<p>Ignore my username, I picked it as a freshman when I thought I wanted to go to SB and party. Ummm...no thanks. I wouldn't go to SB if you paid me, even with the views.</p>
<p>I'm a girl, 5'10, blonde but not a Valley Girl type. On paper I should be a stereotypical cali girl but I'm not at all -- somewhat introverted without being weird, described as being better suited for the East Coast. I smoke weed but don't really drink except good red wine or whiskey, maybe. I don't know, I'm weird. I'm really focusing on being healthy and I like Kresge's apartment-layouts but is it a good idea if I want to meet people freshman year? And are they even available for freshmen? Also, I'm REALLY interested in Study Abroad/Peace Corps -- Which college is best for that?</p>
<p>I know the Linguistics program at SC is really highly regarded. Anyone know much about it? Internship opportunities? How far is Santa Cruz from businesses in the Silicon Valley or San Fran?</p>
<p>The Kresge apartments are available to freshmen! It seems people have no trouble making friends at Kresge. Even though they’re apartments, the area is really open so a lot of mingling seems to happen.</p>
<p>Study abroad stuff isn’t really affected by college, nor is the Peace Corps. I know that the International Living Community is in the College 9/10 apartments, and the Peace Corps office is behind Merrill College. </p>
<p>I actually just took intro to linguistics! As a GE, but nevertheless. Absolutely great teacher, really engaging, learned a lot, got a lot of insight into the field. I don’t know much about internships, but it seems like there are a ton ton ton of professors looking for lab assistants. Almost all of the businesses we get looking to hire UCSC students are from the bay. It’s about a 45 minute drive to San Jose, and 1 hour 30 minutes to San Francisco. </p>
<p>I’m an engineering student…but I can proudly say most of the guys are quality material. ;)</p>
<p>Kresge is awesome! You won’t get the typical college dorm experience in an apartment. But you’ll have no problem making friends there. </p>
<p>Three of my friends are linguistic majors and whenever they get together they get really into it. I don’t remember them being interested in linguistics Freshman year. I think the linguistics program at UCSC really made them passionate about language. If you are into that sort of thing, you won’t be disappointed. </p>
<p>Students at all the colleges have an equal chance of studying abroad. Through the Education Abroad Program (EAP) office any student can apply/request more information about going abroad. My junior year I studied abroad in Florence, Italy for four months. But I didn’t go through UCSC’s (EAP). I withdrew from the University for a quarter and studied abroad through an outside program. The only problem with that is that you need to make sure your credits will transfer before you go.</p>
<p>Cowell is good for bros and Porter…has changed a lot recently. You’ll find “normal” (whatever the hell that is) people at every college. But yeah, Porter tends to be more artsy, especially since it’s the closest college to the art department. HOWEVER, like I said, Porter has changed a lot and the CSOs (campus security) have gotten pretty strict over the past few years.</p>
<p>You sound like a good Kresgian. I’d highly reccommend the place. Kresge has a hearty bunch of hippies, but for the most part, it’s a lot of interesting, kinda quirky people. Cowell is brotown. Right next to the gym and major humanities buildings, which is nice, but you’ll be hard up to meet people who appreciate your east coasty quirks and good taste in booze.</p>
<p>I can’t speak for the ling department in particular, but UCSC is very well connected with Silicon Valley. And the ling department is phenomenal.</p>
<p>I wasn’t accepted into an Honor’s Program or anything. Does Santa Cruz have one? Can I apply/be selected or whatever for my sophomore year? Also, how impacted are the Linguistics or Writing classes? I’m looking at double majoring in Linguistics and Writing.</p>
<p>What kind of grad schools do people go on to after UCSC? I want to go to an Ivy or Ivy-comparable school</p>
<p>There is no honor’s program. As far as I’m aware, neither Linguistics or Writing are impacted. You might have trouble getting into classes as a freshmen (depending on how many AP/IB credits you have), but that’s about the only thing to worry about for Linguistics. This is just based on seeing how many people were trying to crash the intro course when I took it, it was only 10-15 people and I’m fairly certain they all got in by the end of the first week. Don’t know a thing about grad school.</p>
<p>Actually that reminds me. Can I get credit for my AP’s? So far:</p>
<p>AP English Language: 5
AP US History: 5
AP European History: 5
AP Psychology: 4</p>
<p>And I’m taking AP Government, AP Macroeconomics, and AP English Literature this year. I’m expecting to do well on the Lit test (probably a 5 – I’m really good at English but that’s about all I’m good at, ha) and hopefully getting at least a 4 on Gov and Econ. Can I get credit for these classes/tests? What would that mean?</p>
<p>You’ll get credits for scores that high. This is just the number that determines your class standing. Credits awarded for AP depends on the score and test. You already have 24 credits, and with your senior year classes you’ll have 40. Not quite a Sophomore (needs 45+)! So you’ll be in great shape to get into all the classes you need, because the more credits you have, the more priority you have. :)</p>
<p>ON TOP of that, you’ll also get rid of some of your requirements for graduation! Classes can fulfill both a GE requirement and a requirement for your major. It looks like you’re getting rid of 2 GEs and your C1 (writing intro) requirement.</p>
<p>Are there any businesses that really like UCSC? For example, I know Disney recruits from Thunderbird Grad School and DreamWorks like LMU. Any companies that try to recruit banana slugs?</p>
<p>I can’t say much outside of the engineering disciplines… I know we get recruiters from Google, EA, Blizzard, and Microsoft for starters. We’ve also had people from Pixar visit a couple times in the time I’ve been here. So we definitely attract a fair bit of attention.</p>
<p>Yup, your advisers will be well prepared to help you make a schedule so you can complete both majors in good time! Occasionally they will even be able to make an exception to make some classes for one major count for the other.</p>