<p>I don’t like this kind of rivalry but I was wondering for a suburban kid that might have to wander into the Westwood area for shopping, entertainment, nightlife, etc. Would this student have to be careful? Anybody has any experience so far that you can share?</p>
<p>I’m almost positive its fine! I have a friend attending USC who goes to church in Westwood and she has met a couple Bruins there, but she says they’re totally nonthreatening. I mean, I wouldn’t encourage you to walk right onto the UCLA campus sporting Cardinal and Gold, but I don’t think you’ll get mugged in Westwood for being a Trojan!</p>
<p>Judging from the UCLA forum, I’m not so sure. My worry is that my daughter my forget and wear her USC sweat shirt into Westwood. Should she get a UCLA shirt for self-defense and leave in her car just in case? She can always pretend she is Bruin.</p>
<p>I am a current usc student and I happen to live closer to fucla than usc. I do go to westwood village reguarly, mainly to get pinkberry or go to bestbuy. I proudly wear my usc sweater or other usc related apparel. The truth is that there is a major rivalry, but a friendly one at that. I do get heckled a little bit, but that goes with the territory.</p>
<p>Are you a big person or small? That might make a diffence. What about the time? Day or night? What happens when there are more Bruins than Trojans?</p>
<p>I’m about average height and build. There are always more Bruins than Trojans in Westwood Village. Like I said I go there a lot during the day and night. I literally live on Westwood Blvd., but not the main strip than many of you may be thinking of. I’m on Westwood and Venice going towards Culver City. </p>
<p>I’m not going to lie, I do get heckled. Bruins will ask me if I’m lost or if the reason I’m in Westwood is because I’m trying to escape the gunshots, but all I can do is laugh.</p>
<p>Rivalry between schools related to sports is normal, but personally I can’t stand the rivalry when it gets meanspirited. My D has chosen USC over UCLA and Berkeley, and she’s had no end of grief regarding her choice. I can’t stand the holier than thou etc attitudes. All three are great schools.
Similarly I hate the fucla T shirts I see sported at USC.</p>
<p>No, the rivalry is not that bad to the point of violence. It’s pretty annoying for me because I respect UCLA students, and I never talk down to them as if I’m better. I only jest about the rivalry if I’ve had a chance to get to know them, never on first meeting. But I’ve had numerous times where I tell a Bruin that I go to USC, and they have this look on their face as they say “oh…” I don’t know how USC kids treat UCLA kids but in my experience, UCLA kids can be pretty snobby themselves. ;)</p>
<p>Although Westwood is a really nice area and has two wonderful grocery stores (Ralphs and Whole Foods), the area has changed a bit over the years: apartments turned into condos, feels more dense and crowded (lots of traffic on Wilshire Blvd., etc.) A few summers ago I saw a homeless man for the first time during the day in Westwood (did not see any homeless last summer). I did not see a lot of pedestrians last summer. Of course, the movie theaters are in Westwood. UCLA campus is very nice.</p>
<p>I forgot to mention this–except to go to the movies, why go to Westwood from USC? USC has a very nice campus and there are lots of cultural events listed on its web site (concerts, etc.).</p>
<p>At the Explore USC day, several kids in my daughter’s group turned down UCB and UCLA for USC.</p>
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<p>Same here. I felt offended by this T-shirt when I saw someone at USC with it. Not into swearing. But I was also turned off at the UCLA tour guy for going on and on about the football rivalry. Some of us are not into sports and it was not something that’s worth our while to listen to.</p>
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<p>I used to go to Westwood for movies and restaurants because my sister used to work near Bel Air. I used to play tennis weekly at UCLA(but I did not have on USC shirt on). I agree USC has a very nice campus and I used to frequent Vermont area and Hollywood bowl as well. I also been a lot to Venice beach and Marina Del Rey. I used to also worked near LAX and went to the Hollywood racetrack by myself in the day light. Westwood does not belong to UCLA students and neither is downtown LA to USC students. It’s just more variation of places to go and things to do and that is all.</p>
<p>If i were going to westwood, i’d just go in normal clothes and people would probably assume you were a UCLA student.
but either way, yeah it doesn’t turn violent or anything. at most, maybe a snark comment but I think that can be easily avoilded as long as you dont go parading in cardinal and gold.</p>
<p>I’ve never had a problem in Westwood. And I’ve gone there wearing my 'SC sweatshirt proudly. Occasionally, you’ll get the good natured barb, but since our Football team has pretty much owned theirs for the past decade, they really don’t have much to say.</p>
<p>When I was in school we used to start SoCal Spellouts in the theatre while waiting for the movie. Most of the time, they didn’t respond with their 8clap.</p>
<p>The rivalry only really gets heated at the games.</p>
<p>No. Don’t worry about it. You are more likely to get attacked for virtually any other reason - racial things or whatever - than for being a USC or UCLA fan. Its not like its two gangs or something.</p>
<p>Wanted to second the person who pointed out that Westwood is not what it used to be. I think that USC gear would be absolutely fine in Westwood, but there are many, many other places where college students might prefer to congregate with much more going on in the evenings if they wanted to travel west including Sunset Strip and other areas with clubs, downtown for cultural activities (due north), the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica, nicer outdoor malls with multiplexes including Century City and the Grove – Westwood is not really a great destination at this point. (Not dangerous, just not a whole lot to do. I suspect that UCLA students use other parts of the city for recreation as well.)</p>
<p>if this is “your daughter” then im sure she wont get harrassed as much…even at all …even if she wore a usc shirt. Guys tend to give other guys a hard time…maybe verbally blast them out. But fights only start when confrontations turn from petty trash talk into pushing and shoving. I have actually never heard of a fight that occurred between both schools. I will tell you that I even dropped off some of my UCLA high school friends back to westwood the night of the UCLA/USC football game where we humiliated them. My usc friends were nice to them when they crashed at usc so they wouldnt miss the game and the ucla people werent hostile to me when i came to westwood. so yea…i be worried if she walked down figueroa at 1 am, but besides that…friendly rivarly IMO</p>
<p>My worry is she will be with her guy friend or group of guy friends . It depends on how many guys in her group of friends who are hot headed, and then fights maybe starting and she will be caught in the middle and get hurt.</p>
<p>Oh come on. Is this question for reals? This is USC and UCLA, not the Bloods and Crips. The worst that’ll happen is probably someone shouting “USC sucks!” or something. Keep in mind that 90% of these college students are nerds and students that worked hard to get into school, not gangbangers.</p>