Unfortunately, there is absolutely nothing we can do if you missed the UC Application deadline. You will have to apply for the next cycle. UCLA admits for the Fall quarter only.

If you missed your deadline, the applications are closed. Our deadlines are strictly enforced due to the fact that our departments must be allowed enough time to equitably and comprehensively evaluate supplemental materials. Students are given the maximum amount of time possible to submit their applications, but we also must respect departmental administrative procedures and remain in compliance with other university deadlines.

If you did not submit in time, you will have two options:

1) Request that UCLA change your first choice major from UCLA Arts, into Letters & Science or Engineering (the two schools that will take major change requests after November 30). This action will include you in the general applicant pool to UCLA and you will be evaluated on the basis of your general UC Application only, no information from the UCLA Arts supplemental application will be considered. Should you be admitted to UCLA under Letters & Science, you will be welcome to pursue admission to UCLA Arts upon matriculation to campus. You must make your major change request by January 31, using this contact form: https://bruins.admission.ucla.edu/ContactForm/Applicant.aspx

2) Withdraw your application from UCLA entirely. If you wish to re-apply to UCLA Arts in the future, you may inquire about the transfer application process.

No. We understand that sometimes deadlines get missed for all kinds of reasons, none of them personal. If you want to apply again, you will not encounter any prejudice as we look at the application information for that cycle only, and do not have access to previous/other cycles.

You’ve submitted your application materials in December/January and now you are waiting for your decision— which for first year applicants will be released in mid- to late March, and for transfer applicants in mid- to late April.

Now what?

With regard to new artwork— updated portfolio, updated audition videos, etc.— if you’ve submitted your supplement (the department-specific information that was due on December 15 or January 20), then we do not accept new work for consideration.

If you have academic updates (ex. schedule changes for Spring classes, grades, etc.) you can report them in your UCLA Application Portal.

They will do that sometimes for academic updates, clarification on something you wrote in your application material, etc. Please do not worry! We just need more context around something in your application. Respond promptly, please!

UCLA Arts majors don’t always go to waitlist— sometimes we reach our enrollment targets with our admitted applicants, and do not go to waitlist. Unfortunately there is no way to predict if we will go to waitlist for our majors or not.

We will make our decisions to go to waitlist after May 1 (for freshmen) and after June 1 (for transfers).

If you want to be considered for waitlist, you have to opt-in to waitlist via your UCLA Undergraduate Admission portal.

You do not need to submit any additional creative work in support of your waitlist opt-in. On the waitlist opt-in form, there is only space for a written narrative, and we will not click through external links. You can write a brief narrative expressing your continued interest, but it is not necessary as our department evaluators have already assessed your creative and cultural fit for your intended major, so all we need you to do is opt-in so that we can move you to admit if that opportunity becomes available.

We do not rank waitlisted students. If we do need to go to waitlist, our departments will hand-select students off the waitlist based on the composition of admitted students who have deposited.

Please know that appeals to UCLA Arts are almost never considered. Between our admitted and waitlisted students, we have always hit our enrollment targets so we do not have the space in our programs to consider overturning appeals to bring on more students. In the past 20+ years, we have overturned exactly ONE appeal across all of our undergraduate majors. We tell you this not to discourage you, but to have the most accurate and realistic information so that you can direct your energy.

That being said: you are free to appeal. The formal appeals portal is within your main UCLA admission portal. In the main portal, there is no opportunity to submit additional/updated creative work. There is only a place for a brief written narrative in your own words. The appeal must be submitted by you, the applicant, and not anyone else on your behalf. We do not consider letters of recommendation, and will not click through on any external links.

For an appeal to have merit, it must bring to light new academic and personal information, as well as information pertaining to extenuating circumstances, that had not been present in the application—information that clearly shows the student to be stronger than had been earlier evidenced.

Of course! You can take a gap year, or you can transfer from a community college or another 4-year institution.

If you decide to attend another college/university and the first year curriculum is all arts classes and you’re not taking English and Math… just know that we need to see English and Math in order for you to meet minimum academic requirements for transfer. Please look at our Transfer information for more details.

If you are thinking about attending another UC school and are hearing that UC-to-UC transfers are difficult, please know that for us, since we are professional programs, we can consider and accept inter-UC transfers due to the differences in arts curriculums at the campuses. We’ll still need to see those English and Math courses, though!

If you need any strategy advice around what to do in the interim year, please reach out to us at admission@arts.ucla.edu and we can help you plan.

If you are considering a gap year, you cannot take any college coursework after you graduate from high school. Gap year requirements for colleges and universities are all different: some schools will allow you to take college credit courses while on gap year, and some don’t. UCLA is one of the schools that will not allow it. If you take any credit-bearing coursework at any higher ed institution after you graduate from high school— doesn’t matter if the class is non-arts, vocational, academic, etc; this applies to ANY college level credit-bearing class— then you’ll be a transfer applicant in the next cycle.

If you are graduating HS by the end of Fall Semester of your senior year, do NOT take college credit-bearing classes after graduation.

The summer immediately following traditional HS graduation is a gray area, you can take college credit-bearing classes during that time before you start college full time in fall.

For the majors in Art, Design Media Arts, and Architectural Studies, which all require a visual arts portfolio… no, we do not offer portfolio reviews, nor do we have sample portfolios.

Reasons, in no particular order:

• Our faculty feel that offering portfolio reviews does not accurately reflect the way our supplemental evaluation actually works. Portfolio reviews are usually a one-on-one conversation, but our evaluations of the portfolios and supplemental materials are done by committee, with anywhere from 6-16 faculty, graduate students, and alumni weighing in on a single applicant. For one person to do a portfolio review, it feels like they would be speaking for all of their colleagues, which nobody is comfortable doing.

