Summary:  

The University California, Los Angeles is a public university in Los Angeles, California. It is very prestigious, as it has an 11% acceptance rate, and they are looking for well-rounded students. While a lot of applicants have impressive academic records, they are looking for more. The community would strive with students who demonstrate skills in leadership, intellectual curiosity, tenancy, and showing initiative. The APATSARC strategy I am using is Rhetorical style (logos) and the Large Rhetorical Strategy I am using is Imagining Ideal Readers.  

Analysis:  

For academics, they want prestigious and hardworking students that have challenged themselves throughout high school. The author uses the Large Rhetorical Strategy Imagining Ideal Readers to show this because they want their audience to show how competitive this school is, and also what students should have in their application when applying to UCLA. What Imagining Ideal Readers means is the readers that will be affected by the writing, like the ideal readers. In this case, the Ideal Readers will be in the upcoming class who are looking at applying to their school to see what they should have to have a good application that is exactly what the college is looking for. Honors classes, AP classes, college classes, and other advanced classes are important factors that applicants have to show to prove they have had a good rigor for the four years of high school. The author at the undergraduate admissions states that there needs to be good qualities that the student must have. These include, “leadership ability, character, motivation, tenacity, initiative, originality, creativity, intellectual independence, responsibility, insight, maturity, and demonstrated concern for others and for the community.” (UCLA, Undergraduate Admission).  

These characteristics go past academic achievement, as they have to be well-rounded in other activities as well. Other evidence of achievement beyond academics, like extracurricular activities, including sports, clubs, organizations, community service is a big factor of what admissions counselors look for. Some challenges or hardships that the applicant has strived through and overcame challenges to show maturity and determination are also strong factors. All these factors are what makes a strong applicant, and it shows that the admissions counselors want a wide range of students with varying hobbies and achievements. The Ideal Readers they are looking for are students who are well-rounded and have the qualities that they list on their admissions website that makes them a strong applicant. In their Principles of Community section, they highlight the importance of diversity, open-mindness, freedom of expression, and do not tolerate acts of discrimination of any kind while promoting awareness and education around campus. (UCLA, Principles of Community) This shows readers what the community is like at UCLA, and the strive to promote equality and diversity.   

The APATSARC strategy I chose is Rhetorical style, Logos, which uses logic to help your argument. The UCLA uses a lot of data to conclude their facts to show how good of a school they are. They used data and numbers to show how many applicants they have gotten for the fall 2023 admission. Ricardo Vazquez, the author of the article, “UCLA applications for fall 2023 admission remain at near-historic highs” says, “UCLA has received more than 169,800 applications for fall 2023 admission, with approximately 145,900 coming from freshman applicants and nearly 24,000 from transfer applicants – making UCLA once again the most applied-to-four-year university in the nation.” (UCLA, Newsroom) This right here is exactly what they want to show: a high demand college. The logos are the numbers and data they collected from the large applicant pool of students. From the previous year, Freshman applications decreased 2.6% from the record total, but still the applications have increased by 34% in the past three years. The Basketball team – the Bruins – for UCLA is currently the No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament, which is very good. Using data and numbers from previous games, they got their No. 2 seed title, and have won (31-5) games this season. (UCLA, Men’s Basketball) The logos show how good of a team the Bruins are and how UCLA is more than a prestigious college.   

Response:  

I would go to this college, as it is a very good college in aspects: academically, socially, inclusivity, and equality. I like that it is in Los Angeles because the location is something that is important to me. When I went to Los Angeles this past February, I saw a glimpse of the campus and it is very pretty. While Los Angeles is good for tourism, I would never live there. Maybe other parts of California, but the traffic is crazy, and I would not be able to deal with that every day. That being said, it would be kind of hard going to college in Los Angeles, but I would stay on campus for most of the time, as it has a lot to show. The value from the “values inventory” I am using is community. I specifically chose community because from looking at UCLA’s website, community and togetherness is very important to them. It shows up multiple times in separate pages, and a university like UCLA has a great community to go along with it. Community is something that they really care about, and so do I. People are stronger in a community than individually because there are other people that you can lean on. We share a lot of similar values, which is why UCLA would be a good school for me to go to.   

Works Cited:

“Undergraduate Admission,” UCLA Admissions https://admission.ucla.edu/ 

“Mission and Values, Principles of Community” UCLA https://www.ucla.edu/about/mission-and-values 

“Newsroom,” UCLA Newsroom https://newsroom.ucla.edu/ 

“Men’s Basketball,” uclabruins https://uclabruins.com/sports/mens-basketball