

Founded (and originally known as) the Southern Branch of the University of California in 1919, the University of California, Los Angeles, more commonly known as simply UCLA, has occupied a 419acre campus in the Westwood section of Los Angeles since 1929. The campus, bounded by the tony Los Angeles neighborhoods of Brentwood, Westwood, Little Holmby Hills, and Bel Air, is renowned for its professional schools in film, medicine, and law; its undergraduate programs in many disciplines are highly rated as well.

Currently, UCLA has 11 colleges and divisions:
  Anderson School of Management
  Graduate School of Education and Information Studies
  The Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science
  School of the Arts and Architecture
  School of Dentistry
  School of Law
  School of Medicine
  School of Nursing
  School of Public Health
  School of Public Policy and Social Research
  School of Theater, Film and Television

Like other UC campuses, UCLAs 179 buildings are continually under construction/renovation. Some of its more noted buildings include the original four buildings (Royce, Kinsey, Haynes, and Powell), which often appear in films as a unnamed or fictional Ivy Leaguestyle campus. Other buildings include Pauley Pavilion, Kaufman Hall, and Ackerman Union.

In sports, UCLA is a Division I school, and carries on a rivalry with crosstown USC; its football team practices on campus, but plays their home games at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Their mascot is the grizzly bear, with costumed mascots known as Joe and Josie Bruin. This campus pride is reflected in Bruin Walk and the bronze Bruin Bear in Bruin Plaza, at the end of Bruin Walk.

UCLA currently has 24,811 undergraduates and 10,814 graduates (Fall 2005). As of June 2003, there are 331,226 UCLA alumni.
