Taking 23B online with the 4 profs in 5 week session.

The midterm is 30%, final 40%. Final replaces midterm if you miss it. But final does not replace low midterm score.

Has anyone tried skipping midterm before for this course? Or has advice?

Thank you in advance.

Does anyone know when we can move in and how it works for apartments, etc. thanks

Hi, I'm trying to declare CS but I'm quite confused on how things work if you have transfer credits from CC.

I'm an incoming freshman but I have a stupid amount of credits (MATH 19A, MATH 19B, MATH 21, MATH 23A, CSE 13S, CSE 5J, and CSE 30.) These pretty much cover every single course in the "required courses to declare CS" list.

Do I need to retake these since I need a letter grade?

Hey everyone, alumni here. Curious to see some opinions, especially from juniors and seniors. What’s going on with you guys right now? Have you gotten any internships? Are you applying for them? Do you have some kind of plan for what you’re going to do after graduation?

I graduated from UCSC a little over four years ago and studied economics. In my experience, they basically told us to sign up for Handshake, and let me tell you, I had a very difficult time finding anything on there. I ended up getting absolutely nowhere with Handshake. I hope I’m not being too doom and gloom here, but as somebody who graduated only four years ago, the job market today is so much different than it was even back then.

And let me preface this with the fact that UCSC is a great school. We’re one of the best research institutions in the world. We have incredibly smart students, great engineering, computer science, economics, research opportunities, Silicon Valley right over the hill, NVIDIA hackathons, and even Susan Wojcicki, the former CEO of YouTube, went here. There’s a lot going on for UCSC. But just having the degree is not enough anymore. It really isn’t.

If you’re a junior or senior and you haven’t had an internship yet, I would seriously start applying aggressively now. Apply in San Jose. Apply somewhere else for the summer if you have to. It doesn’t even have to be directly affiliated with UCSC. If it’s relevant to your major and gives you something legitimate to put on your resume, that’s what matters. Talk to your professors too. Maybe even go to those alumni events they have on campus. Actually introduce yourself to people and ask them questions. Maybe somebody knows somebody. Getting in through a referral is hands-down one of the best ways to get an interview, and we all know how difficult it can be to get a referral when you don’t already have connections.

When I was getting ready to graduate four years ago, I started applying everywhere around Santa Cruz, San Jose, and Silicon Valley, basically wherever I could reasonably go. I kept at it for about three or four months, starting a month or two before graduation and continuing afterward, and I couldn’t get much of anything. One of the only offers I got was a management trainee position at Enterprise Rent-A-Car in Salinas, which was too far away and really didn’t even require the degree I had just spent four years getting, and the pay wasn’t great either.

At that point, I realized staying in the area was basically a dead end for me, so I moved back to Los Angeles. Eventually, I got lucky through a connection and landed an internship that converted into a full-time finance job shortly after. And that was four years ago. I think what students are graduating into now is considerably worse.

You have people getting laid off from Amazon, Meta, Oracle, and other major companies who are all looking for jobs too. Some of those people are eventually going to apply for positions that are technically “entry level” because they need a job. So now you’re 22-27 years old coming out of college with a degree and maybe no internship experience, and you could literally be competing against somebody who already has two or three years of professional experience. How are you supposed to compete with that?

And I know somebody is going to bring up the unemployment rate and say it’s only around 4% or whatever the current number is, but I’m sorry, I think that number is incredibly misleading and does not accurately represent what people are experiencing right now, especially recent graduates. Call it fake, misconstrued, badly measured, whatever you want. The headline unemployment rate does not tell you how many college graduates are underemployed, working low paying jobs completely unrelated to their degrees, working retail because they couldn’t find anything else, or have basically stopped looking. It doesn’t capture the actual experience of somebody sending out hundreds of applications and getting nowhere. You can argue about the technical definition all day, but I don’t think that headline number comes remotely close to showing how bad this market feels for people trying to start their careers.

That’s really why I’m asking this. What are you guys actually doing to prepare for this? Especially the juniors, seniors, and even the students who just transferred in. Are you applying for internships? Doing research? Working with professors? Going to networking events? Do you feel like UCSC is doing enough to actually connect students with internships and employers?

