University of California-Santa Cruz Top Questions

Guest speakers= sensational. Go to them, take advantage of what they talk about. Education is a priveledge. Dating scene= depends on your taste. Most people I date I don't meet on campus. Frats/ sororities= kinda looked down on/ asking for drama/ go do it if you want, but if you're going to college to join a frat, don't go here because the SC environment isn't particularly conducive to it. Off campus= beach, run, church, volunteer, eat, and go to concerts. Saturday night= movie night/ cooking frenze. 2am on Tues.= homework/ socializing. I'm involved with the pro peace movement, the International Living Center (where the foreign exchange people live) and have been involved with the Education for Sustainable Living Program (ESLP). All are great. Take advantage of it while you can. They will change your life.

Campus is always crazy with activities and people, either in the quad or on the fields all showing school spirit and making new friends or having a great time with old friends; there is never a dull moment. Plus people are always open to new things, so usually events are always taking place.

While UCSC may not be your typical greek-oriented college campus, it certainly doesn't lack any social life. There are ALWAYS events (dances, beach clean-up, movie-nights, dining hall theme nights, etc.) going on on campus, so chances are you will never be bored. Going downtown is an amazing and ecclectic experience everytime with the popular Pacific Avenue and many beaches just a bus ride away. There is something for everyone to do every night, guaranteed. UCSC is not a crazy party school, but if you're looking for a party you will almost always find one. This campus comes with it's crazy traditions, from the Naked Run (running naked around campus on the night of the first big rain of the school year) to the notorious 420 meadow migration, you should come prepared and open to new things.

The people that I lived with in the dorms freshmen year are my closest friends still. We became close and formed a tight-knit group. You always here people say, "the friends you make in college, you'll be friends with the rest of your life". I can definently see that. Santa Cruz has some good bars and what not, not a lot of dancing, but a lot of parties. April 20th and Halloween are the biggest hollidays in Santa Cruz.

There are a lot of fun activities. Social life is good, people are friendly. The RAs aren't crazy narcs.

Don't bother with the greek system. Frats and sororities do exist but they are by no means the main way to socialize: most people avoid them. If you are a freshman planning on living in the dorms, make an effort to put yourself out there in your first few days. After the first 3 days or so, cliques begin to be formed, and it becomes much harder to meet new friends. I brought a box of chocolates and literally walked down my hall the first night, knocking on doors and offering a couple to each room on my hall as an excuse to meet my hallmates. It worked really well. As for parties and whatnot: they are always around, and usually get crazy with a theme, at least at Porter.

A life? LOL besides school I guess its just pretty normal. I usually go to watch plays during my spare time or head down to the beach or play tennis.

Frat's aren't very proular, parties are fun but get broken up early as a result of how students live all over the town. Girls, on average, not that cute...

In terms of stuff to do: there's tons of outdoor activities, but most of it you have to plan ahead for. You can go down into town (which is small, but really nice) which can take you 20-40 minutes by bus. Over the weekend the campus can really shut down - dining halls open at 10, close at 7. Cafes aren't open and most people go home. UCSC tries to pretend we don't have fraternities/sororities, but they're there. They're pretty quiet, but if you want to join it isn't hard to find them at the fall and spring rushes. The campus is pretty safe. A girl can walk around and feel pretty safe, though it's more comfortable to be with a friend after dark since some parts of campus are dimly lit. A lot of people leave their doors open when they're in their rooms, but it's common sense to lock up when you leave - most thefts are simply crimes of opportunity.

Most groups are student run. The university supports it's groups and teams, everything from sports to academics, financially but the responsibility falls on the student coordinators. It makes it harder to keep teams together and healthy, but when they do work well, they become the best team imaginable because they know themselves like other schools can only dream. Also it's great for a resume to be able to be part of something that wins that you helped make.

