hey, Eric,
greeting and welcome to sdn and the ucla post. congradulation on ur acceptance =) of cos, glad to see ya, class of 2008 =) by any chance, do you have aim/icq/msn? like awhile back in this post, we have a list of people using aim. please add us. my screenname is eric2035ecv.
before my reply, i just want to say this. how many eric's have u encountered? Eric is so popular, u know. everywhere i go, there is at least another eric. One time at my spanish class in high sch, there were 4 eric in a class of 30. And in one of my math discussion there were 5 eric in a class of 35. So the bottomline is dont mess with eric. j/k.
I heard it is really really difficult to get a permit in our first two years, unless you are riding a bike which doesnt require a permit at all and you could cruise by traffic. I would suggest to stay close to public transportation if you are not living nearby campus. Hilgard and streets around the southeast side of campus is very close to the dental school. as far as i know, it is a good place for grad students to live. (correct me if i m wrong) but the rent is very very high, too. The locations that u mentioned are popular places students live. i m considering living in west LA, the rent is a bit cheaper and it is not that far away.
EC