Hey everyone! I'm a current UCSC student and will be documenting my evolution through college as well as my real estate journey. I hope you all will find some value out of what I put out (or at least think my videos are entertaining enough to pass the time). :)
If you'd like to connect with me on Instagram, my handle is @audreybarquira. Feel free to strike up a conversation and whatnot!
I’m sorry to hear that UC Santa Cruz has slipped in the rankings. When I was a student there UC Santa Cruz students had the highest entrance exam scores of all the UCs besides UCLA and Berkeley. Acceptance of Santa Cruz grads into graduate school was the highest of any of the UCs, bar none. The down side was it also had the highest drop out rate, but I wasn’t going to let that statistic bother me so long as I hung in and graduated. Finally, it had a world class department in linguistics - my intended major. Sadly, people did trivialize the no grades/narrative evaluation system. I think it’s a shame they did away with it because written evaluations revealed much more information than a letter grade ever could. But class sizes were smaller then and perhaps that attention to detail couldn’t be sustained. Besides its idyllic setting, UC Santa Cruz was a truly elite university, in the best possible way, built on the Oxford/Cambridge college model. What do you think has most damaged Santa Cruz’s reputation? How might it be restored?
UC Santa Cruz has the worst housing crisis of the UCs. Some students live in their cars and others drop out because there are no places to rent. To make matters worse, SC residents sue UCSC when a new housing development is proposed. So sad. This was a good school.
I was trying to give my friend a good idea of how big a single room is, since I just moved in today, and stumbled upon this video. Funnily enough, I am also in Cowell, but in another building. However, the hall looks the same and those room looks similar to mine.
Short answer is no. It is a top notch research and liberal arts university but not at the level of a UCLA or UC Berkeley or UCSD or UC Santa Barbara. Also, UCSC is what you make of it. Also, UCSC admission standards are difficult but achievable if anyone's put in the work in high school or community college. My cousin is going to UCSC this fall for his freshman year and is majoring in Mathematics. He wants to become a math teacher (preferably for high school).
I am hoping to go for Technology and information management major this winter or next fall as a transfer! how is that major? I wanted to pursue Management Information systems but I saw uscs only offers the TIM one so im a bit nervous :')
My cousin is starting his freshman year later this month too. He is majoring in Mathematics. He will be taking Math 19A/Calculus 1, Chem 3A/General Chemistry 1 and Writing 1 this fall. He got into this school with a 3.95 weighted GPA (he took many honors and AP classes and passed a couple of AP exams) and had strong extracurricular activities and came from a low income family. If he did not get into UCSC, he would have flip flopped between attending UCR or community college.
I just got accepted to ucsc as a tranfer for marine bio, but currently, I'm split on accepting or not. Everything sounds too good to be true. the only thing holding me back is just the cost of attending and dorms. I also got accepted to Long Beach, but the marine bio program doesn't seem as big as ucsc's. Any advice for afforing housing or even securing a dorm at the school?
I’m pretty sure transfers are guaranteed housing, or at least prioritized. The only thing you have to worry about is how you’ll do socially. Most transfers I’ve met mention they struggle the make friends (they were off-campus). But on-campus I know there’s transfer-specific housing communities.
I really like how straight to the point this is! My sister who will be going to UCR was researching about it and she was giving me a hard time how I haven’t researched anything about UCSC so now im watching all of your UCSC vids and they are way too damn helpful, thanks for making these !
Im a third-year UCSC student. The campus is pretty secluded from the actual town. On-campus we have CSO’s (campus security officers) and they’re quick with showing up when there’s an emergency. Off-campus is a different story though, there’s definitely a lot of homeless people. Its okay as long as you go Downtown with a group.
I'm sort of worried because I got both UCLA and UCSC but I really don't know if I can handle such a competitive school...and I love the scenery in Santa Cruz...would I be letting myself go if i've worked my butt off in high school to then pick the notoriously "easiest" UC even if I got into UCLA
Hey I can really sympathize with how you feel. I also felt like I had worked really hard in high school with the goal of getting into a prestigious college. However, I reevaluated what was important to me after receiving my offers. What I would recommend is asking yourself what your end goal is. I would say go for what makes the most sense in terms of your financial situation and the outcome you want career-wise. Compare programs for your intended major if you know what you’d like to study, that’s always a good place to start.
It depends on your major, but UCLA has many more course offerings in the humanities. If you are looking for a variety of courses, I would choose UCLA (similar to UCB). The reason of that variety is that UCLA has more funding compared to UCSC. For instance, UCLA's English Department offers more courses than UCSC's Literature program, focusing on English Language. Therefore, if you are looking for a traditional college education with many course opportunities, I highly recommend UCLA. It is for that reason, I chose UCLA over UCSC. A note on competitiveness: I have not seen it. Top grades, in my experience, weren't limited.
Hey guys, here’s my take on some pros and cons of UCSC. On a side note, I am still very much a proud banana slug! All things considered, I’ve enjoyed my time here thus far and am glad I chose UCSC. If any prospective students have questions, feel free to send me a message on IG or through text (contact info up in the description)! :)
Im in UCSC rn, prestige aside, the admin/provost hates us, we’re understaffed, classes are never offered often enough, with class sizes that are too big for professors to handle, and all the programs/departments are degenerating 😂 The housing issue is also horrible. Maybe, I’m a doomer, but I wouldn’t recommend going here to anyone else at the moment.
I can see where you’re coming from in terms of limited resources. My only tidbit to add would be that unfortunately some or all of the issues you’ve stated can be applicable to the other UCs depending on the campus which sucks for the students for sure. Some of these issues are ones the school cannot solve on their own and require the campuses, cities, and California as a whole working together to address them but I know some are more impacted by these matters than others and it can be frustrating
Excellent content! Thank you for the info. I’m studying now for my exam and this and the last video were both super helpful. Good luck as you begin your RE career and I’m looking forward to many more informative videos for us newbies!
Thanks for watching! I’m glad those videos were helpful and good luck on the exam 🙌. Wishing you the best on your RE career as well and more videos to come for sure!
