Hello! I am the student 
and I’m seriously considering UCSC as an admitted Computer Engineering major for this fall.
UCSC is a lot closer to my Bay Area home than my other choice, UCSB, but both have their merits. I’ll be visiting UCSB as well in a few days.
Some pictures from my tour on Wednesday! I hope someone finds them helpful. Absolutely beautiful campus.
The guides said that other than the Impacted majors like CS and CE, it is super easy to switch majors if you like.
They also noted that first year students are encouraged to explore their interests through their classes. My tour guide said that it wasn’t difficult for her to register for classes outside her intended major.
To answer the second question, the guides noted that UCSC previously had a 2 year housing guarantee for freshmen. However, that’s now gone due to COVID.
Even then, the guides said that although there wasn’t an explicit guarantee, every first or second year student who applied for housing received it.
First year students are not required to live on campus.
Guide also noted that 85% of freshmen get their first choice residential college!
Thank you for all of these helpful posts and great info! I’ll be sharing all of it with my daughter. We are doing the formal tour next Thursday.
@AmyMarin Thank you so much. I joined the FB page too but haven’t had chance to read through. Seem like really nice parents. 
She was hopeful by starting in CS it will be easier to switch out if she wants, which it sounds like from @gauchoengineering 's tour that she would be able to do. That is a huge consideration for her. Thank you both!
Thank you so much for sharing all this helpful info and amazing photos! We were only able to get a tour at the end of the month and are trying to do a self-tour next week instead, so we’d be missing all the tidbits from the tour guides. Thank you so much for sharing here!
Thanks for sharing with everyone here, I imagine you’er a busy senior so really appreciate it!
Congrats on your admissions! We visited the UCSB campus last summer but didn’t have time to stop and walk around. Since it was summer it was empty but beautiful – especially right next to the ocean. You will have a gorgeous campus setting whichever you choose! 
Look forward to hearing how UCSB compares to UCSC for you and what you end up picking! (My D was denied by UCSB for CS).
Glad you found the FB group! Yes, the admin and group members all seem really nice! I’ve already picked up some really helpful tips in there, including really good insight about waiving the medical coverage and going with Cruz Care, the best routes for transportation to/from Marin, and a bunch of other good info.
Wow that sounds amazing! I’ll definitely check it out thanks! I have to get my D to join the student group for whatever school she ends up in. She doesn’t really do social media, just discord, so i’m the crazy one online all the time. 
No worries! Glad I can help out
Thanks! We’re beginning preparations for finals and AP tests, so it is indeed beginning to ramp up for me. However, with my Stanford rejection today, I have all of my cards in place
Hopefully I will make a choice by mid-April. I’ve previously visited UCSB as well, and I really loved the campus! The beach environment really can’t be beaten.
Sorry to hear about your daughter being denied by UCSB for CS… This year CS at UCSB was unbelievably tough and I’m not sure why. For example, in my competitive Bay Area HS NOBODY got into UCSB CS, while 2 people got in for UCLA CS, quite a few got in for Berkeley LSCS, and two people even got in for Berkeley EECS…
And the craziest part? I don’t know of a single person who was even waitlisted for UCSB CS… all rejections.
I’m grateful that I was spared the worst of it by applying for Computer Engineering, but it really really makes me wonder who UCSB is admitted to the CS major, if they’re rejecting Berkeley EECS admits.
The stats for CE, for reference. Couldn’t find the admit rates by major for CS but I’m assuming it’s much more competitive.
Hi guys! Does anyone know or heard of the pre-med experience at UCSC? I’m planning to go on a pre-med track however I’m not sure where. Currently, my choices are CC and UCSC so it would be great if someone can give me advice on which one is a better place to attend.
What would be your major at UCSC?
You need to be careful with CC classes for Medical school.
This information was posted by a respected CC poster whom had 2 medical school students:
Taking coursework at a CC is non-ideal but it’s not a total dealbreaker for med school.
While it’s true that some medical schools will not accept CC credits to fulfill med school admission requirements, many will
IF (and this is a very important IF)
you take additional upper level credits to supplement any CC science credits that you earn.
For example, if you take 3 quarters of intro bio at the CC, you MUST take at least 3 more quarters of upper level biology credits when you are at your 4 year transfer university. If you take 3 quarters of gen chem at the CC, then save ochem and biochem for the 4 year.
Now this may mean you will have to change your preferred major so that you can fit in all the required classes for graduation in your major AND take the rest of your pre-reqs.
I know that you need to earn enough credits to transfer to your desired major and that will require taking some pre-reqs at a CC–like intro bio and gen chem. But try hard not to take more sciences than just the first year of biology and chemistry. Then make sure you take ochem, biochem plus several more upper level bio classes when you get to your transfer college.
You can certainly take your GEs at a CC, plus non-science pre-reqs like writing skills, intro psych, intro sociology. You could even take Calc 1 and stats. ( If you do take the math classes at a CC make sure to take a biostats class after you transfer.)
I’m planning on majoring in neuroscience at UCSC. If I do go to CC, I’m planning on participating in the TAG program and transferring to a UC, most probably Davis. Do you know if Davis is a feeder school for their medical school and if they have a preference for them? Also the local community college I might attend doesn’t have any research opportunities and it would be hard to participate in them at another college- which I heard puts you at a disadvantage than your local peers at a 4-year. Thank you for answering my questions!
I believe that UC Davis Medical school gives some preference to UCD graduates but with only a class of 132 students with 9709 applicants for the class of 2025, it would be statistically only a few.
Wow those stats for CE are tough too, congrats again on your admission to both UCSC and UCSB! Can you share the source on those stats? I’m interested to browse.
Thanks again for sharing the info you’ve learned. Good luck on your finals and AP’s and enjoy making on your college decision!
30k over 4 years, so 7.5k a year
Can you give some info on student life and transportation? We missed the tour.
Thanks!
Ok guys, so my S managed to lose his email with his CruzID info and so never set up his portal before his acceptance. He’s not planning on attending but I still want him to access his myUCSC account. We emailed IT but haven’t heard back yet. We have his student ID and know that is part of the CruzID. Can anyone tell us the format of the CruzID? Is it initials with the student ID or full name or birthdate? If we know the format, we can maybe figure it out without waiting on IT. Unless it’s totally random of course.
