University of California-Santa Cruz Top Questions

The worse thing about my school is the reputation that we are just a bunch of marijuana smoking hippies and we party a lot. It's a bad assumption becasue it's not entirely true and it causes people to look down on us compared to the other UCs.

The worst thing about UCSC is that the campus is a bit confusing. The reason why is that it is a huge campus with two bus systems located in the woods and it makes finding classes and buildings quite difficult.

The town where it's located. There isn't very much to do, or at least things that I'm interested in.

I believe that the worst thing about my school is the lack of school spirit and the lack of division 1 sports; if my school had these two important components then Santa Cruz would become a more popular university.

The worst part about the school is how isolated it is from the town of Santa Cruz. It makes it difficult to meet upper classmen.

The worst thing about my school is how hard it is to get into classes you need and the complexity of the school website.

I attended UCSC during the early years of its inception, in 1977; many areas were still experimental, such as the use of narrative evaluations instead of grades. Now, students receive grades, which allows graduates to provide a G.P.A. to prospective employers or in search of higher education. UCSC also had a poor academic reputation; it was considered "flaky," a claim I found even in the late 70s (a time still within the hippie hey-day) to be false: coursework was rigorous, comprehensive, and fascinating. I abhorred others' uninformed comments that my college was anything but academically stellar.

The worst thing about my school would probably be that it is so huge.

Tuition is too high. It can sometimes feel overbearing and hard to escape. It's stressful to know that upon graduating I will have to begin paying for it.

The worst thing about my school is its reputation. UC Santa Cruz doesn't have the strictest enforcement of drug use, which causes a more "laid back" attitude among students and leads to a high presence of drug and alcohol activity on campus. I believe this contributes to the attitude that UCSC isn't one of the most prestigious schools in the country and is just a "party" and "drug" school. I think this university is capable of being one of the top instituitions, but it's association with "potheads" holds it back from its true potential.

Terribly expensive and getting more so every year. It's best to live off campus if you have reliable trasportation to class (car/scooter/bike).

The worst thing about UCSC is the impacted and overcrowded classes, but that's true throughout the UC system. Also, because UCSC is an energy efficient campus, when it gets hot outside, not all the air conditioners in the lecture halls run.

If I had to truly pick the worst thing about UCSC, it would be the difficulty of receiving the classes I would like to enroll in for the amount of money that I am paying each year.

The school is very spread out and isolated making interaction and social life difficult.

The campus is really spread out and sometimes transportation can be a pain. I do often use the buses to get around, but I normally walk to my classes since the buses don't take me there. It takes about 10-15 minutes to walk to class, which sometimes results in me being tardy to the class.

The worst thing about my school is that the future of the university lies in the decisions of a few businessmen called "the regents". Therefore, fees have been raised by almost %50 in the last year, even though the state made a commitment in the 20th century for free public education to all California citizens, and decent prices for out of state students.

It is really big and all of the classes are in different buildings which means you have to travel alot on foot or you have to take the bus. It is also easy to get lost.

Although the educators and students at the University of California, Santa Cruz have successfully created an environment where most of its student body truly does accept those less conformist beliefs, opinions, and practices, it has not produced an enviornment that respects the beliefs, opinions, and practices of the more conservative. The social standard of not only tolerance, but acceptance, at UCSC will be more respected and even more successfully applied if its faculty, staff, and students actually practices what they preach: To extend respect and equality amongst all human beings, not only those that are the same or more liberal.

I consider the worst thing about my school is that there is not as much diversity as I was expecting. There are different races and ethnicities in my school but I would have liked more diversyity in my school.

The worst thing about this school is that it is very liberal. Although many people may like this about UCSC, I think this detracts students from other viewpoints that are out in the world. I also think the worst thing about my school is that it does not have a wide array of students from different socio-economic backgrounds. From the people I have interacted with on my campus, most are white students who come from middle class or higher class backgrounds.

Coming to Santa Cruz from Southern California was difficult at first to adapt to the weather change. Coming from Southern California being hot almost all the time, to Santa Cruz, I've actually noticed the different seasons. In the fall and winter, there was a fair amount of rain, and in the spring, there was the sun.

