<p>porcupyne,</p>
<p>The English department has major problems. Linguistics is first rate.</p>
<p>Taffy,</p>
<p>That hasn't changed in 40 years, but they haven't tried to cause trouble in a long time due to particularly embarassing incident my freshman year. The campus cops diverted about 30 cars & pickups coming on campus at night to a construction area, got the idiots to follow them in the fog, got them lost, then strolled back to the parking area and hit all their vehicles with big-time (for 1967) parking tickets.</p>
<p>taffy,</p>
<p>This one is absolutely ludicrous.</p>
<p>"It was mentioned by a guest speaker today in health, she said that being in the SF bay area, people here are more open to gay, "but if you go an hour south to a play like santa cruz, there is a large white supremicist following. thats something most people dont know. in a place like santa cruz a gay person may not feel as comfortable with coming out."</p>
<p>I watched the Gay Pride parade roll down Pacific ten days ago while having breakfast with my two UCSC children at Hoffman's Bakery. And my son is gay.</p>
<p>some_1,</p>
<p>The one thing UCSC doesn't have in terms of econ is a business department. Forget about any hands-on or local internships. It's all book learning.</p>
<p>Off-campus social life is adequate, i.e., it doesn't compare to a big city, but trust me, it is light-years ahead of what existed in my day. The recreational opportunities of the area are probably the best of any college or university in the state.</p>
<p>As an alumni, I can rent, and have rented, a two-bedroom on-campus faculty apartment for $100 a night in August in one of the premier recreational areas in California. The waiting list for that has grown from two weeks to four months.</p>
<p>What is the racial breakdown (hispanics, whites, azn, etc) of UCSC? What is the % of Asian students there? Are Asians well accepted there? </p>
<p>I'm not racist or anything like that, don't get me wrong. I am a very tolerant and accepting person but I'm just afraid I might be "left out" </p>
<p>I'm a future, prospective student applying to UCSC this fall. I'm HS graduating class of 2006!!</p>
<p>I don't know the percentages. I did attend my son's graduation from Cowell last month and the impression I gathered was about 65% white, 20% Asian, 10% Hispanic or Asian (hard to tell for sure given the 50-60 foot distance from my seat to the bleachers holding Cowell's 2005 graduating class) and 5% black or other.</p>
<p>My off-hand impression of the proportion of Asian students overall, from walking around and driving a fair amount at UCSC last year due to having two children attending, was that the proportion of Asians seemed to be about 25-30%. The clear majority was white.</p>
<p>Asians are well accepted. That hasn't changed in 40 years. The real culture clashes are the vegans vs. everyone else, and the jocks vs. everyone else. That last hasn't changed in 40 years either - some things probably never will. Porter has some reputation for gay licentiousness, and UC Santa Cruz overall for hostility to Christians, but my very Christian daughter at Porter hasn't encountered any of it. Her experience is that the purported hostility to Christians is really to idiots "acting out" their purported faith as a means of drawing attention to it. Gays used to do that too until people told them to grow up.</p>
<p>I recall reading that a majority of the students at UC Irvine are Asian, and that the real purpose of UC's "affirmative action" program is to discriminate against Asians, particularly at Berkeley, for fear that admitting them solely based on merit would lead to them having a majority at every UC campus with few, if any, blacks or Hispanics. The stories I've read on this state that the administration and Regents fear such would lead to a drastic in public support, and legislative funding of, UC overall. I have no idea if any of this applies to UCSC.</p>
<p>Just in terms of UC Santa Cruz, though, I would advise short students in general, particularly short female Asian students, to avoid applying to Crown and Merrill Colleges, particularly Crown. The hills there are a lot of trouble to go up and down all the time, particularly to and from the dining hall in the rainy season. This was a major problem for coeds with short legs in my day.</p>
