Our son attended LMU's school of film & television, in its recording arts division, and graduated from there a few years ago. He graduated an audio engineer, so we felt he'd learned a trade with a Jesuit twist. haha

I'm happy to answer any questions. It is a gorgeous campus, and a great school, although pricey.

Our son said students pretty much cleared out of campus on nights and weekends. So ask your daughter to ask if that's still the case. We hadn't planned on DS having his car until junior year, but we relented and he had it starting sophomore year. Parking on campus is not easy, though, so many times when he lived off-campus, he'd leave his car at home for the day. He did say, though, that the buses did not run on time when he tried to depend on that method of transport.

He lived one year off-campus, at Marina Point. Another year, at the new condo complex next to the Custom Hotel. We'd expect at least $1000/month rent for him, plus expenses, etc. This was a few years ago, though.

When we visited, we'd stay at the Marriott Courtyard Marina del Rey, to start. Then other boutique hotels in that area, like the Inn at Venice Beach, The Kinney, and the Jamaica Bay Inn (all Pacifica properties). It would be good if you can change your hotel reservation to the Custom, because it's probably the only 'walking distance' hotel to LMU. It's at a busy intersection, and not the most pleasant walk in the world, though. I'd rely on Lyft/Uber.

Is your daughter spending the night on campus @ LMU? We found that was a really good way for our kids to get a sense of the school they were visiting.

Of course, there's a huge difference between Los Angeles and New Orleans, so that's a big decision point in itself.

They didn't offer her an overnight, unfortunately. She tried.

Thanks for your tips on the hotels and I will tell her to ask the person she's shadowing if the campus is still dead on the weekends.

And for the people saying we'll need a car, we will be using Lyft. I priced it out and besides the hassle of renting a car, we'd have to run up over 80.00 per day for Lyft to make a car rental cheaper. It won't be that much, even going to the Getty, and we have no hassles with directions or finding parking if we take Lyft.

You also won't have to pay for parking..and won't need a reservation for the Getty if you decide to include that in your plans, although you need one for the Getty Villa (I see that you already have it).. Fare estimate R/T to GV from Aloft is $60. Be sure to read the instructions on accessing the Getty Villa (they have to drop you inside, not on PCH).

IMO, Lyft is a great option for a short visit. Living here as a student, however, would be a different cost analysis.

Please don't think of Santa Monica only with regard to off-campus housing. Not only is it one of the more expensive areas in L.A., the daily commute to LMU would drive any sane person around the bend, with or without a car.

MoBro's $1,000/month rent just isn't possible anymore unless you'd consider a tiny studio apartment in a less desirable neighborhood -or- a roommate in a one-bedroom apartment. The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in L.A. is about $2500, from inner city to leafy suburbs. Zillow shows a studio in El Segundo (a great little town) renting for $1400/month and a couple of one-bedroom apartments for under $1800/month. You can noodle around on Zillow to get an idea of rents, but be aware there are big differences in neighborhoods even within a small geographic area and the extent of public transportation varies widely. Sometimes you can get lucky just driving around a town like El Segundo, looking for unadvertised rentals, but be ready to write a check on the spot if you find something. I once called a friend's daughter about a great deal I saw, but the apartment was taken in the time it took for her to drive to see it.

I can't believe anyone would seriously suggest Santa Monica as a location for an LMU student. Perhaps someone who went to UCLA 40 years ago, but that really isn't applicable.

Don't freshmen get priority for on-campus housing at LMU? I would hope her orientation also addresses housing availability and costs.

Housing prices for anyone going to school in the LA area have always been an issue...even back 40 years ago. Most of us had roommates, and not always our own bedrooms.

Lots of places are "not too far" from LMU, but the student should investigate the public transportation options. As near as I can tell, the only lines nearby travel along Lincoln and Manchester, and neither makes a stop at the LMU campus. The N/S line is operated by Santa Monica's Big Blue Bus, and the E/W line is LA Metro. The school does have a shuttle service to things like grocery stores, the mall, etc., but reservations are required for every ride and the hours of operation are not all day, every day.

Also, do you realize LMU has housing for students beyond their freshman year?

