Have you ever woken up in the morning, had no memory of anything you should know, then had to navigate a seemingly ever-changing maze? Unless you’ve secretly been in “Maze Runner,” this is something you might experience on the first day of class as you attempt to navigate a maze of hallways and stairwells that seem to have been built to intentionally trip you up as you are running late to a class that takes mandatory attendance.
If you’ve ever felt like this, you aren’t alone. I interviewed three UCLA students of different years and majors, asking them to break down their least favorite buildings to navigate and what tips they have so that other Bruins don’t have to go into navigating the maze of UCLA blind.
Young Hall
“Everyone has a horrible memory with Young Hall,” claims Rachel Doerfler, a third-year history and education & social transformation student.
“As a third-year, you think, ‘I already know where everything is. I don’t need to find my classes ahead of time.'”
Unfortunately, Doerfler says, this is not the case, especially when it comes to Young Hall, located in the Court of Sciences in South Campus.
Part of what makes the building so confusing is that there is a “bridge” that connects the lecture halls, and Doerfler says that she has struggled to find which side of the “bridge” her classes are on. Another confusing aspect of the building is that if you enter from the Court of Sciences, you’ll start off on the third floor, which can throw people off if they haven’t been in the building before.
James Yen, a fourth-year psychology student, echoes this sentiment, saying that trying to find a lecture hall in Young Hall is confusing because there is limited signage that tells you where to go, so it took a long time to find his way the first time he was navigated the building.
From classes to club meetings to review sessions, second-year Christa Chane, a microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics student, spends a lot of time in South Campus. She agrees that Young Hall is confusing, but also adds that Schlichter Hall can also be discombobulating. Schlichter, she explains, is not its own building — rather, it acts as a sort of “hallway between Young and Geology.” She notes that it takes a while to walk there, so you should plan ahead if you have a class there.
Bunche Hall
“It’s just so many stairs,” says Yen about Bunche Hall, a building in North Campus where he has had many discussions. For Yen, this is the hardest building to find classes in because of the confusing layout. In particular, ”the indoor-outdoor jungle” area on the east side of the building houses many discussions. You can access this area via multiple sets of stairs or take the elevator on the west side of the building and cross over to the “indoor-outdoor jungle.” However, Yen advises to “just take the stairs” because “you’re already walking so much — you can take the stairs.”
Bunche is also disliked by Doerfler, who has bad experiences both finding discussion sections and professor’s offices in the massive building. She says that walking into the wrong class “happens a lot in Bunche” and it’s always extra awkward because the classes are so small — around 20-25 people.
For Chane, Bunche is up there with her “top three worst buildings” because the “order of the numbering” is not intuitive and with Bunche in particular, the posted maps on each floor don’t always have classroom numbers on them, making them effectively useless.
Boelter Hall
One of Chane’s most “awkward moments” finding a classroom originated in Boelter Hall. It was her first day as a Learning Assistant for Chemistry 14BE and she was already running late. Two other students were also trying to find the classroom, but all three of them ended up getting lost for over 15 minutes. They were trying to find a classroom that ended up being listed with a slightly wrong number. It turns out, Chane says, that the classroom was at the back of Boelter Hall’s Science and Engineering Library. The library is also confusing to get to because it is on the eighth floor, only accessible by a specific elevator near the entrance of Boelter Hall, but inaccessible from the Math/Science Building.
Another confusing thing about Boelter Hall, Chane says, is that students are always going up the wrong stairway entrances, which are usually locked. Doerfler also echoes the confusing nature of Boelter Hall, saying that she’s lucky enough to not have had classes there, but always gets lost when trying to find club meetings there.
Tips for success
Despite the confusing nature of some UCLA buildings, there are ways to successfully navigate them.
One important tip that Yen emphasizes is to “find out where all the restrooms are in your buildings,” so if you’re in a rush, you know where to go. Additionally, he advises to have back up plans in case you’re running late. “If you’re on the Hill, find a Bird. If you’re in the apartments, have a bus in mind,” he says.
Doerfler advises to find maps that are usually located on each floor. “Go to the corner and there’s probably going to be a map there,” she says. Additionally, she advices to keep in mind that some buildings like Young Hall and Boelter Hall don’t start on the first floor, so you should pay attention to that when you’re trying to find classes.
For Chane, she finds that Google Maps, while helpful, doesn’t always find the best route to classes. She says that asking a friend is probably the easiest way to go about finding classes because “nobody knows the campus like other UCLA students.”
