- Drawbacks: 1-The city might be not very easy to navigate into, especially without a car. 2-It's really, really big and perhaps a bit impersonal.
L.A. does have a decent public transportation system, despite what others may say. The Metro Rail isn't extensive, but it does go to further places like Santa Monica (starting this year), Long Beach, Pasadena, Hollywood, etc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_Rail_%28Los_Angeles_County%29But seeing how you'll be at UCLA., I'd imagine the Metro Rapid would be more useful:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_Rapidhttp://media.metro.net/riding_metro/maps/images/rapid_system.pdfIt's a bus system that has a bus every 20 min, Mon-Fri 5am to 9pm, and every 10 min during rush hour.
I visit the city of L.A. probably about once or twice a month, but I haven't actually
driven into L.A. for almost 5 years. I just drive to a suburb east of L.A., park at a rail station, and take the Metro Rail or Metro Rapid everywhere. As long as you find a place near a Metro Rail or Metro Rapid station, you should be fine. Actually, you can benefit by not having a car since you won't have to pay for auto insurance or deal with demonic freeways.
Yes, L.A. is a big city, but I wouldn't say it's impersonal. There's a lot of individuals in your area who come from different places around the world, so it's very cosmopolitan. You'd actually be in a very good location, halfway between Santa Monica and downtown L.A.
Out of curiosity, have you been to any of these areas (L.A., UC Davis, Duke) before? I've been to Sacramento once back in 1993, and San Francisco a few times, but most of my northern California experience has been in the Sierra Nevada. I've driven in San Francisco, and that was a nightmare.
