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 1. I am @Gumbymom, one 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.
2025 Freshman (First year) profile 25th-75th percentile:
Capped weighted GPA: 3.83-4.20
Freshman Admit rate: 72.7%
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.
UCSC Campus tours: Tours
Best of luck to all applicants.