The University of California - Santa Cruz

Date: Jan 21 2004
Major: Political Science (This Major's Salary over time)
UC Santa Cruz is an amazing university. Its beauty will inspire you everyday. The people are very chill, and another reviewer was right, it was culture shock coming from socal. I'm from the suburbs but my friend from LA, LA was afraid to go into the forest during our freshman year! Everything that you're into is possible here: sports, art, frats even (did you see UC Santa Cruz Fraternity Life? fucking bullshit!, don't wanna be biased here, but don't come to Santa Cruz if you're looking for a good frat scene, there isn't one, the people who join frats are the ones who reject the UC Santa Cruz mindset). I was a politically liberal but socially inhibited socal kid and Santa Cruz has definitely changed me. You have the freedom to be different. I started surfing (great waves), doing yoga, and changed my major from politics to latin american/latino studies. And there is a great education abroad program. I am writing this from Madrid, Spain. Negatives: yes housing is expensive, you need to keep a critical mind with the constant liberalism, very few large parties (mostly small kickbacks), many bands only go to San Francisco, stoner culture (but also just as large "normal" culture).