With the budget increase, we are paying too much money for very sub-par classes.

The majority of people here are accepting of every nationality, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation, however if one proclaims him/herself as a conservative, or republican, they will be criticized and taunted by whomever knows that fact. The political intolerance is very apparent.

The degree of stress and worry and hectic signing up for classes every quarter, because way too often, students dont get in and have to crash courses, and even then don't get in and have to take other classes they dont really need or want to take to fill up their credits.

The only thing which makes UC Santa Cruz bad is its distance from Los Angeles. You have to travel from city to city just to visit relatives and friends, and sometimes you are not ready for 6 or 7 hour drives, you just want to get there.

The worse thing about my school is the fact that all the classes are all so far apart from eachother and all the departments are all seperated. In order to get from one place to another I have to take a shuttle or the bus. I cannot drive because if I park at the wrong spot I get a ticket. I do not like that at all.

No football team. WIth a football team, you tend to bond more by sharing the same interest.

My school is on a hill and, therefore, is very isolated from the actual town of Santa Cruz. It takes at least half an hour to get downtown to run a simple errand.

Tuition is constantly rising and classes are being eliminated. Smaller classeses may delay how quickly a student will be able to earn their degree.

The quarter system can get somewhat hectic

Not enough sports.

Santa Cruz is a great campus for learning but it is up on a hill. Getting to town means using the local bus system which at times gets so crowded that the buses will not stop.

The worst thing about my school is most definitely the supression of free speech from a more conservative or republican political standpoint. Their voice is almost completely drowned out by that of the libral voice, and that is not only disappointing to me, but unnerving.

UCSC is a great school, but I would like to have more weekend events. Our frat/sororities aren't too great. Parties get rolled fast. Also, I wish we have a great sports team, football. I would like to attent football, basketball, and soccer events. This school doesn't provide many choices in classes either.

Open-Mindedness and Diversity have become odd, torturted terms in UC Santa Cruz. While the Oxford English Dictionary would tell you otherwise, open-mindedness means unwavering, near center to far left political views while center to right are often met with a smug, holier-than-thou reception. Diversity, on the other hand, is still code for 3 black people, 7 mid-easterners, 10 hispanics, and 15 asians out of every 100 students.

The only thing that i consider bad in my school is having mostly alot of smokers . The campus is beautifula nd very extravegant, it is mostly a place where you can go and relax after a hard day . I also do not like the fact that we have to be un shuttles to go to different classes because the classes are far or even the the other side of the campus.

The construction provided at the time, while expanding the school, wakes us early and ruins much of the atmosphere.

The worst thing about my school is that it is hard to find out about all the events going on during the week and on weekends.

the fact that it is very secluded, sometimes i just want to get out and i cant. i cant shop much there is only one places to go shopping down town and its very hard to get any where else with out a car and freshman cant have cars.

There is nothing particularly bad about UCSC, but the current turmoil over the Long-Range Development Program is frustrating. All other problems are either normal or easy enough to avoid.

The worst thing about UCSC is the weather. Unpredictable with rain and is very cold.

there is nothing

don't know

The worst part of UCSC is that in most of the bigger classes only the top 10% get A's, and every teacher sets their own grading scale. Many professors in prerequistite classes try to weed out students they don't think are fit for their prospective majors. However, if you work hard and establish a relationship with the professor and/or their assistants, it's possible to excel. The school also has a reputation as being easy because liberal arts programs are much easier than the science programs, thus feel a little misrepresented.

No school spirit whatsoever, and a lack of sororities.

The beaurachracy involved in the UC system

the isolation and the fact our downtown is only 3 blocks long and doesn't have anything. The buses are slow and north cal peopl are a little weird.

its in a small town away from city life...its a good thing but also bad.

The worst part was how the UC system was (and still is) constantly raising fees. We know they make millions in research, so why are they bleeding students and their families so dry over housing, textbooks, etc?

The worst thing about UCSC is that its almost too liberal; everyone accepts everyone else's viepoints unless they're conservative.