University of California-Santa Cruz Top Questions

Some good options to spend ones time. Rugby for example was an excellent experience. Lots of good sports teams to enjoy without the size and competitiveness of your traditional US college.

Every year, we have the Naked Run, in which many people gather at Porter college to run all over campus, together, DURING THE FIRST RAIN OF THE SCHOOL YEAR, naked (though some students still wear underwear and/or bras). You can actually read about it on Wikipedia. Frats and Sororities do exist here, but they are not as big or important as they might be at other universities. We don't have a Football team (yay!) but that means that all of our other sports get a lot of attention, like water polo, tennis, etc. Many students do leave their dorm doors opened because only residents have access to their buildings and a sense of familiarity and trust quickly builds (though I'm not sure of all colleges). And like I've said, we have really great and inspiring events, speakers, art exhibits, theater shows, student concerts and performances, and we also have a bunch of free, by-donation, or $2-$3 dances, almost every friday there's at least one dance on campus. After the first or second year though, students are no longer guaranteed with housing and so they live off campus. From what I hear, it's pretty alright if you like more liberty. But commuting can be a hastle.

I would suggest Cowell, Steveson, Kresge or Oakes for dorms. The housing people rarely read those "matches" to place you with a roommate, so be careful. 420 is a big deal to a lot of people, but you can avoid it easily enough if that's not your thing. Difficult dating scene, and Santa Cruz is very small, so you run into people a lot. Fraternities/sororities are not big; you are not allowed to display Greek letters on a house in the city of Santa Cruz. There are several movie theaters downtown, cool stores and two hookah lounges. Otherwise you need to be 21 to have fun. But there is usually something fun happening on campus if you can't drink. Great food all over Santa Cruz, including vegetarian and vegan dining.

I met my friends in the dorms. There is a party scene in the dorms and marijuana is plentiful. Last weekend I went to a party and the Boardwalk. There are lots of things to do that don't involve drinking though, downtown is always a fun place to go, and the beach and forest are always available!

I think most people are involved with either a sorority/fraternity or a ethnic group. I am involved with Lambda Lil Sis which is an extention of the Lambda Phi Epsilon fraternity. Some students leave their doors open. i do not think athletic events are all too popular at all. I met my closest friends through my particular college and groups I am involved with. 2am on a Tuesday i am probably sitting in front of my computer talking to people online. Off campus my friends and i go to the movie theater downtown and we also eat dinner at one of the restaurants.

students in dorms usually leave rooms open until they get to know everyone, then they knock and just come in later in the year. only freshmen, sophomores, and transfer students can live on campus. athletic events aren't that popular, but guest speakers, forums, theater, and other performance art are all really popular. i met most of my friends in the dorms, and i still meet people in classes every year and quarter. if i'm awake on a tuesday at 2 a.m. i'm either studying or partying... every year, at the first rain of the school year, students run naked through the forest across campus. it's a great tradition and it's fun and exhilerating. if you're not into drinking there's still lots to do on the weekends. there are always concerts or shows downtown at clubs and venues.

I don't know much about this topic. I've never lived on campus, and I have a family of my own, so I rarely participate in social activities there. There are several fun traditions, but many of them happen while I'm not on campus.

You either meet your closest friend in the dorms or in your classes. Athletics here are here, but barely, we have some intercollegiate teams, but nothing too intense. Greek life is pretty mellow too, but growing. There is no official greek row or even official school sponsored houses, but they exist and have a good time. People party here as much as they want to. I know lots of people who go to bed at 10 and lots of people who go to bed at 4, there's not too much influence either way. First rain is something we are infamous for where a bunch of students run around campus naked the first time it rains for the winter. People have a good time and no one takes it too seriously. There is all kinds of shit to do here though, the boardwalk, Pacific street, hiking, the ocean, beaches, malls, all the good stuff. Its really a great place to live!

Student government's receive a lot of student money, so I would suggest joining your college government (UCSC is split into ten sub-communities called colleges) and the campus wide government called the Student Union Assembly (SUA). Each college government has about $40,000 to allocate every year and SUA has even more. The governments not only allocate funding to student groups, but they also write resolutions which are statements which represent the official stance of undergraduate students. Many administrators come to visit and they have question and answer sessions, which I believe is something very rare and special. The Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs has an advisory board made up of students so that she can seek student input. She is also revamping her department and I have been involved in the Student Affairs Strategic Visioning Process, which has allowed me to interact with many administrators and staff from all over the campus.

