Is LA safe for transplants?

[maliboo_girl]

You are likely going to want to live as close as possible, because traffic on the Westside is awful and driving in from the valley is bad. That means your rent will not be on the low side because near UCLA is expensive. I suggest Culver City, Palms, and some areas of West LA as a good option for UCLA, about 4 to 6 miles commute. You'll want to check carefully in any of these areas to see if the neighborhood is decent. Even some of expensive areas in LA can have sketchy areas (Santa Monica, CC, Palms, West LA, etc.)

If you mean half of the buildings are old, that's what you're going to have to deal with if you don't have a big budget. But old buildings can be fine to live in.

You do not want to live in Pasadena, Glendale, Burbank or anywhere near there, the commute will kill you. A friend did a Pasadena to UCLA commute during the summer, when traffic is much lighter, and she decided to live on campus and pay $$$ for the school year because the commute was so stressful.

Be careful when looking for apartments, there are lots of scams here. Google: Los Angeles rental scams, and rental scams.

Use the UCLA housing website as there are typically rentals there you won't find anywhere else. See if there are any facebook groups for UCLA housing and grad students, fb groups are usually a good option to see what's going on from other students.

Good luck!