University of California-Santa Cruz Top Questions

No. It is definitely a liberal school, but there aren't only liberal students. There are kids who live in trees, and there is the "naked run" on the first rain of the year, but there are ALL kinds of students. We represent nearly every category of ethnicity and lifestyle. The student body is welcoming, tolerant, and eager to help other students.

To a certain extent yea, maybe. Obviously the stereotype will attract a certain type of person, but its a university and there will be stoners, activists, and preps at all of them. There are different colleges and they each have their own stereotypes, giving us a pretty wide spectrum. plus now that the regents are trying to streamline the UC system, they are all getting to be the same anyway.

There are people who do that, but most people come to UCSC in the hopes of leaving with a degree, so it isn't as massive as people think. April 20th is the only day when you will see pot smoking en mass.

No, many of us are extremely hard working and competitive students.

No. We party the same if not less than other schools and there are many students here that chose this university over UCLA and Berkeley because of the various strengths it has. Marijuana use is high in Santa Cruz not necessarily on campus, and there is a difference

Sadly, ALL true

To some extent, it depends on which college you live in. But there's definitely jock types/SoCal types. A lot of people party. College 9/10: The cliquey people who only want nice dorms Porter: The cool, artsy type people. LOTS OF DRUGS/PARTYING Kresge: Hippies and druggies Merrill: Gay people and feminists Crown: Nerdy, science lovers. Some are crazy nerdy but there are also cool nerds. Oakes: The "minority" college 8: Where all the people who didn't get into UCSB go Stevenson: Generally cool people Cowell: The athletes

The stereotypes are not accurate... everyone finds there place here. You make college what you want it to be, and what you get out of it is how much effort you put into it.

To varying degrees. There is a lot of pot smoking, but it's not as extensive as some make it out to be, and very few people are constantly high. There are some hippies, and the school definitely is liberal leaning. There are varying degrees of commitment to education here, but the vast majority of students put a lot of effort into their classes. The stereotypes regarding the individual residential colleges all have at least some truth to them as well.

Yes and no. There are certainly those sort of people here, definitely. It's my experience that they make up a particularly loud minority. It is true that people tend to be laid-back here; I have yet to meet anything close to a workaholic.