Perhaps less interesting but more significant than a Facebook profile of your crush is a profile of your prospective college -- especially if that college is a renowned public research university that has consistently received the highest number of undergraduate applications in the nation. Once again, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) received about 119,000 applications for this fall.

Although the tragedy of its campus shooting on June 1 that claimed the death of Professor William Klug brought shock and grief to the public, UCLA Chancellor Gene Block took a hopeful measure by announcing the establishment of a campus safety task force. The main purpose of the task force is to examine campus communication, classroom security, and door locks and organize training in advance to an active shooter situation.

Meanwhile, there is some good news, one of which is a $10 million gift from the Samueli Foundation to the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science. Followed by the gift that will help establish as many as 20 new endowed faculty chairs, the school’s recently announced plan aims to expand by 50 faculty members and 1,000 students over the next five to seven years.

In terms of ranking, UCLA remains 23rd (2015-16) among national universities and 8th in Global ranking by U.S. News & World Report. Furthermore, UCLA ranks 12th in the Academic Ranking of World Universities by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, which is based on faculty publications and citations and the number of alumni and faculty who have won Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals.

Along with the aforementioned reason, the UCLA Student Alumni Association proposed 31 reasons UCLA is an amazing place. Several notable reasons included thousands of undergraduates conducting their own research with top UCLA faculty, having the largest Greek community in California with more than 60 chapters, having the largest university-based film and television archive in the world, and having won more NCAA team championships than any other school.

As befitted for its prestige, UCLA Undergraduate Admission has set minimum subject requirements: two years of History/Social Science, four years of college-preparatory English, three years of mathematics (four years recommended), two years of laboratory science (three years recommended), two years of Language other than English (three years recommended), and one year of Visual and Performing Arts.

According to UCLA’s Fall 2015 Admit Profile, the average G.P.A. was 3.90 (unweighted) and the acceptance rate was 17%. Mid-50% SAT Composite Score ranged from 1930 to 2250, while that for ACT ranged from 29 to 34.

Of course, there are numerous other factors that the admission officers take into consideration, but it is essential to note that UCLA does not use a mathematical formula when evaluating applicants. Lastly, the obvious yet relieving fact is that since UCLA is part of the UC system, students can use one UC application to apply for all nine UC campuses.

<Sharon Shin Grandview HS 11th grade>