<p>Hey I'm from NY...couple questions..how's the UCLA party scene...is a car essential or can u bum a ride easily to dowtown hollywood? Do a lot of people party outside of the greek scene or is it just mainly hanging out in westwood and at the frat houses? Also anyone from out of state...do u get homesick or is there so much to do u dont even think about it?</p>
<p>DO NOT GET A CAR. LA's traffic is so horrible. During rush hour, highway is like a freaking parking lot, and I'm hardly exagerating. You will MOST LIKELY (I say 95% chance) not be able to get a parking spot as a freshman, and even if you did, parking permit is expensive. You'll end up driving your friends places most of the time, and if you drive in westwood, you are not going to find parking. Take the bus. It's great. It takes you to the beach...to the airport...to the trainstation...to the mall, and it's free to UCLA student!</p>
<p>I have no idea about partying though. I'm going to Cal =]</p>
<p>I hear the party scene at UCLA is alive and well, but its maybe not as hardcore as schools like USC and UCSB. Overall I've heard It's considered the second best UC for parties. Many of my friends tell me stories of their frequent drunken thursday night escapades- but these are usually caused by res. hall kickbacks/mini parties. To get into a frat party, you've gotta have two X chromosomes. If you're a guy and not in the frat itself or know a friend to get you in, you've got to bring 4 or 5 hot chicks along with you (to even out the ratio). Frosh don't really bring cars with them to UCLA because of a lack of parking, and I doubt people go all the way out to hollywood to party because there's already so much at UCLA.</p>
<p>As someone who's done a decent amount of partying at UCLA, I can say the party scene is pretty solid, though nowhere near a place like UCSB or SDSU. It's not so crazy that academics come after the party scene, like it might at a real party school. If people have midterms and such coming up, the studying will come first by in large. We are all real students here.</p>
<p>However, if you make enough friends here, you will find the opportunity to party when you want to. The whole frat thing is there and thriving, though I'd have to say it's more of a freshman thing to really want to get into those. Like has been said, if you want to get in, it helps to be a girl, bring lots of girls, or know someone in there. Most likely once you start to socialize around here you'll meet some frat guys, though whether or not they're actually cool is a crapshoot. Sororities aren't allowed to have parties here, though they have the occassional social.</p>
<p>Lots of different clubs throw parties around here too. Really, just about any club around here can and will throw a party. A lot of the ethnic student groups (like Asian groups, Latino groups, Indian groups) throw parties that usually occur in clubs in Hollywood and sometimes Santa Monica. Usually you have to buy a ticket to get in and most of the time they will provide a bus to the location. As such, these parties are usually pretty big. I know a lot of the club sports teams will also throw some get togethers for the team, so I imagine for other more exclusive clubs will have get togethers for the members.</p>
<p>Probably the most common thing though are smaller kickbacks between friends, which often leads into people going to bigger parties later (i.e. prepartying, though you don't neccessarily need to go anywhere). Usually it'll just be a small group of people hanging out, drinking, doing whatever at someone's apartment or dorm room. You have to be a bit careful about this the dorms cause if the RAs see you are causing a distrubance, they can write you up. Lots of times people will also throw apartment parties for birthdays/random drinking holidays/no reason at all. If you know enough folks you'll eventually end up hearing about some.</p>
<p>The bar scene really isn't big in Westwood like it is in other college towns. That's because of some absurd zoning laws in Westwood Village set forth by the rich homeowners limiting the amount of bars and dancing here. Likewise, the whole Hollywood scene is just a short drive away, but it's not really a huge thing on campus. Sure, people will get a couple friends together and go club hopping in Hollywood, but its not exactly a weekly occurance. I mean, students time is already so constrained by all their academic needs, and there's plenty of options for having fun that are closer, so it's not really worth the hassle.</p>
<p>But like I said, academics comes first for the vast majority of people here. The vast majority of folks just won't blow off work for a good party... maybe somehow someway that work will get done so they can go to the party, but it will be done. Of course there are some party animals and some bookworms, but the vast majority of people balance in between.</p>
<p>BTW cars aren't that neccessary for freshmen. It's cool (though I have a patience for LA traffic from living here), but there's just no need for it as a freshman. Most of your friends will be on campus or very close to it, most likely you won't have an off capus job, and it just wouldn't get that much use.</p>