The University of California - Santa Cruz

Date: Dec 16 2009
Major: Psychology (This Major's Salary over time)
UCSC is solid UC. I consider it miles above UCR, UCM, and UCI in terms of social life and on par with UCI and UCSB in academics. Like most colleges you can find virtually whatever you're looking for as far as social life. However, whether or not you're looking you'll definitely encounter weed, hippies, and the very left political views. In order to have a good experience at UCSC you need to be able to at least tolerate these things. Most faculty will make this a bit easier with a steady but mostly rational barrage of left viewpoints. The academics here are solid, particularly in astronomy and biology. The campus is breathtakingly gorgeous and is a great place for hikers, mountain bikers, and psychedelic drug users (who are not in short supply). The city of Santa Cruz is a definitely unique and has a lot of great qualities including an incredibly fun theme park, a great little bar strip, and a solid venue that attracts some good sized names. If you're a big drinker you can find it here, but the crazy house parties are a lot rarer than places like UCSB. Partying isn't as centralized so if you want to go out every weekend under 21 you need to network. Drinking definitely gets easier once you're 21 with some fun bars including the Red and the Blue Lagoon. Overall my favorite things about my experience at UCSC were: the beauty of campus, April 20th (its a holiday here), the chillness and non-aggression of the students, first rain (everyone streaks on the school year's first rain), the acceptance and encouragement of alternative viewpoints (except politically right ones), the beautiful beaches just north on highway 1, and the coolness of the city of Santa Cruz. The things that I disliked about my UCSC experience were: the relative lack of attractive people, lectures loaded with political messages, the Santa Cruz party ordinance, and the lack of a centralized drinking culture.