(UCSC/UC-Santa Cruz) This was my dream school

How this student rated the school

Educational Quality	A-	Faculty Accessibility	A-
Useful Schoolwork	B+	Excess Competition	B+
Academic Success	B+	Creativity/ Innovation	B
Individual Value	C	University Resource Use	C+
Campus Aesthetics/ Beauty	A+	Friendliness	A-
Campus Maintenance	C	Social Life	D-
Surrounding City	D-	Extra Curriculars	C-
Safety	C

Describes the student body as: Friendly, Afraid, Approachable, Broken Spirit Describes the faculty as: Friendly, Helpful

Female

Quite Bright

Lowest Rating Social Life	D-

Highest Rating Campus Aesthetics/ Beauty	A+

She cares more about Social Life than the average student.

Date: Dec 04 2010
Major: Undecided (This Major's Salary over time)
This was my dream school. Until I got in. And I read these types of websites, and read these types of comments where people said it was a negative experience, and I thought mine would be differnet. It was not. Pleaseeee consider the "negative" comments before you committ. There is absolutely NO social life here. No parties. Ever. Now I'm not saying that college is all about partying, but I mean come on, it has to play SOME sort of role. The people here are nice, yes, but it is so hard to make lasting friendships with people outside of the dorms. You are basically stuck with the people living in the close vicinity of your dorm. Also, the people here loooove that there is the stereotype of "hippie weed smokers". I can not tell you how many people I've met that pretend they're stoners just to fit in.

The town of Santa Cruz seems appealing, until you spend real time there. There are homeless people everywhere, beggars on the street, people who just generally look sketchy. Yea, it's cool to say you live in a beach town. But not cool to actually LIVE in a beach town.

Overall, I regret coming here. It had been my dream school for years, now I am not even sticking it out for a year. For every pro I could think of, there is at least two cons. I'm sorry if this review goes against everything you perceived about UCSC, but it is simply not worth the outrageous $8,000 each QUARTER to attend here. The education you will receive is nothing special. You will get the same out of attending a JC for two years then transferring to somewhere worthwhile.

Responses

Hi! Im a senior in highschool and will be graduating soon this june 2011. My only choice is UCSC, and after I read your review it seemed so appealing to me and made me not wanna go..lol I read most of all the negative reviews here and they all have one thing in common, which was "hippies/weed" and "NO SOCIAL LIFE/PARTYING" which is just the opposite of what I expect in college. Do you regret going to UCSC? or are you thinking of transfering to another UC sooner or later? is it possible to transfer from a UC to UC? Thankyou!

I attended UCSC for just a year before seeing that it wasn't the right fit for me. I want to respond to the comment about what it's like to live in a beach atmosphere like Santa Cruz. I agree that the community around UCSC is sketchy. Expensive beach towns would suit people with a lot of money and can buy multiple houses, including one in Santa Cruz and live there during the summers. Then during the rest of the year these kind of people live elsewhere and don't have to see all the homeless people every single day. Students who don't mind living in the Santa Cruz area throughout the year probably don't mind all the homeless wandering around and following them.

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