People make the housing situation at Santa Cruz far worse than it actually is. I’ve lived in Santa Cruz for over 10 years and currently attend UCSC, so I feel obliged to speak on this so if you think my opinions on Santa Cruz are useless, then I don’t even know what to say about yours. Santa Cruz housing definitely isn’t good, but it’s not much different than housing in Santa Barbara (where I lived before moving out). It’s expensive and limited, but that’s what you should expect going into some of the most popular, beautiful coastal cities in the world.
I don’t care to argue either, but it really annoys me when people who have been to Santa Cruz once or twice in their lives try to tell other people all about it when they have no idea what they are talking about. I know Santa Cruz like the back of my hand so when people are asking questions related to Santa Cruz and I see a concern they really shouldn’t be worried about or if they just have general questions about SC, I try to help and that’s what I tried to do here.
Once or twice to Santa Cruz? You must be talking to another member here. Surely, not me.
The real estate market in Santa Cruz is HOT. Actually it’s on fire. Houses are selling for anywhere between $200,000-$500,000 over list price. That’s going to drive the rental market as well.
I watch the real estate market fairly closely. My D21 and our family evaluated UCSC as a possible destination for college next year. She’ll be attending SLO.
According to Redfin, in March 2021, Santa Cruz home prices were up 30.7% compared to last year, selling for a median price of $1.2M.
Here’s an article about UCSC “facing an “urgent” area housing shortage, where UCSC officials issued a plea (article date 8/31/18) to professors and staffers to rent out rooms to students:
Here’s an April 2019 HUD “Comprehensive Housing Market Analysis that states in the executive summary:
[quote]”Rental Market: Extremely Tight. The current overall rental vacancy rate is estimated at 1.9 percent, down from 3.5 percent in 2010.”
“Forecast: During the next 3 years, demand is expected for an additional 570 rental units (Table 12). The 130 units currently under construction are expected to meet a portion of demand.” [/quote]
So the rental market isn’t going to get better in the near term. Those are the facts. And they’re indisputable. Housing is a “con,” when it comes to UCSC.
I’m aware of all of this. I’ve volunteered at food pantries for those who were victims of the CZU fires last years and luckily many of them have been on the road to a good recovery. Santa Cruz is an expensive place to live but just because it’s expensive doesn’t necessarily make it “hard to find housing” for those who can afford it. If your budget for housing is $500 a month, then obviously every popular city in California, including Santa Cruz, will be nearly impossible to find.
A majority of the people affected by the fires have moved into apartments months ago and plenty of friends at UCSC recently have had no trouble finding a reasonably priced place to live. Sorry if you’ve visited Santa Cruz more than twice, but I grew up there and know pretty much everything about it.
I have recent SCU CSE grad and another SCU CS Web design living with us during covid. Both got a great education and had their choice of internships then very high paying jobs after graduation. SCU housing is super nice, I don’t know how they keep them so clean, just like the campus. I think a strong math based CS program is important, rather than a CS “light” program if that is the direction he takes. Adding major/minor at SCU pretty simple, not sure that would be case at UCSC. We are also a private high school family, non catholic that sent boys/girls to Jesuit and Catholic high schools, but not into the religion stuff. As mentioned, the variety of the religion classes are interesting, think of it more like taking GEs or philosphy type classes - they are actually interesting and more about a well-rounded education than religion, so I think that part should be a non-issue. The Jesuit foundation there simply creates well rounded, purposeful, conscious minded people in general versus pushing religion.
We too didn’t want to battle some of the issues of the UC system like classes and housing, but UCSC seemed like a great campus atmosphere with wonderful high achieving students as well. Don’t know anything about Colgate, so can’t contribute there.
At least between the two California schools, you are dealing with very different environments, I would think one would be a better fit and offer more what you are looking for, have you narrowed it down to just one of those yet?
I saw $200K - $500K - and I thought - that’s not much - like where I live in TN.
That you slipped in the words “over list”.
How can anyone go to college in California, assuming they’re going to graduate and want to stay. You’d have to make $150K starting just to buy a starter home 5 years later!!! I feel sorry for young people.
I just watched a 3 bed/2 bath house list for $1,350,000. Selling price was $1,850,000. The Santa Cruz market is crazy right now. But on the flip side, you can find a great apartment for less in San Francisco now. Because of Covid, folks are moving to the beach to do their jobs remotely.
This was the release today regarding SCU and vaccines. So…not required…yet.
“ I write today to share that Santa Clara University will require graduate and undergraduate students to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 for fall 2021. The requirement will go into effect once at least one of the three currently available vaccines has received full approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or the start of fall term, whichever is later.”
Same situation here - two Sat, one Mon. Having Sunday to deliberate would take the pressure off, even just the idea of having Sunday would take the pressure off. I thought we were down to two, but really I think I’m down to two and he’s looking more at the third one. Need to have a call with a current student we know, to perhaps settle some inferences that have been made about social atmosphere. (hear me scream silently)
The more I think about it, the more annoyed I get with the deadline being on Saturday. Any communications with AOs would need to happen by Friday. Rick Clark on Twitter said something about this, that the colleges shouldn’t have deadlines on the weekend/holidays.
I really don’t think he has any anxiety about going to college next year, so I assume the problem is that he is worried about making the wrong choice. Also difficult with the WL situation looming large - it’s quite hard to put that out of mind. (Despite his doneness with religion, I think it’s become pretty clear now that Notre Dame is his first choice.) I’ve been talking to him this week about different great paths to choose from and not being worried about making a choice.
He’s had a difficult and demanding year with his school. The work flow has been boom and bust, mostly boom. The school just got shut down again and he’s back to remote. One of his teachers is kind of imploding with the AP exam coming up. She gave the whole class an F on two assignments and then laughed about it when they told her. I think he’s just focused on trying to finish strong right now in HS and has hard time looking up from that.
I appreciate everyone’s responses upthread. I think we have verified that this is not an easy choice. He’s not going to get the whole package but he will get something great.
. Worth a try.