University of California--Santa Cruz Student Reviews

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Hana

  • Class: Sophomore
  • Major: Business
  • Gender: F
  • High School: Perris High School
  • Transfer Student: N
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Big Picture

UCSC is one of those nearly big UC's that fell like a small town liberal arts school. Minus the small town gossip, minus everyone knowing who you are, where you are from and everything about your daily life and definately minus the harsh presence of the stereotypical "college" environment, such as frats and sororities. For those whom love and live for the outdoors, such as surfing, sailing, biking, hiking and camping it provides a plethora of activities as well as breath taking views and scenery of redwoods and the Monterrey Bay. The most common complaint I hear of UCSC is the lack of appreciation, funding and spotlight given to athletics at UCSC. Athletics is a big thing on most college campuses, and although a lot of students UCSC are in fact athletes, every year more and more athletic programs find themselves being cut or in desperate in need of funding. The second most common complaint that I hear from students is the lack of parties. Although I completely agree with the first complaint, this one is far from the truth. Sure, parties at UCSC may not live up to the college parties portrayed by the media (except for those Bonny Doon parties that I hear of) but good parties are never in short supply here at UCSC. UCSC is a great college to attend, and in my two years at UCSC my experiences completely reinforce my decision to attend one of the UC's that is usually under appreciated and valued by most people.

Academic Life

As a Business Management Economics major with an emphasis in Accounting, I can say that I've been to handfuls of Business job fairs where many bay area firms and companies from Silicon Valley were eager to meet with me and see what I was all about. Because UCSC is one of the nearest UC's to Silicon Valley, one looking to get into jobs in Business, Economics, Accounting, Technology, Computers or even Natural Sciences after UCSC will find themselves with plenty of opportunity for success.

Student Body

Students of any racial, cultural, national or financial background at UCSC will agree that the university is a predominantly caucasian middle to upper class campus. From my experience, I've been to so many multicultural and diversity events on campus from organizations such as MECHA, ISO, FSA as well as AAIP and many others. Since I have been a Dining Hall worker, and one that had dealt with students that eat at our tables I can give a pretty accurate description of the four different tables of students at the Dining Hall: the first table is one of the Residential Advisor group, they all sit together, eat together, live together and seem to be the table everyone is aware of. The second table is the table of Freshman and upperclassmen where Freshman are eager to make friends and branch out on campus; the dining hall is where most socializing occurs. The third table is usually some people from a campus organization that have come to eat and the last is a mixture of all kinds of people, such as those that have not showered and those that take regular showers.

The Best Things

The atmosphere, location, city and people that you meet.

The Worst Things

Lack of athletics and funding for student run programs.

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