rank no. 8- University of California, Los Angeles

The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California,United States. It is the second-oldest of the ten campuses of the University of California system. UCLA is considered a flagship campus of the University of California system, along with UC Berkeley. It offers 337 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines. With an approximate enrollment of 28,000 undergraduate and 12,000 graduate students, UCLA is the university with the largest enrollment in the state of California and the most popular university in the United States by number of applicants.

The university is organized into five undergraduate colleges, seven professional schools, and four professional health science schools. The undergraduate colleges are the College of Letters and Science; Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science; School of the Arts and Architecture; School of Theater, Film, and Television; and School of Nursing. Fifteen Nobel Prize laureates, one Fields Medalist, and two Turing Award winners have been affiliated with the university as faculty, researchers, or alumni. Among the current faculty members, 51 have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, 22 to the National Academy of Engineering, 37 to the Institute of Medicine, and 120 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The university was elected to the Association of American Universities in 1974.

UCLA student-athletes compete intercollegiately as the Bruins in the Pacific-12 Conference. As of December 2012, the Bruins have won 125 national championships, including 108 NCAA team championships, leading the nation as the most successful athletic program. UCLA student-athletes have won 250 Olympic medals: 125 gold, 65 silver and 60 bronze. The Bruins have competed in every Olympics since 1920 with one exception (1924), and have won a gold medal in every Olympics that the United States has participated in since 1932.