<p>Like most I plan on applying to UCSC as a safety.
I mean heck, I'd rather get into a UC than a State school period.</p>
<p>But can someone give me some insight as far as location goes,
the surrounding of Santa Cruz, what there is do to and the pros and cons of it?</p>
<p>I personally don't mind the liberal hippie scene as long as people care about there education there and I'm getting a good one.</p>
<p>I love UCSB. The campus is right smack dab in the middle of a forest so it feels like a summer camp or something. A lot of the buildings look like cabins. Santa Cruz itself is not too far south of San Jose, so you have your major city, and of course San Francisco is there as well. Santa Cruz is right on the coast, so theres a lot of great beaches and the Santa Cruz Beach/Boardwalk which is like an amusement park right on the beach. A lot of people think of Santa Cruz as a little piece of Southern California in NorCal.</p>
<p>I don't think many can argue about the fact that Santa Cruz has the most beautiful UC campus (maybe some will say Santa Barbara, but i think their campus is kinda dirty...)</p>
<p>Yeah. Don't know much about UCSB. I was incredibly impressed with their dorms (which were, what, step out the door, jump into the sea) but it seemed like they had a lot of construction stuff still going on, so it looked kinda...meh. </p>
<p>UCSC is really foresty with lots of...deer. The town of Santa Cruz is really small and cozy. And... there's an amazing Italian restaurant not too far from the campus XD</p>