• Our admission recommendations rely on more than the portfolio to get a sense of an applicant. The associated writing— artist statements, short text responses, UC PIQs— are incredibly important, as are academics and how you engage with your community. Focusing on the portfolio is not an accurate representation of the evaluation process.

• We do not have the resources/staffing to provide a comprehensive portfolio review, to everyone who asks. From an equity perspective, our departments do not offer portfolio reviews.

In the absence of portfolio reviews and samples, we hope you, the applicant, assume the perspective of: If they aren’t going to tell me what I should put in, then I’m going to show them what I want. This is the perspective our faculty hope you will take.

Please take a deep breath, look around the department websites to really learn as much as you can about the program, look at student work, read the Supplemental Application Advice on our website (here are links to Architectural Studies, Art, and Design Media Arts),… and focus on what you want to put into your portfolio.

What would you like us to see, that would help us understand more about you?

What kinds of conversations do you want to start with us, that you wish to continue?

Since the admission process only takes into consideration an applicant's first choice major, you will need to decide if you want to submit a creative supplement, or if you want to be considered through another program. Here are all of the majors we offer: https://admission.ucla.edu/apply/majors

If you are admitted through a UCLA Arts major by submitting a supplement, once you arrive on campus you may follow up with the academic counselors to see about double majoring.

If you are admitted through a non-UCLA Arts major (ex. Letters and Science, Engineering, etc.), once you are on campus you may make an appointment with a UCLA Arts department counselor to see about adding a double major in a UCLA Arts area. You will have to complete a creative supplement at that time.

Most majors at UCLA will allow double majoring provided you are in good academic standing with both departments. If you have a major of interest, you will want to check with each respective department to ensure that double majors will be permitted (ex. the School of Theater, Film and Television does not allow double majoring).

UCLA guarantees a full evaluation based off of your first choice major to UCLA. The campus does not guarantee a review of alternate majors, so in the overwhelming majority of cases*, if you do not pass the evaluation for your first choice major, you do not go back into the general pool.

*There is an exception if you are a First Year applicant and listed your first choice and alternate choice in the School of Engineering because in that professional school they will consider you for both. But if you are in this FAQ reading this information, you probably aren’t doing that.

*There is also another exception. If you are a Transfer student from a California Community College who is in your college’s honors/TAP program, you have the opportunity to be considered for your alternate major if you don’t get into your first choice. Your alternate major needs to be non-impacted, and you need to have also completed major prep requirements for that alternative major. If you have questions, please speak to your campus transfer center/honors counselor.

If it’s before November 30, contact UCLA Undergraduate Admission using the correct contact form on this website: https://admission.ucla.edu/contact. From there, you can request that your first choice major on the UC application be updated.

If it’s after November 30, we do not accept major changes into UCLA Arts. You can change your major into the College of Letters and Science or the School of Engineering through January 31. https://admission.ucla.edu/apply/updating-your-application

Technically, no. There is coursework in both majors that will touch upon skills and concepts that will be useful should you want to work as an animator, but neither degree focuses entirely on animation.

Design Media Arts teaches 3D modeling and motion graphics, as well as the history of design and visual media literacy from a design perspective. The FTVDM major has an animation concentration in the major, so while the animation coursework is rooted in film culture it’s not a full animation curriculum. Here are links out to the UCLA Registrar’s website where all of the course descriptions for both majors are housed. Reading through them you can get an idea of the range of classes offered in the majors.

Design Media Arts course descriptions

FTVDM course descriptions

Both majors require a supplemental application, but they are radically different.

The Design Media Arts major requires primarily a visual arts portfolio, and studio coursework begins in the first year and is consistent throughout all four years of the B.A. curriculum. (more info)

The FTVDM major asks for writing only— no visual material whatsoever. The first two years are dedicated to completing the lower division general education requirements for the university, and also taking film and media history and criticism academic courses with your FTVDM cohort. The animation coursework is all upper division and accessible in your junior and senior year. (more info)

No. UCLA only looks at first choice majors in the admission process, so you will have to pick one.

Even when you get to UCLA, you cannot double major in Design Media Arts and FTVDM, the latter program does not allow double majoring. For what it’s worth, though, some Design Media Arts majors will do the FTVDM minor, because their current major allows for visual media exploration and studio coursework, and the FTVDM minor provides the academic context for film and media studies.

Maybe, but don’t count on it. This opportunity depends entirely on the space in each major and how many units you have, so you can try but if you can’t, then you need to be happy with the major you have. This would be a discussion with your academic advisor once you are here at UCLA.

No, we do not. We do, however, support illustrative work in both the Art major and the Design|Media Arts major.

The Art major is likely going to be a place where you can have space to explore illustrative techniques specific to painting and drawing, but the program on the whole is more fine arts-oriented.

The Design|Media Arts major is going to interact more with technology aspects that are more common in illustration work, as well as considerations around visual media on a mass communication scale.

We would suggest exploring both of the departments and looking at course descriptions and student work to see which one resonates with you:

Art Dept Course Descriptions / Art Dept website

Design|Media Arts Course Descriptions / DMA Dept website

All of this being said, our most well-known alumni who works as an illustrator (among other things) graduated from the Art Dept, and she didn’t necessarily mean to be an illustrator, either. “I’d tell my younger self that it’s hard to plan ahead for a career in the arts—you follow whatever opportunities come up and you have to trust your gut on what kind of art to make. I never intended to do illustration or work in animation, but I got into those fields when I realized I couldn’t get by doing fine art and comics alone. You also can’t rush into creating a distinctive style; that’s something that develops as you continue to make work. It all takes longer than you’d expect.”— Lisa Hanawalt, producer of BoJack Horseman