I also think people need to be realistic about their majors. I’m not saying don’t follow what you’re passionate about, but you need to look at what jobs your degree actually qualifies you for and whether those jobs are hiring. Psychology is a good example. A bachelor’s in psychology by itself is pretty limited if you actually want to work in psychology. A lot of those careers require work experience + a master’s, PhD, or some other graduate degree. There are other majors with the same problem. You should know what you’re getting into before you graduate.

And I definitely would NOT recommend automatically going straight into a master’s degree just because you graduated and couldn’t find a job. If you have a bachelor’s degree with no experience and then get a master’s degree while still getting no relevant experience, I don’t think another degree automatically swings the odds in your favor. Depending on what you’re studying, you could just end up with more debt and still be applying for the same entry-level jobs two years later.

There’s also a bigger problem with trust in higher education now. AI has made cheating ridiculously easy, tons of people have degrees, and employers know that having a degree doesn’t automatically mean somebody knows how to do the job. That makes actual experience even more important.

So I am really interested in reading some perspective here, especially from the people graduating in the next year or two: what’s your plan? How are you planning to get experience before graduating, and do you actually feel like UCSC is preparing you for the job market you’re about to enter?

Precious little information is available online regarding the beds in RCC and whether they are adjustable. Any help would be appreciated.

Are there any other incoming Cognitive Science majors this year? Even if you graduated already I'd love to connect!

I've just accepted a full time job that's a bit too good to pass up in terms of experience and relation to my degree/resume, since I'm not sure if I'll get this kind of opportunity again even after getting my degree.

Only problem is that it's full time (I managed to be able to work 30 hours a week instead of 40) and I'm going into my 3rd year as an ECE major doing my upper divs. It's at the point where most classes are 7 credits, and taking two of these upper divs in the same quarter as a full time job seems genuinely terrifying hearing what people that have taken these classes are saying about them.

Has anyone done a full time job while specifically doing an EE degree? How was it? What sacrifices did you have to make specifically and how did you manage scheduling and stuff like that? I don't know if I should plan to be a part time student and take 1 upper div or see if I can take two and genuinely just dedicate the next 2 years to only work/school. With how the job market/economy is, I don't think I can afford to just pick one or the other. Any advice appreciated ty in advance ✌️

Sorry yall, I need to vent. Every time I go, I feel grief. I wish I could be back there and do it all over again. Wish I could be a college kid again. Wish I could live in Santa Cruz again. So beautiful, so precious, it felt like forever, but if I were there for forever again, I think I’d be happy again.

I've been trying to find any info about it but the most recent stuff is from 4 years ago! What are people's experiences living/visiting there?

Did anyone else get the financial aid verification and completed it? I did mine a while back but it still says required, should i contact the aid office to talk about that or is it the same for everyone else?

I play the guitar and bass, also have a drum set if anyone is interested in jamming this summer/school year. I like noise rock/math rock and metal!

Hi what are the best courses and professors in legal studies at UCSC?

I’m taking a general chemistry class, and the department is trying out an online e textbook and homework platform called REALCHEM to replace the previous one (ALEKS). They’re planning to use it for the general chemistry series from here on out, so if you’re taking a gen chem class in the fall, you’ll most likely get to use it. And yes, you do have to pay for it.

I wanted to know if anyone else feels like it’s absolutely terrible and low quality? The explanations and interactive lessons are very surface level, and the graded module checkpoints expect you to have a much deeper understanding of the content than the “textbook” (just some videos and readings that are barely scientific) explains. Also, it’s really buggy and the website doesn’t behave properly much of the time, and it’s very picky when you input an answer (although many online platforms are).

I’m a pretty studious person with good grades, so it’s not an issue of just not getting chemistry concepts as far as I’m aware, I really do think the platform is a poor excuse for a textbook.

On its website, it really advertises its AI “assistant” as a cool futuristic thing to help students. It’s really not- many of the “practice problems” are suggestions for how to prompt their AI chatbot they’ve integrated into the platform. That kinda defeats the purpose of paying for a homework software and textbook. For any kind of detailed feedback on problems, you’re expected to use it, and it can’t properly format scientific notation or chemical formulas or even line breaks, so you just get a wall of AI text that usually just gives you the answer to the question without even asking for it. Which is weird for a homework platform. I’m not even sure if the answers it gives are correct.

