@merc81, Applied linguistics is a very different animal than theoretical linguistics, and often has more to do with second language acquisition than the study of language(s). That said, I can’t comment on linguistics offerings at UCLA beyond the disestablishment of the Applied Linguistics Department as I am unfamiliar with the program there. Most of the UCs have good Linguistics programs, though (or, at least they used to!)
It sounds to me like the area of study that the OP expressed interest in are much more in line with sociolinguistics or linguistic anthropology than they are with computational linguistics. For those interested in the latter (and perhaps even for the OP), they would be well advised to look into schools with a strong cognitive science curriculum, not just their computer science offerings. And linguistics as a subdomain of cognitive science can, depending on the program and the emphasis, be very interesting (moreover, the the other domains within cog sci – such as philosophy, psychology, and anthropology – may be in line with the OP’s interests as well).
And, as a follow-up to @tk2927’s comments about Chomsky’s approach to the “innateness” of language, there is (or was when I was studying it) a big east coast/west coast divide between nativists such as Noam Chomsky and Steven Pinker, author of “The Language Instinct,” and those who espoused a connectionist approach to language development, such as Liz Bates (may she rest in peace), author of ‘Rethinking Innateness: A Connectionist Perspective on Development’ and ‘From First Words to Grammar.’ Speaking of Liz Bates and connectivist approaches, UCSD with its Center for Research in Language, strong linguistics and Cog Sci programs and solid Anthropology program might be a good choice for the OP (there are at least two linguistic anthropologists in the Anthropology Department there). Berkeley would also be a fine choice. A really, really fine choice. George Lakeoff’s work on metaphor is fascinating and their cognitive science program (as is the case with most of the departments at Berkeley) is top notch.