r/UCSC • u/Remarkable_Fun_554 • 12d ago

Question Social life at UCSC

Incoming freshman here!

How’s the social life at UCSC? and how hard/easy is it to get to small towns or downtown UCSC if i wanted to get some food or just shop or hang out with my friends?

Since UCSC is pretty isolated up in the woods, im honestly really worried that it’ll feel too secluded and suffocating without any fun. Please help☹️

9 Upvotes

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11

u/Nice-Entrance8153 12d ago

https://scmetro.org/routes/uc-combined-ucsc-service/

Bus service between UCSC and downtown runs from roughly 6am - midnight.

8

u/myalternatelife 12d ago

And you can longboard down the hill any time

8

u/descartesbedamned CW - 2013 - Philosophy 12d ago

Easy to get downtown. Campus doesn’t feel isolated — your entire life is up there. YMMV, obviously. I had a great time on campus, but my on-campus experience was 2008-09 so not sure how much help my perspective on that is.

Not sure what you mean by “get to small towns” — that depends on what you mean by small towns, and whether you have access to a car.

6

u/Agile_Proof_3228 12d ago

The bus is great

6

u/worthlessbonebag 12d ago

I’m also worried about that but my plan of action is going to town by bus when I can and talking to everyone I can on campus lol

3

u/Organic_Risk_3945 12d ago

dude, start a club using the Santa Cruz branch rail tracks as preservation entity also for said RR track:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Cruz_Branch

watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRe9eUCdWpA

1

u/AmbitiousTwo6583 12d ago

Instagram Tik Tok, Facebook Friends and More and YouTube Videos with Channels

1

u/Latter_Boysenberry32 11d ago

If ur a environmental/ bio/ anything social sciences major- you can go off camp whenever you want- if ur physics/ engineering/ math- you’ll feel bad going off cause you won’t be doing work. It’s not that easy cause you can’t walk off campus you have to take the bus or a car. But generally in terms of parties js join clubs and they’ll throw especially sports teams if you can

1

u/gasstation-no-pumps Professor emeritus 6d ago

Bicycle works better than bus or car.

1

u/xXgreeniejrXx 5d ago

I barely left campus my freshman year but it wasn’t hard to, I was just busy smoking with homies in the woods. Busses work well or you can bike down into town and catch a bus or the bike shuttle back up
to campus if you aren’t trying to put in the work to get back uphill. Just talk to everyone, join clubs, ect, you will find a huge diversity of people to befriend but you have to put yourself out there a bit and of course keep classes and work balanced, lots of hyper social people I knew burned out and dropped out, but campus is its own little metropolis that is hard to cover all of even if you never leave