There are tongs of clubs on campus for pretty much anything, which is a good way to make friends with similar interests. Most of my friends are people that I live near, and a few are from classes (a lot of from my floor and stuff though). Most people drink and smoke all weekend, but you could find people who don't. Maybe. I have a few friends who don't.

There are tons of things to do here. Sports, clubs, extra classes..

The activities and party scene vary a little depending on the residential college you are at. At Porter there always seems to be something happening every night of the week. There are certain big yearly events such as First Rain (a naked run the first night of rain) and 4/20. Off campus there are usually concerts happening as well as a couple movie theaters. There is rarely a weekend when there isn't something to do.

Sports activities are not advertised and nobody goes, so if watching sporting events is your sort of thing...I guess there's always cable. There are definitely sports teams though, and I get the feeling that anybody can join. Frats/Sororities are here, but I think they're relatively small. People do join them though.

The dating scene is practically nonexistent here. Most guys are not here to meet girls, and the gay scene is very large. You can never tell who is lesbian, bisexual or otherwise, which makes meeting the opposite sex difficult.

Concerning the social life and activities on campus - it really depends on what you get involved in, and what college you live in. I personally sought out friends with similar interests to mine, which means I sought out people who are big video game and movie nerds. I heard about the stereotype that Crown is a nerd college, and while it wasn't 100{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} accurate I did meet a lot of people interested in that sort of thing. There is a plethora of activities and different things on can do on-campus, even if it doesn't seem so at first. (Depending on where you live, you might need to go looking for them - it's a big campus!) Dances are held, guest speakers come to visit, and usually your dormmates are up late at night. When I lived in the dorms, everyone on my floor left their doors open and people visited one another whenever they felt like it. (I also noticed that a lot of other floors didn't do that, though - so it might be a situational thing.) If you're the literary type, the Creative Writing department holds a Writer's Lecture Series event once almost every week for two hours in the evening, where guest readers come and read their fiction or poetry. And once every few months or so, a Rocky Horror Show is held somewhere on-campus for those who want to experience that. Drinking is not a big thing here on campus, depending on the friends you make. A lot of the social life on campus does seem to involve drugs of some kind, but they're not necessary. My friends and I play a lot of video games in our spare time together, or we go on walks, or we go downtown to the movies. Traveling off-campus to go to the movies or something can be a drag, though - everyone who lives on-campus (and don't have cars) tries to do that on Friday nights and the buses get horribly crowded and slow.

Unlike other universities, UCSC doesn't have a very large greek system (sororities/fraternaties) at all. The sororities and frats are more like clubs than anything; there are no specific houses that they live in, they meet once or twice a week and put on various events just like any other campus club. Other than those the more popular and large clubs on campus include (but not limited to) the GLBTI organization, the outdoor/hiking club, Slugs in Fishnets (UCSC's Rocky Horror Picture Show club), Rainbow Theater and the Ski and Snowboard Club, which I belong to. UCSC also lacks a few sports that tend to be more popular college sports, such as football and baseball/softball. The major UCSC sports that tend to draw the most crowds are water polo, lacrosse and soccer. Other than school activites, Santa Cruz offers many things for entertainment, including the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk amusement park, downtown Santa Cruz with a vibrant culture and fun stores and restaurants, an extremely large surfing community and many great nearby surfing beaches (though prepare yourself for some COLD water!).

I am part of the santa cruz ski and snowboard club which is the biggest club in santa cruz. it is a statewide organization that has "chapters" in the other uc schools as well. we throw big parties in santa cruz and generally have anywhere from 200-700 members yearly. we are the partiers of the school. ucsc doesn't really get crazy like santa barbara but as a club, we try. almost every student at ucsc smokes a lot of pot. we are not known for hard drugs tho. mostly just acid, shrooms, pot and the all natural substances. ucsc is not known for having extremely attractive students. (a lot of the women are hippies/lesbians and dont shave, but not all of us). id say there is a good ratio of men to women but the people in ucsc dont really care about looks as much as some other schools. it is not like high school. the greek life is stupid.

spring time = spring fever.

If large frat parties are your thing, and you have that "I'm in a frat/sorority and think I'm better than everyone else," complex, don't come here because we don't want you.

There are a lot of social gatherings on and off campus. On campus, there is "4/20" which occurs every year at the Porter Meadow. We have the naked run called "First Rain." And the dorms are known to have parties every once in a while. Santa Cruz is a really fun town. You can go downtown which has a bunch of cute shops and independent and mainstream theaters. The beach is right there, so there are many students that have bonfires on the weekend. Also, there is the boardwalk, which everyone should know about. It is famous for its rides, games, and appearance. You might recognize it from the 1987 film, "The Lost Boys."