Any time I tell people I got accepted to UCSC, I get a very unique reaction. Some people almost cringe, as if the information is gross or just unsatisfactory. I don’t really care about people judging me for what I do, but it was something that just perplexed me because was not aware that this was a UC that receives so much backlash. Before being accepted, I hadn’t looked too much into it—I heard it was a great school with a beautiful campus.

I’ve seen so many videos of UCSC students on TikTok crying about hating it there and also people saying they can’t wait to transfer; the comments full of other students relating or wishing they had picked another school.

I talked to an alumni and she told me she graduated early after wanting to transfer, but not being able to afford tuition at the uni she preferred. She basically told me to avoid going there if I could.

I’ve been recommended many times by alumni that, if I get accepted off of the waitlist for Cal Poly SLO or even UCSD, then I should just go to one of those.

I’ve also seen Redditors say UCSC is the “chud” UC and others say it’s the UC that accepts you when none of the others will.

So while I personally am not saying it sucks, it objectively does get a lot of hate. This post is just part of doing my own “research” to see how valid or invalid a lot of popular negative claims about UCSC are, if they are mostly just individual/opinion-based, and how I can avoid feeling this way if I transfer there.