Diana P

While the UC Santa Cruz campus is gorgeous, it's really spread out, and almost always quite cold. I would love it for a visit to hike, but as a place where I had to get things done and accomplish tasks, it got frustrating. I went there as an undergraduate, and spent a lot of the day "commuting" (walking between to and from classes). From my on-campus apartment to the area of campus where most of my classes were took about half an hour to walk. I walked for a total of about 6 miles per day. While this is great for health, the beauty of the campus was lost to me as I tread through hills and forest because of the cold, heavy books, lab supplies, water, and snacks. During these times, I only felt resentment. Also, funding may be different from graduate students, but when I was there as an undergrad(about two years ago) on-campus rent for a triple (that's 3 people sharing one bedroom) was $800 a month. I think the price for a single was $1200-$1400/month. Just some things to keep in mind . . .