<p>If you don’t mind me asking, where do you live? Going from the bay area to UCSC would still be a definite change, especially if you live in a major city, Similarly, if you live somewhere to the east, it could also be significant change for other reasons. If you live in Monterey or something, its true that it is a bit less of a change. Even that would be a lot different though. Santa Cruz really has its own unique vibe that is hard to come by elsewhere. The closest I’ve seen is in North Hampton Massachuesetts, but they don’t have the whole surfer culture, so its still way different. I can’t actually think of anywhere that is quite like Santa Cruz.</p>
<p>If you’re concerned about having more contact with your family than you would like, remember that that is partly within your control. 45 minutes is still a significant drive, and you can always say that you have way too much homework to have time to make it that often. </p>
<p>I have never been to Riverside, but I have grown up in Santa Cruz (well technically in a little town near it, where there is very little to do without going to Santa Cruz), and it is a wonderful place to live. My current goal in life is to be a professor at UCSC (or maybe Stanford, if I end up being really succesful) so that I can live here. We have the ocean, beautiful forests, the boardwalk, political activism, and independent thinking all in a warm, relaxed atmosphere. I went to COSMOS at UCSC last summer, and it was great. The campus is absoloutley gourgeous, and the professors that taught our classes were extremley approachable and friendly. It even has fairly strong academic programs in Marine Biology, Theater, and Astronomy (and probably other subjects that I know less about). </p>
<p>I confess that I am probabky not even applying to UCSC for the same reason that you aren’t sure you want to go there, but that’s because I essentially live in Santa Cruz, so it would not be a change at all, and there would probably be people there from my high school, which is a definite negative (then again, there might not be - those people probably won’t even go to college). Even so, if I ended up in a situation where I had to choose between UCSC and UCR it would be no contest in my mind. I would choose UCSC in a heartbeat. I’m probably in an entirely different situation than you, so that doesn’t mean that it should be an easy choice for you, but, as irrelevant as my opinion really is, I would suggest UCSC.</p>
<p>Sorry that was so long, I just thought I’d get all of my thoughts out there.</p>