Imagine going to school on a 2,000-acre ranch. It might be a lot like attending UC Santa Cruz, where the campus was once a timber ranch and limestone mine. Students take classes among redwood trees and socialize on the sprawling meadows overlooking Monterey Bay. The nearly 18,000 undergrads at this public research university live in a veritable nature bubble an hour and a half from San Francisco. Although the campus is huge, all UC Santa Cruz undergrads belong to one of 10 residential colleges, fostering a smaller community feel.
Sports don't play a major role in campus culture, although there are plenty of intramural and varsity teams, including one for inner-tube water polo. The school's unusual but beloved mascot is the Banana Slug. Greek life exists, but fraternities and sororities don't have campus houses. The very diverse student body has about 200 student organizations to choose from, among them Slugs for Solar and the Slugs Fund Investment Group.
Like much of the University of California system, UC Santa Cruz scores well in Money’s analysis for its relative affordability. Thanks to a combination of strong state scholarships and federal financial aid, the average price paid by most middle-class families is well under $20,000 a year.
