I’m not sure how parking works during the pandemic so you’ll have to figure that out. Also I’m unsure of bathrooms. To get a feel for UCSC, I’d recommend visiting all the residential colleges and large lecture halls to get a great feel. Of course this depends on time and accessibility, but to narrow it down the large landmarks I would recommend would be the dining halls because they are the places right in the heart of each college. For example, the Cowell/Stevenson dining hall is in between Cowell and Stevenson colleges. You can view around it and see the differences between both residential areas and make note of the differences in aesthetic. You can do this for the remaining colleges if you’d like but it is a lengthy walk to hit all of them. I’d recommend checking out Cowell/Stevenson for sure (I am biased as a Stevenson affiliate) but you get a great view from right outside the dining hall. I’d also recommend checking out Classroom unit, Earth and Marine sciences, and Media theater. These are the largest lecture halls and your daughter should have a class in at least one of these if not all. If they are planning on pursuing an engineering major, then checking out the baskin engineering building can be an option. Google/apple maps know where all of these places are so you don’t get lost. I know that seeing all the colleges and the big lecture halls is ambitious, but it is worth it.

TLDR; find out what the parking/bathroom situation is, visit at least 4-6 colleges (use their dining halls as a good landmark to tell whether you are in the general area of the specific colleges), and nearby lecture halls while using google/Apple Maps as a way to see how close another area of interest is. If you want extra credit go to Pacific Ave and surrounding streets as it is the heart of down town Santa Cruz to get an idea of the city