<p>There are also critter issues which seem to be more of a problem for foreign students from Asia, as they have no idea whatever how to react to animal hostility and aggression. When a deer starts stomping its feet, back off slowly. The presence of so many deer on campus (skunks were the problem 40 years ago) is due to dogs being banned.</p>
<p>UCSC Animal Control and I are concerned that the deer on campus will eventually bring mountain lions down too, at which point tiny female students from Asia will be in real peril.</p>
<p>I'm just hoping that I can get in because I have just about what the averages were for getting into UCSC last year, (3.5-ish soon to be 3.6-ish and an 1830 on SATs). Oy. A couple questions. First off, seeing as I've seen myself--the campus seems to be loaded with a bunch of birkenstock-clad artsy folk (just like me, ha), do you think the admissions office gets sick of all the same type and perhaps being the artsy-Santa Cruz type could be a bit of a challenge, as colleges want diversity? Boo hoo.</p>
<p>bah, next question later.</p>
<p>Alisonk,</p>
<p>I don't see any reason why you wouldn't be accepted, save that there is a definite upward trend in class averages overall. Unless you have some major personal issue, good or bad with a potent excuse, it's all based on GPA and test scores. The admissions staff at public schools are desperately overworked and just don't have time to delve into "types". The only diversity UC seems to care about, at any campus, is ethnic, and there it seems to be more anti-Asian (to avoid honking off the majority white taxpayers) than anything else.</p>
<p>Flamboyant personal stuff is rarely noticed. And it's normal at UCSC, believe me. Most of the street spectators on Pacific during the last Gay Pride parade looked considerably weirder than the parade participants.</p>
<p>"UCSC Animal Control and I are concerned that the deer on campus will eventually bring mountain lions down too, at which point tiny female students from Asia will be in real peril."</p>
<p>hahahah oh my god</p>
<p>i hear that their astonomy/astrophysics program is one of the best in the world. i heard this from a friend who attends there. is this true?</p>
<p>they like to joke with me that if i go there, they'll still hang out with me and my boyfriend even though we'll be the only conservatives on campus. ^^;</p>
<p>You won't be the only conservatives on campus. They're there. It's dangerous to be them sometimes (I feel for the guys from College Republicans who staff the recruiting table in the plaza), but they are there and they are active.</p>
<p>yeah, they told me about the group there. its just friendly joking, hehe</p>
<p>This question applies to all UC's as well as other schools, but when you are applying, to you write down your intended major? For example, if I want to major in Women's Studies (and am president of a women's rights club, and volunteer at the section of the hospital for women) will this up chances of getting accepted by showing that you have direction? etc... yep. thanks!</p>
<p>Prolixity,</p>
<p>It's called the Lick Observatory. <a href="http://mthamilton.ucolick.org/%5B/url%5D">http://mthamilton.ucolick.org/</a></p>
<p>UC Santa Cruz was created with a graduate department in either or both astromony or astrophysics. Two of the grad students lived on the first floor of my dorm (Stevenson's Dorm 5) during my freshman year (1967-68).</p>
<p>UC Santa Cruz absolutely, definitely, has had one of the best astronomy/astrophysics departments in the world for more than 30 years.</p>
<p>Conservative undergradautes will be lonely, but they're not harassed, save in the Literature Department which harasses everyone. Avoid Literature classes and you'll be fine. Well, you'll be bored hearing lefty silliness all the time, but you can have fun playing them along until even they realize what you're doing to them.</p>
<p>Could anyone tell me more about Merrill colllege and about the male crosscounty and track teams? I checked the sports page for UCSC but they didn't have anything there on them.</p>
<p>UCSC has a 65.7% acceptance rate of appliants with a 3.0 - 3.19 gpa !!!!!!!!!!! YES IM APPLYING !!!</p>
<p>where did you read that?</p>
<p>theres a big booklet thing i used to have that said the acceptance rates in different GPA groups and SAT score groups at UC campus's.</p>
<p>52.9% of UCSC students that were admitted have a 400-490 SAT I Verbal Range & 50.3% of UCSC students were admitted with a 400-490 SAT I Math Range</p>
<p>HOw nice is UCSC is anyway?</p>