Housing

UCLA (perimeter indicated in yellow on the image to the left) is located in the middle of the "Westside" area of Los Angeles. As the name suggests, the Westside is west of downtown, closer to the ocean (about 5 miles) east of Santa Monica (right by the ocean), west of Beverly Hills (think expensive), north of the airport (gets you anywhere) and south of the Santa Monica Mountains (great hiking, if you avoid Bel Air and Beverly Hills). The Los Angeles Times website has a good demographic description of the various neighborhoods in Los Angeles and on the Westside. Note that these neighborhoods don't have official boundaries and many websites and publications will divide the area a little differently. There is even disagreement regarding the term "Westside" and what it includes. That said, most students live on the Westside and mainly in areas referred to as Westwood (right around UCLA), West Los Angeles, Mar Vista, Palms, Culver City and Santa Monica.

Many new students choose to live in graduate housing during their first year at UCLA. UCLA Housing Website UCLA Housing offers a range of apartment communities for single graduate students with options both near campus and in surrounding Los Angeles neighborhoods. The co-living environment is designed to support, connection, convenience, and flexibility—providing furnished as well as unfurnished spaces, included utilities, and access to the resources of a UCLA-managed community. The range of properties you can explore include: Canfield Apartments, Hilgard Apartments, Keystone-Mentone, Rose Avenue, The Boulevard, Venice-Barry, Venice & Berryman Apartments and last but not least the Wilshire Apartments. We encourage you to explore each property for yourself by visiting the UCLA Graduate Housing. Alternatively, many students will choose to look for off-campus apartments in surrounding neighborhoods around UCLA, including Westwood, Brentwood, Santa Monica, and West LA. The most widely used methods used for finding an apartment include Craigslist, Westside Rentals, commercial realtors and driving around neighborhoods to look for openings. Many of the students in the program live with roommates, whereas others prefer to live alone. The UCLA Community Housing Office has many helpful tools, including vacant listings, roommate searches, average rental rates, and other tips for finding an apartment in LA.

Please note that the non-UCLA links shared on this website do not constitute explicit or implicit endorsements by either the NSIDP or by UCLA and are given solely as a point of reference.