Los Angeles is not one city but a collection of neighbourhoods spread across a basin between mountains and ocean, and the received wisdom that "you need a car" is half true. You need a car to treat LA as a whole. You do not need one to live well in a single well-chosen part of it — which is exactly what a term here is.
That part, for most students, is Westwood. It sits on the west side next to UCLA, and it is one of the few genuinely walkable districts in the city: cinemas, cafés, cheap student food and one of the largest university campuses in the country next door. All four of the residences available here are in Westwood, which is not an accident — it is where a student without a car can actually live.
From there the city opens up. Santa Monica and the beach are a short bus ride west; the Getty Center, with one of the best views in Los Angeles, is free to enter; Hollywood, Koreatown and downtown are each a Metro ride away on a network that has grown a great deal in the last decade. Traffic is as bad as advertised, which is an argument for living near what you use rather than commuting across the basin.
The weather is the least complicated thing about the city: warm and dry for most of the year, with a short cooler wet spell in winter and reliable sun the rest of the time. Studying here in a European winter is a materially different experience from studying in one.
The language environment deserves a straight answer. Los Angeles is one of the most multilingual cities in the world and Spanish is spoken everywhere; a student who wants to hear only English has to choose situations that deliver it, which in practice means the campus side of Westwood, clubs and classes rather than the shops. That is a mild constraint for a beginner and an advantage for anyone who also wants Spanish in their ear — but it is a choice to make deliberately rather than assume.
Two things to weigh. LA is spread out, so a badly chosen address turns every evening into an hour in traffic — ask where the school is before you choose accommodation, not after. And it is expensive, though less so than the Bay Area.
Studying here. Topstudy works with two schools in Los Angeles. Kaplan Los Angeles offers General English, Semi-Intensive English and Intensive English; EC Los Angeles offers General English and Intensive English. Between them a standard week, a middle option and a full intensive load are all available.
Accommodation. Kaplan Los Angeles places students in four Westwood residences: Barry, International House, Margot and Selby. Having four options in one district is unusual and useful — you are choosing between buildings rather than between parts of a very large city, and all of them keep you inside the walkable part. Host families are the alternative and are usually further out, which in Los Angeles means a real commute.
Who it suits. Students who want California weather and the beach inside an ordinary week; anyone who would rather live well in one neighbourhood than sample a whole city; and students coming from a northern winter who want the opposite of it.
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