My extracurricular activities, I believe, immensely helped my application. To be more specific, I received the Leadership/Merit Award from my county, the Congressional Service Award, and the Presidential Volunteer Service Gold Medal twice. Activities include an internship with a private sector real estate firm, many years as President of my city’s youth advisory council, four years of varsity wrestling/CIF state qualifier (not a recruited athlete), and numerous other honors. I also worked as a freelance developer for a video game platform, creating platformer games with a large number of monthly visitors and revenue (related to my major).
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New housing is in the pipeline. I appreciate that the article considers that maybe the housing crunch isn’t because of all those darned OOS students, but maybe some NIMBYism.
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From the article: “The housing crisis at Santa Cruz is particularly bad for students. UC Santa Cruz has enough on-campus housing to accommodate less than half of its students. Off-campus vacancy rates in the area are low and the housing that is available is expensive”.
Doesn’t sound very promising.
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It isn’t promising or not promising; at least they are trying to do something about the crunch. I would say that most fresh and soph get on campus housing. Some elect to go off bc they don’t get their choice of room setup or the school cannot accomodate whatever it is they need (a service animal, etc - I’m guessing as an example).
Because it’s so beautiful, SC is basically a travel destination so tourists and residents are vying for housing stock that is hemmed in by the mountains and the ocean, as well as restrictive development codes.
I find it ironic that once a child is in and attending at UCSC, some parents are like “they need to let in fewer students because of the housing issue” 
A family friend says that at UMich, her freshman kid has already made plans to move off campus. If a family wants 4 years of dorm housing, then they should apply to schools that offer that, such as Occidental (or - pearl clutching), Merced.
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Lol.
So it sounds like Freshman are ok, you just have to be prepared to sign up quickly for a place in the second year? My concern isn’t really on-campus housing if Freshman can get a room (the article made it sound like that was a problem) it’s more the insane cost of off campus housing.
I wouldn’t say “quickly”, more just strategically/with awareness for second year. My kid is simple and doesn’t care too much about food/cooking so on campus suits him so he was able to fall in with a group of 5 others to try to get a six-man. Many people would not enjoy living with five others (it’s 2 singles, 2 doubles in a suite) so are willing to go off campus. Others who want a single or fewer roommates and really want to be on campus have to grit it out with fewer chances for a high slot times (basically where you are in the line to pick). It all depends on your kid.
From my parental distance I’ve found this seems to be the way UCSC tends to work. Everything is very opaque to parents/non-students, but it’s done in an equitable manner as long as kids stay on top of all the moving parts. Not necessarily easy initially since they are all learning to live away from home, dealing with sharing laundry facilities, making friends, doing homework, learning to go to TA hours, making sure they are taking the right classes for their majors, etc. I suppose it’s a good way to make sure they “launch” successfully with still some guardrails in place.
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I would say just be aware. We didn’t get in. But as a mum on a limited budget and not wanting my kid in sub-par housing ( caravan) say year 3 and 4 this was an issue for me. My close friends kid yes was living in a caravan for a couple of years. My risk tolerance is low, I am a worry wart so I did huge amounts of reading. I love SC - live in Oakland. Anyway just do the research if need to. Otherwise as long as you can help the kids and they are not alone I am sure all will be fine. It just wasn’t something I wanted to budget in for - both financially or mentally.
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Don’t gloss over though there is a real issue with limited housing in this area. If budget is of a concern please factor this in. I am risk adverse so it was so much of a concern to me, but hey my kid did not get in.
- accept a high-stat kid 2. high-stat kid actually attends.
It is hard for universities to differentiate the two. That is the primary reason the yield rate is so high. No one has this formula down. You can come close to minimizing the churn rate - I am sure we will have an AI model next year… lol.
That said, my kid is a national merit finalist with a GPA of 4.0/4.8 and 1590 on SAT with significant research ECs at T10 universities and was rejected at UCSC. And his twin with the exact same stats (I mean same and not similar) got waitlisted. But I am not complaining.
I think it depends on the major you are applying to.
BTW - let us keep the insults off this forum, please. We all want the best for our kids!
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I’m so sorry this is happening to him and you. Is there somewhere he’d like to go out of state? There are so many schools that would want him.
2 posts were merged into an existing topic: UC Santa Cruz Freshman Class of 2027 Waitlist/Appeal Thread
A post was merged into an existing topic: UC Santa Cruz Waitlist Class of 2025
Does anyone know if all the decisions are out for UCSC? My D was admitted in February, just wondering.
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They were all posted on March 15th
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UCSC was the only outright UC acceptance for D23 (waitlisted UCD, UCSB, UCSD; rejected UCLA; still waiting on Cal and SLO)
Originally UCSC wasn’t a top choice for her but with the current situation she is warming to the idea and trying to drum up enthusiasm. It was also the one campus we never made it out to. We are hoping Slug Day on 4/15 will help. Anyone else in a similar boat? Or have past experience with an older child attending? Would love some insight.
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Does your daughter enjoy the forest? It looks like Endor from Star Wars (they did film in California redwood forests). 
Beautiful.
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She does! And from what we’ve seen online it looks absolutely stunning. Proximity to the coast is also a big plus. Just concerned that the campus might be a little too remote/spread out for her liking and a little stressed with the looming housing issue after freshman year.
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We did the tour there are lots of buses running Loops so the spread out issue is not a problem. The housing situation I’m trying to get on a handle myself in particular is it just the cost thing or is it that it’s just hard to get good housing no matter the cost
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Can someone post options for housing post freshman year?
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There’s a small selection available to view on the UCSC website, otherwise you need to look at websites like apartments.com for private rentals.
The hilltop student apartments look nice but are extremely pricey.
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