University of California-Santa Cruz Top Questions

A few professors knew me by name. My favorite class was my ancient greek philosophy class. my least favorite class was macroeconomics. I have great, intellectual conversations with my friends all the time. The most unique class i took was music politics and protest it covered a wide variety of topics. I think the education at UCSC is geared towards getting a good job but i also think it is really important for the professors as well as the students to learn for its own sake.

Yes. I really enjoyed Latin with Gildas Hamel, he made it fun. I did not enjoy my archaeology class, it was a gigantic survey course, and I felt like I was nothing but a number. Like most universities, typically frequently during the first third of term, then not so much during the middle, then alot at the end. In section, yes. Yes, the smart ones. Yes. Probably my senior seminar, just about ten of us in a room giving presentations to each other on medieval Spain and talking about them. The history department is great, quite close knit, though I wish there were more medieval professors. Yes, office hours and classics happy hour at the pub in town on Friday evenings. Quite balanced. Both.

Santa Cruz has world class biological engineering studies, but I do not know much about them as I am a history major. The majority of the classes I have taken here have been great- worthwhile, fun, challenging, applicable to real life, and with great professors. Granted, there are bad professors at every college, but Ratemyprofessor.com is a great way to avoid those. I have found all of my professors to be very approachable and receptive to my ideas, and always willing to help. Academics at Santa Cruz are much more laid back than say, Berkeley. If you are a hard core student and want the most challenging and rigid professors, Santa Cruz is not the place for you. But if you want to learn in a fun, friendly, and intellectual environment....UCSC has it.

Your name is learned by professors by talking in class and going to office hours. This is true at almost any university. No exceptions here.

Yes, some of the professors are excellent. My favorite class was "Psych & Religion", Ralph Quinn -the prof- was an excellent story teller, very well read pscyhologist, world taveler, open minded, etc. etc. least favorite = electronics for intermedia (art). Professor did not know what he was doing, this happens a lot. Good to know about the professor before signing up for a class. Class participation can really take off in sections with a good enough topic. Student studying varies- some do a lot, some never do. Students here DO NOT have intellectual convo.s outside of class. Students are NOT competitive. Most unique class = Torah study, Rabbi Shalom rocks. Anthro is still new for me. Do not spend much time with profs outside of class- usually just office hours for help. Academic requirements are good. You can choose the route of education there is a very wide variety of classes and I love learning for learning's sake.

Professors are often helpful, kind, and happy to teach class. There are fewer massive lecture courses here than other universities, and I haven't met a single motivated science student who couldn't find a lab project to work on. Anyone who says otherwise simply did not try hard enough (I ask for student's GPAs and stories often, and there is always some 'excuse' for a low GPA, and it's never their fault). I have yet to meet a professor who wasn't willing to stick his/her neck out for me if I needed it, and that says a lot about the professors here.

It all depends on the professor and what sort of impression you have had on him/her as a student. For example I have had classes where the professor became my personal friends and made sure to keep me clear on the course information. On the other hand I have had classes where the professor and I never meet and the adherence of source material to my brain was personally dictated. It depends on the student's resonance with a certain course and then with that student's level of impressiveness to the associated professor. Creative Writing is an amazing major offered by UCSC but it is also the most difficult major to place into. I have been seeking this goal for a long time. In order to tie the learning received from UCSC to the corporate world it is fundamental that one become involved in the on-campus career center.

My spanish professors always know my name. My favorite class this quarter would be human sexuality because is it a course i have a lot of interest in. My least favorite is spanish but only because it is hard. And yes students are competitive at this school to get the best grades. the most unique class i have taken is the beatles. My major is Laguage studies and it is a mixture of linguistics and languaes. it is a lot of fun. No i do not spend time with professors outside of class. I think the UCSC is geared toward gaining an over all education so you are best prepared for getting a job when you graduate.

The administration is set on expanding the campus--the only problem is, they need to change the problems at the campus before they add on to it. Classes are extremely PACKED. Many students are unable to register for the class they need. Many departments are under funded, many professors are leaving-Angela Davis has announced that she will not return to the campus to teach. The campus puts a lot of money into research, but all the other departments are under funded and under classed. The American Studies department, for instance, offers four American Students courses for the spring. Two of which are prerequisites and so students declared under the major have no broad choice of the classes that they would like to take. Wherever the money goes, it does not go to classes or professors. Often intelligent conversations consist of students against the continuous increase in fees, when no one has seen any change as a result of the increase. They talk about the war and problems with classes in general.

In general, professor do not know my name. My favorite class was Literature 101 with Jody Green on authorship. My least favorite class was Introduction to Reading Poetry with Margo Hendricks. It is impossible to say how often students study because there seems to be such a wide range. Class participation is uncommon in large lecture classes, and somewhat more common in smaller sections. I do believe that UCSC students have intellectual conversations outside of class. Students are semi-competitive. The most unique class I've taken was the Poetry of Bob Dylan. The literature major is small to be able to accommodate all of the literature majors. There aren't enough seminar-sized class available for this major. I do not generally see professors outside of class. I think UCSC has too many academic requirements, there should be more room allowed for other classes outside of your major and general education requirements. The education at UCSC is geared toward getting you out of the school so they can bring the next class in.