Why You Should Choose Uc Santa Cruz

by DT Rex in Education, February 5, 2010

Senior year of high school can be both very fun and very stressful. Choosing a four-year university can be the most challenging.

Senior year in high school is a very exciting time for teenagers. It is their final year of high school, and for many, their last year living at home for some time. But this can also be a very stressful time for students in regards to college. Choosing a college is the most difficult decision a high school student must make. It’s a confusing time for both students and parents. I am currently a college freshman and I can still remember the stress of selecting a university that was right for me. After taking several campus tours, I realized there are only three major criteria for selecting a university: major, cost, and location. The University of California – Santa Cruz may just be the perfect match for these criteria, and possibly for you.

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UCSC has over 60 different majors to choose from. The different fields of study include Art, Humanities, Physical and Biological Sciences, Social Sciences, and Engineering. If you don’t see a major you like, or are having a problem choosing just one, at UC Santa Cruz, you are given the opportunity to design your very own major! You will have to meet with an Academic Advisor before hand, mind you, but with this opportunity, undergraduates can virtually major in any field of study they’d like. UCSC, unlike many other colleges, is a research university. Because it is a research university, undergraduates have an advantage when applying for graduate school. UCSC is also set up in a very unique way. The campus is broken down into ten different colleges: Cowell, Stevenson, Crown, Merrill, Kresge, Porter, Oakes, College 8, College 9, and College 10. Think of it this way. The university as a whole is like the United States, where the ten individual colleges are separate states within the U.S. Each college has a slightly different focus in the freshman “core class,” a required class for entering frosh. In order to get a better understanding of each college, take some time to visit each college’s web page, or even schedule a campus tour.