California State University, Los Angeles Admission
California State University, Los Angeles Undergraduate Program
California State University, Los Angeles Application

The Facts

California State University, Los Angeles is a moderately sized member of the larger 22 university, state-supported CSU system. CSU Los Angeles is located just east of downtown Los Angeles, and is home to over 10,000 undergraduate students and approximately 9,000 graduate and part-time professional students. The university is actually divided up into several smaller graduate and undergraduate programs, including divisions in the areas of the liberal arts and sciences, business education, engineering, health sciences, as well as professional training. These programs offer broad majors in the areas of biological science, business, communications and the arts (which includes a rather renowned Japanese program), computer and physical science, education (which is home to a unique industrial arts program), engineering and environmental design, health professions (which includes an innovative rehabilitation therapy program), as well as the social sciences. SOme fo the most popular major choices are child development, computer information systems, criminal justice and sociology.

Admission to CSU Los Angeles is quite competitive, and the amount of both qualified in-state and out-of-state students who apply has been increasing with each passing admissions cycle. Last year, over 11,400 students applied for admission to the school, and approximately 6,400 of those students were accepted, of those, about 1,370 matriculated. The admitted students had an average combined SAT score ranging from 1010 to 1100, and an average comprehensive ACT score ranging from 22 to 29. Additionally, more than 64% of the admitted students were ranked in the top 25% of their high school graduating class with an average high school GPA of about 3.7.

CSU Los Angeles has a student to faculty ratio of 19:1, which is pretty typical for a school of its size. Like many public universities, and private for that matter, the majority of general education classes are held in large lecture halls, but the more specific, upper-level classes are much smaller, and it is actually rare to find a class with more than 25 students. In general, professors get very high marks from students in terms of accessibility and willingness to help, and students say they feel very taken care of.

The Social Scene

CSU Los Angeles is located practically right in the middle of the city, so students have plenty of opportunities to take advantage of all the entertainment there is to offer. Most of the students don’t live on campus, and many actually live at home in the area, which can make things difficult for students who choose to live in the residence halls. CSU Los Angeles is home to 16 fraternities and sororities, and they are quite popular with many students. The Greeks basically dictate on-campus social life, and their weekend parties are probably the saving grace of what little on-campus social life there is.

The dating scene, if you can find it, is full of something for everyone; however, it can be tricky going home with your date to their parents’ house at the end of the night...

What’s Good

“The location is amazing, and you have to try very hard to be bored while you’re here!”

“For those of us who do live on campus, the housing is quite nice, and the food isn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be!”

“The classes are really interesting, and there are many rather obscure classes to take.”

What’s Bad

“The administration is very difficult to get a hold of. If you have a problem that needs to be resolved, it’s better to figure it out yourself!”

“Not many people live on campus, and those that do are all Greeks, which means it’s always loud and hard to get work done on the weekends.”

“The public transit is terrible around Los Angeles, so if you don’t have your own car, it’s pretty tricky to join in on all the fun.”

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