University of California-Santa Cruz Top Questions

Yes, but not the surfing.

Not really. I know some hippies and a lot of people who spend all their time smoking pot, but most of my friends are not really like that. There is a lot of weird stuff that happens like the First Rain and 4/20, but there's stuff like that at a lot of colleges, we're just known for it and it's really just an extreme generalization. As far as UCSC being the 'easy' UC, we actually have a really strong undergrad program in several majors, especially linguistics, much better than a lot of more competitive schools in California (those schools have great grad programs and that's where their prestige comes from, but undergrad there is underfunded). I've taken some amazing classes, and most people I know are very intelligent, not a bunch of slackers.

Even though there are hippies, there are also jocks, preps, gangsters, and everything else across the board. The part of us that is still hippie-like is our thinking. Everyone is really positive and all about peace and love. Its amazing to walk into a bathroom stall and see a bunch of graffiti that, instead of hate messages and swear words, has poetry and uplifting thoughts and quotes.