Cheap health insurance. UCLA requires all students to carry health insurance, but they let you buy into a lightly subsidized Blue Shield plan. This is pretty much the only thing on campus where they don't charge the professional students double. I have a feeling my costs will go up considerably when I leave. (Of course, that's offset by the not-inconsiderable cost savings of not having to pay tuition.) Since many of you have never and will never pay for your own health insurance, I know this one's difficult to relate.
The Daily Bruin. Last semester I was never on campus for lunch, so I didn't read our undergraduate campus paper. I felt its loss. Now I'm making a point of picking it up again. Remember, the only page worth reading is "Viewpoint", aka op-ed, where undergrads make priceless discoveries about the existence of poverty, war, animal cruelty, etc. Here's a great one from last week. Here's how it came about: "Hm, what should I write about this week? I'm stuck for ideas. Maybe something will come to me while I'm waiting in line for my chai latte."
The UCLA law library & law librarians. It wasn't until very recently that I understood that random civilians are calling our law librarians all the time with legal research questions, and what's more, the librarians help them. I actually thought the law librarians only were available to students and professors. But I guess that would leave them severely underemployed, so sometimes they work the phones too. So as I look toward life as a practicing lawyer, I mourn the loss of unlimited Westlaw & Lexis access a little less, knowing that I can harness this immense intellectual power.
The UCLA computer store. You probably don't spend much time there, but they have a lot of cheap student editions of high-priced software. I have to remember to load up with the latest versions the week before I graduate.
Yoga discounts. The whole student discount thing off-campus has been kind of a bust. LA is not overrun with students the way, say, Boston is, and consequently local merchants don't care so much about catering to that market with bargains and whatnot. Very few movie theaters have student tickets. But for some reason, the two yoga studios I frequent offer 20% off. Again, another thing to load up on before I graduate.
17 Jan 07