my girlfriend attends ucla and i am there from time to time. honestly a very nice nice campus.. i don't know much of the curriculum because i don't attend but the area is very compressed. such as westwood. cars suck.. cause when the built the area they forgot parking. 405 is always slow.. maybe for 30 seconds of the day its moves well. a pretty steep priced area but its also a higher class area. depending on how you enjoy driving.. you can look to rent a place around santa monica, san fernando valley. but this also depends on how close oyu want to be to school. i attend AILA in santa monica, and i live in san fernando valley just because well rent is cheap.. 3 bedroom house for 2200.. garage, pool... 2 bedroom apartment in santa monica is 1500-2000.... i take the canyon and pch to class since its the fastest although its about 50-60 miles round trip. so that is where i get my miles for my car.... ... blah ... anything else.. your curious about.

EDITED: side note i will probably move to westwood area once i am finished with school and open up business in that area or work there for one of the design firms... because well.. i hate the beach but i like the cool weather.. ... and the tempterure in that area are always cooler than the fire valley.

 

what can I expect for rent if I don't live in campus housing? I wouldn't mind a commute, but if I were to commute I would a reasonable drive, not something that is stop and go for 40 minutes. I would prefer to not put tons of miles on my car if I can avoid it. But with 18-1900/month stipend will I be able to live in the westwood area(by myself for the time being)?

 

you should be able to pull it off.. mostly just have to keep an eye out for places.. with the thing you are looking for.. when do you plan on moving down.. i will keep an eye out for below 2000 places to rent..

 

well 2000 is way to high. I have a car payment and need to pay bills and stuff. I would prefer to not have to take out loans to finance grad school. What are decent places that would be for rent around the $600-700 range if available. I only need a one bedroom, and I would prefer onsite laundry and stuff. But that is not a huge deal. But if you could look out that would be cool, I will probably move down in august sometime. So it is still a ways away so I have a while to check things out too.

 

Lived in westwood 4years when I was in grad school ago paid $2000 for a small 2 bedroom apartment like 800sqft. Prices I know must have gone up since then. Parking sucks big time even on friday nights and weekends. These college students don't leave the area. When I was in undergrad when school was done on fridays I took off with my friends or partied for the weekend away from school. My undergrad was a ghost town fridaynights and weekends. Ucla these kids just stay around all day and night no parking at all ever, not even during winter or summer break. Saw them put up new housing on veteran, that place is gonna be a parking lot. Traffic gonna be bad, if that's possible.
Also if you can't find parking around campus just park on the 405. Its a parking lot too. That's how bad traffic is.
Weather is great. Can not beat the weather in LA, no matter where u r from.
Roads suck. Roads r made for suvs esp. the westside.
If u got money and time its the best place in da world 2 live.

 

Oh for $600-700 you can rent my parking space for your car. Haha J/k.

Seriously you probably can not even get a small rundown studio for less than 1000 around ucla or even the west losangeles area. Your best bet is to try student housing or get roommates. Otherwise your better off renting in san fernando, north of ucla, or south in culver city etc. Both about 15-20 miles away. Which means 30-45 minute one way commute.

 

Well, if you don't mind to drive a bit every day, West LA's rent should be cheaper than Westwood. I think a 2 bedrm in hwy 10 off National was renting few hundreds less than Westwood, and that's maybe 10 min away from UCLA.

Btw, get a motorcycle, that way you can get free yet closer parking

 

good ole LA.. lol.. ya eventually if you are looking for a place in the 600-700 range.... for a one bedroom... rent sucks around this area.. i paid 550 for a studio in canoga park, which a lil craphole. run down place... but now i share a place for 2200 a month 3 bedroom house. so 1100 each. i spend 3-4 days in santa monica a week so i commute a lot but its not that bad once you know a few shortcuts, just prepare for 15-60 minutes commute one way. reason be for a such a large spread. 15 minutes it takes on 101 to 405 when its supremly clear. which happens every leap year. and 45-60 minutes taking topanga to pch to the 10 which usually is pretty static on speed so i take that way.

 

Totally agree. But that is not to say that college is not an important part of the equation. The piece of paper that shows you went to college is what gets you in the door of a company....your experience and practicality is what will allow you to flourish (or disallow) while on the job.

SC~who knows