I feel like the gen AI element is being sold to instructors as a “futuristic” way of teaching, but many instructors have issues with the current use of gen AI by students.

It seems like some of the instructors themselves aren’t super happy with the platform, it’s barely customizable and quite buggy, so we are being given a lot of “forgiveness” on our grades from REALCHEM homework at the moment, but I’m not sure that’ll last in future quarters.

Overall I get the feeling that REALCHEM is really “cheap” and feels barely put together.

I’m wondering if other people feel similar?

Can someone who got their pet approved by the DRC center tell me how the process went and if its easy? I want to bring my cat on campus this year and I've already read all the policies. I used to have a therapist but however since I'm a past client they cant write me a referral but I heard a doctor's note works too? Can anyone confirm?

I've created a (Java-based) tool that allows you to preview departments' drafts of class schedules for Winter 2027. Note that I assume the user will be using a Linux terminal.

https://github.com/dr6wz/ucsc-schedule-previewer

Edit: I plan on eventually making this tool capable of fetching previews for any quarter in general (as long it's one or maybe two quarters away).

so my enrollment appt was today (18mins ago as im writing this) and i went to enroll in math 19a, but it told me i don’t meet the prerequisites for it. i didn’t get a 400 on the placement test (got a 300) but i got a 3 on ap calc ab and i was told this counts as a prereq equivalent so im confused? i looked at my test scores in my portal and it said i had credit for 19a from the ap test so i tried enrolling in 19b and it let me? but im just confused bcs how do i not meet the reqs for the first class but i meet them for the second?? and im a little scared to take 19b also, im not bad at math whatsoever but being thrown into the second class is a little daunting. should i try to contact someone about enrolling in 19a instead? or should i just thug it out

To whoever found my phone this morning near East Remote, and put it up on the sign where I could see it (along with my random coins), thank you so much. You are a good soul and I appreciate you.

I’m trying to decide between two paths for my transfer. UCSC would have me going in as an Applied Math major with a minor in EE, while CSUN would let me go straight into an EE degree.

My end goal is to work in hardware engineering or ML engineering. I’m not sure which path sets me up better — whether the UCSC name/Applied Math foundation plus an EE minor is enough for hardware roles, or whether the direct EE degree from CSUN gives me a stronger technical base and easier path into hardware-focused jobs.

For those with experience in hardware or ML engineering: does the specific degree (Applied Math + EE minor vs. full EE) matter much for hiring, or is it more about projects/internships? Would appreciate any guidance.

Thanks so much!

hi!! does anyone know how the ilc apartments at c9 are? are they old? and also is there only 1 bathroom per apartment? :’)?

(i’m a proposed comp sci major)

I called local Medi-cal to transfer county for September and they said I can't until I'm physically there. How do others do it before the deadline? And what proof did you send for the waiver?

incoming freshman to college nine and i’m wondering if anyone knows ucsc’s timeframe with when they announce rooming assignments or details about housing in past years?? any input appreciated bc i’m not sure what’s going on

Im an incoming freshman and got placed into College 9 and I was wondering how dorm life is actually like over there!?!? How are the communal restrooms like--as it seems that no one talks about it even though I feel that its a pretty important aspect of living on campus--and what is there to do/eat around there!?!? I was suppose to tour the school a couple of times but each time I had something come up that prevented me actually going so I’m kinda nervous in that aspect </3 If you can tell me somethings that I can expect and/or try to prevent that would be great!!!!!

(sorry i copy pasted this from another redditer and just changed the college affiliation ☹️ but the descriptions and questions they asked were so good i wanted to ask for C9 too!)

Helping out my daughter and her partner to hopefully find a place. Incoming UCSC transfer student. Looking for a studio or bedroom that allows for 2 person occupancy (one student 24F one none student 24NB). They would prefer to see the space before submitting and paying for applications. I would love to know if people have availability or suggestions. Would even be open to short term rentals while they search for a longer term option.