Ewok village hahahah! I do really think the campus is pretty. Though the lack of a central hub bothers me quite a bit.
Thanks so much for all the answers. I was looking at stats on exit salaries and job prospects for graduates of the schools and it did seem to make a pretty big difference…
https://mediafiles.ucsc.edu/iraps/surveys/first-destination-survey/14-16-fds-cs.pdf
http://career.engin.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2020/04/annualreport1819.pdf
Whereas UCSC CS bachelor degree holders had a median salary of 75k, UMich was at 100k with 11% more students finding employment by graduation. I don’t know if that’s simply some weird thing the stats are hiding though. That seems like it would compensate for the cost differential though, no?
Weather is definitely my biggest fear :\ I wish I could visit the campus in Winter right now.