[商学院活动] UCLA Anderson admits: resources for you!

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Welcome to Anderson! I know you are excited by the sunshine, Hollywood stars and our awesome classmates, so I would love to share some useful resources for you to smoothly transition to Los Angeles.

Housing Resources
1) Introduce yourself to us on Anderson Greater China Facebook group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/greaterchinese.uclaanderson/

2) Ridiculously detailed handbook for Chinese students flying abroad
http://www.giantleap.us/abroad/

3) UCLA-CSSA (Chinese Students and Scholars Association) prepared a very detailed guide about housing around UCLA.
http://www.cssaucla.org/?page_id=91

If you cannot open the above site, try to switch to Mozilla Firefox internet browser, or refer to its 2009 archive from the following website. The discussion about housing options started from Page 10 of 29.
http://www.docin.com/p-33187197.html

Its BBS forum also will have posts about apartments, but its BBS forum sometimes cannot be accessed from mainland China. You might not log onto its forum to post your requests even if you can open its webpage. UCLA-CSSA also will post guidance about their annual airport pick-up program for new admits, while this program leveraged current students and alumni of UCLA-CSSA. I really appreciated this program when I arrived in LA, while some of our Anderson current students now also have cars. Therefore, I would recommend that you admits first consolidate your carpool requests internally after finalizing your itinerary and then direct them to us ambassadors for dispatching.
http://www.cssauclabbs.org/read.php?tid-666.html

4) Search "public roommate/sublet listing" on UCLA Community Housing Office website, where most listings are around the neighborhoods or areas of UCLA (i.e. Westwood, Brentwood, Santa Monica, West LA, Culver City) mostly from UCLA students/faculty/staff.
www.cho.ucla.edu

5) Craiglist is a popular housing listing website in Los Angeles, but be cautious of flaky people on this site, so never disclose your email address. I provided the link for its tab "Westside-Southbay". The information there is not standard while you'd better visit the apartment before you make a decision, as anybody can post on this site.
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/wst/hhh/

Other resources that might also be helpful
http://www.lifeafterdorms.com/
http://www.dailybruin.com/advertise/classifieds/categories/housing/

Nearby hotels if you decide to find an apartment after arriving at LA
http://www.docin.com/p-33187197.html (refer to Page 11/29: 暂时找不到房子时的选择)
http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/tours/accommodations.htm

Not too useful resources but listed for your reference
http://www.bruinwalk.com/apartments/
http://www.apartments.com/
http://www.argonautnewspaper.com/classifieds/?loc=detail&main=Real%20Estate%20For%20Rent


The following weblinks will be useful for you to settle down in LA and be familiar with UCLA.

Getting to UCLA
http://map.ais.ucla.edu/portal/site/UCLA/menuitem.789d0eb6c76e7ef0d66b02ddf848344a/?vgnextoid=b06aaad23985c010VgnVCM200000dd6643a4RCRD

UCLA information for visitors (e.g. detailed map of entire campus, UCLA restaurants)
http://www.ucla.edu/audience/visitors.html

LA Yellow Cab
www.layellowcab.com

I came accross following thoughts based on my personal experience.

Packaging
- No need to bring many thick clothes like those for the winters in Beijing or Shanghai. You will enjoy sunshine with cozy breeze almost every day in LA! I can't love the climate of LA more. Its climate is even better than that of my hometown, Xiamen, because LA rarely rains.
- Always bring a jacket with you in LA as it could be windy from late afternoon. However, the daytime is very sunny and warm     
- Don't lock your baggage according to US requirements.

Air-ticket
- Some first-year students bargained with ANA for a group discount from Beijing to LA last fall and made a good deal.
- Guangzhou Airport is very strict about the baggage limits, while a bit loose about your carry-on luggage.
- Cathay Pacific is very good. You can pre-order from many choices of cuisines online and get your meals earlier than other passengers.
- China Southern Airline may require you to pick up your baggage during transition, while China Eastern Airline may not. Call their hotlines to confirm the specific requirements if you will not take a non-stop flight.
- China Southern Airline sucks, not to mention its terrible food...  

Before you leave
Spend as much time as possible with your family and teach them how to use videocam on Skype or QQ.  Nothing is more important than our family although we sometimes think that expressing our love to them is not urgent.

I strongly recommend that you start building a complete LinkedIn profile and linking with your Anderson classmates or friends in your targeted area now.

I hope that you find my response useful. I'm happy to answer questions especially those around visa issues, packaging, flying from Guangzhou or Shanghai Aiports to LA, housing, Parker Career Management Center, Entertainment Management Association and Marketing Association.

See you all soon! Go Bruin!