So we're back from our trip. We walked over 10 miles each day! On Friday we didn't get to go to the Getty Villa because they'd moved her shadow appointment to 12:30 and it was only two hours. So we arrived a bit early and walked around LMU and then left my older daughter with her shadow and headed out to UCLA with my sophomore daughter. What a beautiful campus! She will probably apply there (and yes I know it's hard to get in, she might just be able to squeak by). We returned to LMU where the older one had had a good class and lunch and walk around with the shadow. I was very disappointed to learn that indeed LMU students do have cars because they're all from the LA area and return home on weekends. That's not exactly the collegiate experience we were hoping she'd have, although she does still like the school.

After the shadow we went to Manhattan Beach and walked around there and then had an early dinner and returned home to the Aloft. A word about that chain--just way too hipster for me! They "fundamentally redesigned breakfast" by only serving these breakfast pot things at $15.00 each. No thanks. Fortunately we were close enough to walk to other places for breakfast. Anyhow the next day we had our food tour of Venice Beach which was fun. We got a 28 year old native Santa Monica UCLA grad. LA people tend to stay put! (many of the Lyft drivers were natives too). Then we walked to Santa Monica and explored that area and then had a nice dinner at Obica. The final day we missed that there was a time change and nearly were late for our 9:30 brunch reservation at The Butcher, the Baker, the cappucino maker in Beverly Hills, but we got there in time. From there we walked to the Greystone Mansion which was super cool, and then on to West Hollywood where we went to Guisados for tacos and Salt and Straw for ice cream. A good time!

Whew-- UCLA + LMU! You'd be lucky to have both your college students in the same city! Ours ended up in LA and in Baltimore at the same time. Aaaarrrgh.

Glad it went well.

Although not all LMU students are from the LA area, I wonder if the majority of them are. None of our son's roommates over the years were from L.A., though.
However, he did think there were enough LMU Californians with cars, that students would disappear on weekends to visit their homes with friends. It's probably the nature of California, that kids have cars and weather cooperates for road trips home. It wasn't a deal-breaker for us, though.

Good luck to both of your upcoming college students!
Getting all those college app responses in the mail makes for exciting times.
We learned: Big envelope = good news. Small envelope = bad news.

Can't comment about LMU, I know nothing about it. But this reminded me that we stayed at an Aloft recently and although the room and common areas were nice enough (in a polished concrete sort of way), I never did figure out that breakfast thing, so I just opted for points instead of breakfast (breakfast was otherwise included because of my "status")

I have spent time at UCLA, and consider it a quintessential California campus.

Lots easier to get into LMU than UCLA..especially for California residents. When I went to UCLA, it also was somewhat of a commuter school, with campus area housing being so expensive, it wasn't unusual for classmates to commute from the San Fernando Valley. At that time Santa Monica and parts of Venice were some of the "cheap" neighborhoods.

One of my friend's sons tranferrred from UCLA to one of the Claremont McKenna his junior year, after he had experienced the big campus thing, marching band, etc and was more focused on what he wanted to study.

Many UCLA grads now a days do their first two years at

Yeah I know it's really hard to get into UCLA. My older daughter didn't even try, and the younger one with better grades (might even have a 4.67 cumulative by then) just wants to try. I don't necessarily think the leaving school on the weekends is a California thing, I went to school in California and school was the center of everything we did (this is Santa Clara University). My sister went to UCSC and they didn't leave on the weekends either. Maybe it's a SoCal thing? We'll see what the older one decides, she's keeping her cards close to her vest...

Oh, and college acceptances come via an email to revisit your portal these days! You know you got in if the confetti starts when you get to the right page.

Good luck on both of them!

I see that my post was truncated. Was going to mention that many UCLA students go via the Community College transfer route.

That was true for my son too (Stanford). The only time we saw him on weekends (and we lived 16 miles away) was when he stopped in on the way to visiting his girlfriend (now wife) at Cal Berkeley LOL.

Catholic kids in Oregon often consider LMU. One my friends now has a senior seriously considering it.

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Besides Catholic kids in Oregon, many students from around the world consider LMU.
For instance, its School of Film & Television is ranked at the top, with USC and UCLA. A very difficult program to get in to.
It's a well-respected institution.

Yeah, I was thinking the "Catholic kids" thing was a bit limiting. It is a Jesuit school of course, but all of the Jesuit schools are highly respected institutions and as mentioned above, LMU has a highly competitive film school.