Welcome prospective Banana Slugs. It’s that time of year again as the UC application has now opened and submission starts October 1 through December 2. I am @Gumbymomone of the two UC Forum Champions/Moderators. My Co-Forum Champion is @lkg4answers and we are knowledgeable on the increasingly complicated UC admissions process and hopefully we can help any prospective UC applicants with their questions.
UC Santa Cruz like all the UC’s are test blind this admission cycle and will use 13 areas of criteria to review Freshman applicants. Each campus will weight the various areas of criteria differently so one size does not fit all. The UC application website has plenty of information that can help determine if UC Santa Cruz is a good option when applying. Below is some admit information specific to the school.
Freshman admission information:
Choice of major does not influence the selection of first-year students however, there are high demand majors with limited capacity for the College of Engineering, the Divisions of Social Sciences and the Division of Physical and Biological Sciences.
Freshmen who are interested in the College of Engineering programs should be sure to indicate a BSOE proposed major. Students who do not indicate a BSOE program or who apply as undeclared might not be able to pursue a BSOE program.
Selective majors include Computer Science (BA and BS).
UCSC has ten residential colleges (https://housing.ucsc.edu/publications/pdf/colleges-brochure.pdf ). Students do not need to select or rank the colleges on their UC application. If a student chooses to enroll at UCSC , they will be asked to select five colleges when they submit their intent to register.
Thanks. Sorry, I meant to get this line clarified.
Choice of major does not influence the selection of first-year students however, there are high demand majors with limited capacity for the College of Engineering, the Divisions of Social Sciences and the Division of Physical and Biological Sciences.
This seems to indicate some majors within Social sciences are high demand. So wanted to check if its known what they are. thanks
The high demand majors were not listed in the UC Counselor conference but based on applicant numbers, the High demand majors in the College of Social sciences are Economics and Psychology.
Below is the UCSC 2024 Decision Timeline. Last year, UC Berkeley was the first UC to post a small percentage of Early admits February 9, 2024.
For this year’s Fall 2025 Freshman class, UC Merced started admitting students December 18, 2024.
UCSC: Early admits February 29, 2024 around 12 pm PST. Regular Decisions on Friday March 15, 2024 around 12 noon. Also early admits were notified of Regents and Dean’s scholarships on March 15, 2024.
Did everyone’s kid receive the email today? S25 already had his portal set up so it was interesting to receive a reminder to set it up. Just curious. I know they will release some of their early decisions soon.
Did anyone get this email today? Save Time & Money! on Your College Journey
It goes through a bunch of services, financial aid, payment plans, and says at the end “Thank you for applying to UC Santa Cruz, and we hope to welcome you in the fall as a new Banana Slug!” I’m sure it’s wishful thinking but maybe it’s a sign?
I received a personalized postcard from the Humanities Division at UC Santa Cruz that said, “Join us this fall” and included a message like “As a UCSC student in the Humanities, you will…”. The postcard also had my name and address on it, and the back had a QR code to explore their majors and minors in Humanities. Does this kind of targeted outreach typically indicate strong interest, and should I interpret this as a sign that I’m likely admitted, or is it just a general recruitment effort?
on Your College Journey