Some of the popular groups on campus are the sororities Gamma Phi Beta and Alpha Kappa Delta Phi, and the fraternity Lambda Epsilon Phi Kappa. I am involved in University Economics Association and Student Union Assembly. I am planning to rush for Gamma Phi Beta next quarter. When I lived at Oakes, students left their dorms open, but here at College Eight, the doors are mostly closed. The athletic events are not popular at all, I never hear news about them unless my friends are involved in a sport. I met my closest friends through friends that I either met at orientation or my roommate. If I am awake at 2am on Tuesday, I would be online (facebook or aim) or watching a movie. On weekends most people look for parties on campus or off campus. I can tell greek life is very small here, but I know people trying to get more involved. I wish Santa Cruz would not ban the frat houses. Last weekend I partied everyday except for Sunday. On a Saturday, people can watch movies downtown, go out to eat, play video games or watch tv and attend campus activities. I rarely go off campus because there is nothing special to do.

Students in my hall did not leave their doors open, but it was a transfer/re-entry hall, which means they're used to going to a home that is off campus. Athletic events are not popular. The parties here suck: everyone just stands around. BBQs and beach bonfires are better than any party. I met my closest friends in class and at STARS functions. People party often. Frats/Sororities struggle here. Since UCSC prevents such organizations from advertising their affiliation with the campus publicly, you hardly know where they exist. Saturday nights can be spent downtown on Pacific Avenue but most just go to drink. If you're not doing that, you're at a friends house... drinking. I camp, hike, and travel when I'm off campus.

There are several dance clubs on campus that give free lessons and dances, which is awesome. There are lots of hiking/outdoors-y clubs. Lots of martial arts clubs. I don't know what the most popular clubs or teams are, but we have pretty much whatever you could want, from basketball to Balboa. A group I'm involved with is SPS--Society of Physics students, which hosts meetings once a week for an hour, includes food and drink and usually a really interesting speaker. Great for physics students, all though ironically a lot of my classmates don't show. Some are shy, some just aren't interested, some are busy. Students do NOT leave their dorm rooms open. Stuff get's stolen a lot, though it also gets recovered a lot. Athletic events don't seem to be the most popular, though they certainly happen. Lots of guest speakers, on everything from masculinity in hip-hop to gender roles in Peru to the newest information on supernova. We have a great selection in that regard. The dating scene...I don't really know. I met my current boyfriend here, through an activity, and people do seem to pair off, so I'd say it's reasonable. If I'm awake at 2am on a Tuesday, I'm probably studying. There are a couple of cool traditions every year. One is 4/20, called "four twenty" which is on April 20th when a whole bunch of people get together on the Porter meadow to smoke pot. I didn't even hear about it until I came here, probably because the administration is really embarrassed by it. It's the only event I know of where it's really obvious that people smoke pot on campus. Otherwise people keep that sort of thing mostly to themselves. There is drinking and such, but I've never heard of a lot of hard drugs being done on campus. It's a very "let's drink healthy organic drinks and eat vegetarian and smoke pot and save the world." By the way, you can find pretty much any vegan or vegetarian food, either around the campus or on it, since Santa Cruz is so hippie. Another tradition would be the Vagina Monologues, put on by students at Porter college every year for Women's Day. They do a very excellent job. People who party on campus are mostly freshman and sophomores. The major partying goes on off-campus for juniors and seniors. The partying is not evenly distributed. At Crown there's hardly ever any, at Porter and Kresge there's a lot. It depends on where you live. I don't think fraternities/sororities are super important, but they're around. Rush week just happened, so all the Greeks came out to try and recruit people. I'm not really interested, and people didn't seem to be breaking down the doors to sign up, but they definitely exist. Last weekend I went out downtown for pizza with friends, saw a movie, and studied, and slept. On a Saturday night you can go downtown, see a movie, eat good food (my one complaint is there really isn't any great Indian food around...at least not like in San Francisco), go shopping, visit the Boardwalk, or hop on a bus and go to Capitola and hit the mall, or just stay in with some friends and play some board games. If you like dance, there are some local social dance venues, too. Off campus I do all of the above, go to the beach, hike in the trails, go dancing at local venues, etc.

