruinRent product manager, said that each feature on the renting advice website is tailored to UCLA students. Each apartment listing features its rent, included amenities, proximity to campus and a student-reported rating for the building. Cheung stated that part of her inspiration to create BruinRent came from her own experiences trying to obtain an apartment after leaving the UCLA dorms.
"It was a big problem for me personally, apartment hunting and finding a good place to stay," she said. "When I was moving in my junior year to an apartment, I didn’t get one until the summer before."
Drawing from these experiences and her time building BruinRent, Cheung emphasized the stress that often comes with trying to secure a place to live. She said the four-year housing guarantee would reduce that stress.
"I do think it gives people a lot of security, especially people who again come from nontraditional backgrounds, people who may not have the funds or aren’t equipped or don’t have the time to do the whole apartment search," Cheung said. "I think the four-year guarantee alleviates a lot of anxiety."
Wang has found the overall experience straightforward. As part of a transfer class that receives the two-year guarantee, Wang did not recall facing any problems renewing housing for a second year, even if it required extra effort to stay informed and aware of all the deadlines.
"I think that process is relatively easy for me because I'm a little bit older, and I’m also a parent, so I’m very good at time management," Wang said. "So I applied as soon as it (housing application) opened, and I also joined a special transfer summer program."
Wang also highlighted some of the amenities UCLA Housing provided, such as an after-school clubhouse and a partnership with a nearby school tailored to the children of students. Angelis said UCLA Housing plans to further expand the amenities it offers, including more apartment options and a scaled-up dining program.
"The ideal goal going forward (will) be trying to find two bedroom apartment inventory and maybe apartment inventory that can be flexible between undergrads and grads over the years ahead," Angelis said.
As the transfer class of 2024 walks across the graduation stage this spring quarter, they will become the first class of students to experience the guaranteed housing program for their entire student experience. They will also not be the last – UCLA plans to maintain this guarantee into the foreseeable future, as well as expand it to include all graduate students.
Robinson will be a member of that inaugural class. As he reflected on his experiences navigating the new program, he recognized the benefits of the program and remained optimistic about its future.
"I still give them (UCLA Housing) props," Robinson said. "I've said a lot of negative stuff, but that's only because I think there's potential to do better."