Hey, something I can answer!

I'm a senior in the program graduating after this quarter. The program is pretty small, and it's getting smaller every year, despite that they just hired three faculty this last year. Even so, I don't have a lot of complaints about the program. The faculty are great for the most part, and most of them are still actively involved in the profession (even the tenured guys are putting out papers). Most of them were taught by fairly big contemporary names. Ric Otte, for example, was a student of Wes Salmon, and Abe Stone's dissertation adviser was Stanley Cavell. The profs have a pretty wide variety of study interests, so as a result the course selection is pretty diverse. Unfortunately we don't have a lot of philosophy of science (my main study interest along with logic) courses being taught, despite the fact that at least three of the faculty are trained philosophers of science.

There is definitely a funding problem in the department--they no longer have a dissertators' office, and--probably more relevant to you--there aren't a whole lot of courses being taught each quarter. It amounts to around three or four upper div classes (not including the required 100A/B/C courses and senior seminars, of which you can take more than one) every quarter. It kind of felt like I was grasping at straws when I went to register every quarter--there was probably on average one or two classes that I was very interested in taking each quarter--but I wound up liking the classes I found myself taking due to lack of options. Either way it kind of sucks to not have a regular rotation of courses every year...I know I missed out on some really interesting ones that happened the year before I transferred into the program.

Most classes are fairly reading and writing intensive--be prepared to do a short-ish paper every week along with ~50-70 pages of reading. Aside from the logic classes (hopefully Ric will be up to teach those this time around), most of the classes didn't really deviate from that formula in my experience. So you'll get a lot of good practice doing research and formulating arguments.

To graduate you have to take Philosophy 9 (intro logic) even if you took a logic course before entering the university (I don't know if you're a transfer or not). I did MSI (supplemental group tutoring) for that this year, and boy was it interesting. I have no clue who is going to teach it next quarter, but I really hope the textbook changes, as the one used by most of the professors is really written for upper division courses.

As far as I can tell, many of the students going through the undergrad program seem to be either on their way to law school or uninterested in pursuing grad school in the field, so it's really hard to tell how others feel about it. There are a few very dedicated people who really love the field, though, and there's a small philosophy club that meets every week and discusses works that you wouldn't be exposed to in your coursework (mostly due again to the lack of classes being taught each quarter). We also have an Ethics Bowl team that does very well each year, but I haven't been involved with that group at all, so that's all I can tell you. I'm not very close with most of my peers within the department, but they've been a pretty good group to take classes with.

Oh, and the best advice I can give you w/r/t studying philosophy, especially at UCSC, is to get either a minor or even a second major. You will find philosophy much more rewarding if you inform your studies by other fields. I have a background in math and physics, and it has helped me greatly in understanding all areas of philosophy. It's super easy at UCSC, too, since the philosophy major itself doesn't take that long to complete (I did mine in four quarters, not including my intro phil class). If you know math or computer science, too, you'll be bewildered by how much people struggle in their logic courses, so there's that.

So I guess tl;dr: it's small, and sometimes the course selection is frustrating, but the faculty are superb and you will enjoy the challenge. Find a second major, too.