If you want to party you can, but you don't have to to fit in.

the most popular groups that i know of are the 5 big organizations in the reedwood building. Most students do leave their dorms opened. I meet some good friends here at UCSC from all backgrounds. I do stay up pass 2am mostly on weekends. I party 2-3 times a month. What i do mostly do off campus is hang out with friends. This last saturday i partied.

No athletic events, really. Dating scene - who knows?! My closest friends are my roommates and select classmates. People can be found partying every day, but mostly weekends, not surprisingly. First Rain / Naked Run every year! Lots of fun. Greek life is relatively low-key, which suits me fine. Lots of things can be done rather than drink (hiking, art shows, concerts, guest speakers/plays, etc.), but most people don't try very hard not to drink.

Groups, clubs, and teams aren't that large and prevalent on campus. Sports isn't given the prestige that it is at other universities. This is something a lot of students like about UCSC. I agree, however, it would be nice if campus clubs were more visible. The campus kind of shuts down on weekdays (with occasional exceptions, including Cafe Revolucion). But there is always something to do in town.

Practical Activism Conference is a one day conference where speakers, musicians, and workshops are a common sight. Coordinators and volunteers work trying to get student organizations to table, speakers to come talk, and facilitators for workshops to come. I've been a part of this conference for three years and I've seen so much potential flow from this conference whether some learned something new or arrived the following spring that year to help plan for the next conference. Working with these different individuals who have so many different perspectives on what activism is and how to make it practical is at first difficult and frustrating. But like the muscle develops through conditioning, I find that it is where we disagree and put aside our hindrances and begin to start that dialogue; it is there that Practical Activism becomes not a word but a state of mind and a way to look at our world and the issues that need to be addressed.

I feel campus is a safe place. I've heard Porter gets a lot of break-ins. So some parts of campus aren't safe. My friends wallet and Ipod was stolen at teh dining hall and bikes are often stolen. But, no one gets mugged or jumped really. I usually meet friends through other friends. I also meet people at parties. People party all week, but parties are mellow until the weekend. 4/20 at porter field is a huge smoke-out. the first rain is also popular. Students run naked at the first rain. It starts at night during the first rain of teh year.

UCSC isn't big on groups/organizationd/clubs/teams frats are pretty lame and widely ridiculed by people everywhere, teams are getting more and more traction on campus but are still not too popular and the only real clubs or organizations tend to be small radical ones. The only group i'm involved with is a small unofficial drinking club. Yeah for the most people in the dorms leave their doors open and are very open to meetng new people. Athletic events are almost never attended by anyone. Guest speaks are always coming through and group of people go to see them a lot but i never have, theater eh, it kinda sucks. The dating scence is hit or miss, i mean i guess it all depends, i've heard people badmouth it and people say how great they were, i've always thought it was pretty good here, plenty of easy girls really. all my closest friends i got to know by going to parties, they drinking with them before parties and eventually just hanging out with them all the time. I'm hanging out with some friends, either drinking or watch a movie, or i'm at my apartment alone with my girlfriend and apartment mate watching tv and talking, sometime writing a paper or studying, depending on what time during the quarter is. 420 is a huge smoking event every year, everyone celebrate is it and of course the first rain run is a huge tradition where hundred of people run naked through campus on the first night of rain every year, there are drum circles in forests during full moon, a very pagan atmosphere really. Some people never party some do it every night. frats and sororities are non-existant almost. i drank with my friends went to a couple parties and such. umm, i don't know to much about not drinking on weekend, i've rarily done it, i guess you could go to the movies or something. I mean i know there's a lot to do if you don't drink i just don't know. Off campus, pretty much anything you would at any other college town on the beach, there's concert, lot's of concerts, the beach and stuff.