<p>A couple of other departments that UCSC is well-known for: Computer Science/Computer Engineering, especially with regards to bioinformatics. Linguistics is also a good department. I don’t know if any of these are of interest to you. There is also a good spirit of cross-department collaboration at UCSC. Does astrobiology interest you at all? They are big on that too. And they have their own aquarium!! And really cool marine research!</p>
<p>UCSC is one of the most beautiful campuses in America, but it is a bit spread out. There is definitely a liberal culture, but also a lot of bright and motivated students. That might be something to consider. The California CCs have bright students too (and I have known plenty that started out there and then transfered to UCSC), as well as good teachers at the CCs (I have several friends who not only teach at CCs but do really interesting research in collaboration with professors at universities), but as far as students go, the CCs are more of a mixed bag in terms of ability and than the universities. Would who your peers make a difference to you? [I just noticed madbean has already addressed this issue. Great minds think alike!]</p>