University of California, Los Angeles

university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States. It became the University of California Southern Branch in 1919, making it the second-oldest undergraduate campus of the ten-campus system after the original University of California campus in Berkeley (1873)

 It offers 337 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines.With an approximate enrollment of 30,000 undergraduate and 12,000 graduate students, UCLA has the highest enrollment of any university in California

and is the most applied to university in the United States with over 112,000 applications for fall 2015

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2014–2015 ranks UCLA 12th for academics and 13th for reputation. In 2014, UCLA was ranked 37th in the QS World University Rankings, 12th in the world (10th in North America) by the Academic

 Ranking of World Universities (ARWU)and 23rd in the world (13th in North America) in Financial Times' Global MBA Rankings

In 2013, Business Insider ranked UCLA as having the most driven students in the world.

 In 2015, the Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) ranked the university 15th in the world based on quality of education, alumni employment, quality of faculty, publications, influence, citations, broad impact, and patents.

As of March 2015, U.S. News & World Report ranked UCLA #8 in their "Best Global University Rankings"

The university is organized into five undergraduate colleges, seven professional schools, and four professional health science schools. 

The undergraduate colleges are the College of Letters and Science; Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science (HSSEAS); School of the Arts and Architecture; School of Theater, Film, and Television; and School of Nursing. Fifteen

Nobel laureates, one Fields Medalist, and three Turing Award winner have been faculty, researchers, or alumni. 

Among the current faculty members, 55 have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, 28 to the National Academy of Engineering, 39 to the Institute of Medicine, and 124 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

 university was elected to the Association of American Universities in 1974.

UCLA student-athletes compete as the Bruins in the Pacific-12 Conference. The Bruins have won 125 national championships, including 112 NCAA team championships.

student-athletes have won 250 Olympic medals: 125 gold, 65 silver and 60 bronze. The Bruins have competed in every Olympics since 1920 with one exception (1924), and have won a gold medal in every Olympics that the United States has participated in since 1932.

Main article: History of the University of California, Los Angeles

In March 1881, after heavy lobbying by Los Angeles residents, the California State Legislature authorized the creation of a southern branch of the California State Normal School (which later became San Jose State University) in downtown Los Angeles to train teachers for the growing population of Southern California.

The State Normal School at Los Angeles opened on August 29, 1882, on what is now the site of the Central Library of the Los Angeles Public Library system. The new facility included an elementary school where teachers-in-training could practice their teaching technique on children.

 That elementary school is related to the present day version, UCLA Lab School. In 1887, the school became known as the Los Angeles State Normal School.

In 1914, the school moved to a new campus on Vermont Avenue (now the site of Los Angeles City College) in East Hollywood.

 In 1917, UC Regent Edward Augustus Dickson, the only regent representing the Southland at the time, and Ernest Carroll Moore, Director of the Normal School, began working together to lobby the State Legislature to enable the school to become the second University of California campus, after UC Berkeley. 

They met resistance from UC Berkeley alumni, Northern California members of the state legislature, and Benjamin Ide Wheeler, President of the University of California from 1899 to 1919, who were all vigorously opposed to the idea of a southern campus.

 However, David Prescott Barrows, the new President of the University of California, did not share Wheeler's objections.

 On May 23, 1919, the Southern Californians' efforts were rewarded when Governor William D. Stephens signed Assembly Bill 626 into law, which merged the Los Angeles Normal School with the University of California as the Southern Branch of the University of California. 

The same legislation added its general undergraduate program, the College of Letters and Science]The Southern Branch campus opened on September 15 of that year, offering two-year undergraduate programs to 250 Letters and Science students and 1,250 students in the Teachers College, under Moore's continued direction.