University of California, Santa Cruz - Santa Cruz, California

Theo W.

I was visiting the school as a possible option for college, and did the online tour. We walked around and it was beautiful scenery (trees, grass, water, plants, deer, slugs, squirrels). I don't know how good the academics are, but the library looked really nice!!

American C.

I have visited this beautiful campus many times. Each time I can just walk a small portion of it. Yet, I feel that each day is a perfect day over there. So close to nature. Every building is naturally immersed inside the trees. The weather is probably the best you could ever imagine for any campus. I look forward to go back again in the future.

Cri B.

One of the most beautiful campus I have ever been. It’s like hiking in the National park everyday. Those classroom buildings are also well designed. Really enjoy having a walk there.

Jemelee M.

Huge and very spread out campus! Need a bike or can take a bus that goes around campus. Lots of hiking trails. Atmosphere is very peaceful.

Sasha H.

great students all the people getting paid to be here suck. be prepared to walk everywhere because buss will not be arriving

Milo

UCSC does not care about its students. I cannot stress this enough. It may preach about inclusivity, diversity, & equality- but it is surface-level at best.

+ It is near impossible to get on-campus housing after your first year, & in a town like Santa Cruz that is pretty much dooming you to a frantic scramble for overpriced off-campus housing. Homelessness among students is an ACTIVE concern.
+ The school will turn a small single into a triple and convert communal meeting spaces into Franken-dorms for six students to share at a time in a mad dash to accommodate the thousands of students they admit.
+ Construction is a near-constant occurrence, power outages happen near monthly, and my housing unit was left without warm water for two weeks straight in the dead of winter. We also lost access to the laundry room and were told to just walk a mile away (uphill I might add) to the next nearest laundry room for almost a month until the situation was resolved.
+ Centipedes were in pipes, black mold rendered housing spaces unlivable, and the school still charged as if you were renting a studio in Los Angeles. Off-campus housing as mentioned before is a nightmare to acquire, with the average rent for off-campus living being at least $1,000 a month to share a place with several other students.

The school will not help you with any of this.

+ Cars are discouraged & the buses are unreliable (at best). The nearest Target is an hour and a half bus ride away. Buses are either late or too packed to board. A trip to the grocery store will take a healthy two hours just on the back and forth commute. Though if you bike, this is the place for you- if you can deal with the hilly terrain. I will give credit to the campus for being beautifully scenic.

+ The professors range from incredibly kind and attentive to strange and ineffectual. I have had wonderful professors who truly made a difference in my education, but I have also had professors that have sat back and let an overworked and underpaid TA teach the entire course. I genuinely rather enjoy my teachers, but classes are often filled to the brim before you can get in or restricted heavily by major. Professors can be sweet as honey, however upper administration does not care about you and will let you be crushed like a bug during a peaceful protest because you dare to advocate for anything at all.
+ Upper administration also carves themselves larger and larger paychecks each year while students overpay to be underserved.

+ My biggest compliment however goes towards the Student Health Center. The workers are compassionate, competent, and while much of their services are hidden- once you ask about them you can receive help both for physical ailments and mental health issues as well- psychiatry, eating disorder help, dietician consultations, short-term therapy, etc.

+ Students range from fantastic, compassionate, and generally forward-thinking to covertly racist, clique-ish, and weirdly cruel, and filing a report if you are assaulted or harassed will get you nowhere.
+ However making broad statements about thousands of students is unable to do justice to the vast array of people I have met. Community can be hard to find by the nature of how the school is built, but students work hard to support each other often and the general student-base is bright, oftentimes queer, and incredibly unique.
+ You do not HAVE to be a stoner to go here, but beware that it is a large part of campus culture in certain sects. This is fantastic for some, horrible for others. I'm ambivalent but it is worth noting. Also worth noting that most of the town closes down by 8 PM. Very few restaurants, stores, or venues stay open- especially for the under 21 crowd. But there are beautiful hidden gems of restaurants, activities, and events if you know where to look. My big suggestions are... The Midway (a locally owned, small restaurant), Creative Eden Lounge (community space which offers pay what you can dance lessons, community outreach, and art classes), and the Catalyst (wonderful music venue).

Aaron B.

Great university with an awesome community!
Where else can you walk to class through a forest?

Johnny T.

Beautiful campus; lots of hills and forest scenery.