University of California-Santa Cruz Reviews

"UC Santa Cruz offers a wide range of courses, approachable faculty, and unforgettable experiences."

"As an Economics major, I had many large classes and felt it was difficult to get to know the professors. I had a couple excellent professors whom I really respected for both their enthusiasm for the course as well as their challenging tests. The campus does make an effort to help students in their classes through Sections and MSI tutoring. These were very helpful resources. I chose to following the Accounting emphasis program at UCSC because the Big Firms recruited very heavily from the campus. Through this decision, I was able to secure an internship and eventually a job with one of the Big Four accounting firms."

"UCSC provides an ideal climate for me to develop as a culturally responsive teacher. It is this university’s focus on developing agents of change that distinguishes UCSC’s education program from that of other institutions. It’s program embraces sociocultural perspectives on schools, society, and research in order to emphasize the centrality of language, community, and social contexts of teaching and learning. In addition to it's academics, UCSC is a wonderful school due to its natural beauty. Located in the middle of a red wood forest, UCSC provides a unique learning environment that both fascinates and inspires it's students. The MA/credential program itself is fast-pace and competitive. It is a one year program that goes from July until July. 14 units are taken in the first summer, 16 hours of field work per week are to be completed during fall and winter quarter. By spring quarter, graduate students work full time at their placement schools (30 hours a week). The program concludes with 14 units during the final summer session. There are only 82 graduate students entered into the program each year, which makes for intimate cohorts. My experience at UCSC has been mostly positive, with the exception of how expensive it is. $25,000 for just the tuition."

"Quality education with numerous funding opportunities all located within minutes of the beach and redwoods. I could not have chosen a better graduate program for my needs."

"Santa Cruz is an expensive but great place to live. It can be hard to afford, but I think that's pretty normal for grad students. Our department is small so you get a lot of personal attention and we really are interdisciplinary, so if you just want to focus all your time on a narrow range of issues, it probably isn't for you. If you want to engage with all kinds of scholars asking a range of questions about a range of environmental problems using a variety of methods, this is a great place to be."

"This program is ideal for someone wanting to enter quickly into a career in education. It's focus on social justice fosters culturally sensitive educators. It is costly and finding a job after graduation can be difficult in the area where so many gradautes of the program choose to stay."

"Pros: Good academic environment, great social setting for graduate students, close proximity to other institutions and resources in the San Francisco Bay Area. Cons: Expensive place to live, campus is spread out, research money is always a problem, most stipend funding is based on TA-ships and takes a lot of time out of research."

"Overall organization of the TA duties is poor. The effort is there but not the spirit. Treating everyone like drones and giving lots of face time isn't help it is placating. Also for some courses luckily not mine there is no failing grade! Being required to pass students who didn't try with those that barely made it seems quite poor leadership on the part of faculty but it is ubiquitous here. Also the faculty advising is useless. Until you have an adviser you are on your own. You don't have a faculty advocate really at all. That being said the faculty have their own style and they are strong in their own area's. I love my boss no nonsense work work work kind of guy. But some are hands off and less guidance which can let others loose their way. The course work is good, the instruction is good. The programs very a lot though. Organic Chem has a much steeper hill to climb than PChem and BioChem. I don't know why that is. But they have extra tests and more classes to take. Which certainly was not made clear to me and luckily I am not in that part of the program. But it is something to keep in mind."

"I love my faculty -- I find them supportive and engaging and we have stimulating discussions. Funding has been a challenge, and at this point I'm discouraged about finding funding to support my research"

"Santa Cruz is an excellent location for grad school - enough entertainment, 1.5hrs from a major city, the ocean and beautiful surroundings. However, standard of living is pretty high, which makes it a bit difficult to fit a TA stipend. Faculty are for the most part excellent, with a few faculty that are not so good. It's a very supportive (advising) atmosphere, but there is limited funding available to students, so we have to TA. I am at my 5th year and have TA'd since year 1, with a fellowship for 1 quarter, where I was gone doing fieldwork and I got a GSR (Graduate Student Research grant) 1 quarter to do work for my advisor. There are not many fellowships from UC Santa Cruz that just pay your tuition and give you a stipend, freeing up your time to do your research. It is not so competitive here."

"Pros: The campus and city is amazingly beautiful with ample opportunities for hiking, mountain biking, surfing and other outdoor activities. And SF is only about an hour away! Overall, the instruction has been very good (with the exception of a few duds). Cons: We've lost a lot of faculty members over the past few years which has significantly reduced the quantity and quality of faculty accessibility and support. And: funding (oh, funding!). The combination of budget cuts and an effort to expand the graduate program has meant less funding for the average student (and for some individuals, none at all). Funding is also awarded on a yearly basis, so just because you start with funding doesn't mean you'll keep it for your entire tenure. In fact, older cohorts have lower priority for funding. For instance, none of our 5th year students received funding this year (which, imo, is a pretty shady thing for the dept to do to students in their last year)."

"Some things are really good, others are really bad. The good: the academics are top notch (graduate level...undergraduate level is severely lacking), the faculty are great at what they do, the other grad students are wonderful and supportive, and the surrounding area is beautiful with lots to do if you love the outdoors. The bad: it is extremely expensive to live here, and we (Ecology) are the lowest funded of the grad programs at UCSC, and the lowest funded Ecology program of all the UCs. Finances are a constant source of stress, and supplementing what the department / financial aid gives you for your 60+ hours of work each week with your own income (i.e., getting an additional job) delays graduation...which makes the faculty (read: your funders) unhappy. VERY STRESSFUL unless you come in with an outside source of funding. This program is also more concerned with recruiting new grad students and pumping out a LOT of PhDs than they are with making sure the ones they have are (1) well supported financially and therefore able to stay on track for graduating in normative time or (2) are successful after graduating (can find jobs). There are many more PhDs out there than there are jobs for them, so I do not understand this approach to operating a graduate program. Overall I do not regret this particular program as I think many of the "bads" I've described are somewhat universal across graduate programs in Ecology, but I may have made different decisions 7 years ago had I known what I do now."

"For a largely analytic department, the faculty is extremely open to alternative approaches as well as to interdisciplinary engagements."

"The campus is located in a beautiful location which is close to the Silicon Valley, making it easy to establish connections with high-tech companies. With the average quality of the program, however, it is quite challenging to find a good position out there after graduation."

"It is a rather small school, and despite strong academic programs, lacks visibility."

"You need to get lucky with too much... Professors are great though!!"

"Overall I appreciate my program but I received the most out of my experience by creating connections in other departments and with other graduate students outside the department. There is a lack of a centralized area where all students can come together so it gives off a disjointed vibe."

"UC Santa Cruz has an excellent natural environment. The campus is embedded in a redwood forest. The Astronomy and Physics departments are excellent. Living standard is a little high and the rent could be really expensive. Hence it's not a very affordable school. It also seems to be stronger at the sciences than the humanities."

"UCSC has some great programs. But, has, recently fallen victim to the UC system and its budget problems. UCSC is only get 67 cents on the dollar for every dollar paid in tuition by a UCSC student, whereas UC-Berkeley is getting more than a dollar for every dollar for paid tuition by one of its students (meaning UCSC money is going there). We are feeling this bias, and have, unfortunately, lost a lot of great professors in the past few years, making its academic standing and overall education that it offers decrease."