University of California--Santa Cruz | Student Reviews | Best College

Student Profile

April

Class: Sophomore
Major: Economics
Gender: F

High School: Granite Bay High School
Transfer Student: Y

Big Picture

The best thing by far is the gorgeous campus. The trees and mountains are so inspiring and unique for a college campus. There is not a lot of school pride, which is sad. People rarely come to the few sporting events we do have, and people are generally not very involved in the school. Sometimes I feel like I am at a huge commuter school. The size is just right for me. Small enough to recognize a few faces, but large enough to meet new people everyday and not get bored with the offerings here. The townspeople in Santa Cruz are not very friendly towards students, mostly because we drive up rent prices and crowd the already-too-small town with our cars and surfboards. One experience I will always remember is the great friends and people I have met here. The people are very unique, and there are many that I don't get along with, but once you find your niche, the social atmosphere is great. We go to the beach and go frisbee golfing.

Academic Life

The academics at UCSC are not very challenging for me. I have heard that San Jose State has harder classes. People are geneally apathetic towards school and do not study often at all. I enjoyed a class called Latin American Music where we had flamenco artists from Spain perform. The education at UCSC is definielty geared towards learning for learning's sake, not towards the job market or succeeding after school, which I find a little disheartening for many students who have no idea what they are doing after they graduate.

Student Body

The student body here is very segregated. The ethnic groups stick to each other due to the multiple ethnic organizations which pretty much run the organized part of the campus. Multicultural events are everywhere, which is good for learning about others, but hard because it fosters a sense of separation and disunity. The financial backgrounds vary greatly. Many students come here on full ride financial aid, like their parents are on welfare, to many students whose parents pay for everything plus some. It is very diverse here in terms of wealth.