University of California - Santa Cruz Overview
Located in Santa Cruz, California, University of California - Santa Cruz is a public institution. Santa Cruz is a great location for students who prefer city over country life.
What Is University of California - Santa Cruz Known For?
- The student loan default rate at UC Santa Cruz is 3%, which is significantly lower than the national rate of 10.1%. That's great news for students who are worrying about paying off their student loans.
- The doctor's degree is the highest award offered at UC Santa Cruz.
- For the 2019-2020 academic year, 75% of the faculty were full-time.
- After graduation, UC Santa Cruz bachelor's degree recipients go on to jobs where they make $58,112 a year. That's about 42% more than their peers at other schools.
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University of California - Santa Cruz Rankings
These rankings may look different from those published by other outlets, because we use an outcomes-based approach rather than a subjective one. We get our data from a number of places, including the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and the College Scorecard. For more information, check out our rankings and methodology page.
Program Level Awards
These are highlights of some of the most noteworthy awards granted to specific programs at UC Santa Cruz.
Awards From Around the Web
The following table lists some notable awards UC Santa Cruz has earned from around the web.
Rank | Ranking Name | Source |
---|---|---|
#5 | Best Educational Assessment Schools | College Factual |
#6 | Best Teaching Schools | Teaching Degree Search |
#14 | Best Education Graduate Degree Schools | College Factual |
#22 | Best Legal Professions Schools | College Factual |
#72 | Best Psychology Schools | College Factual |
#137 | Best Business, Management & Marketing Schools | College Factual |
Where Is University of California - Santa Cruz?

Contact details for UC Santa Cruz are given below.
Contact Details | |
---|---|
Address: | 1156 High St, Santa Cruz, CA 95064-1011 |
Phone: | 831-459-0111 |
Website: | www.ucsc.edu/ |
Facebook: | http://www.facebook.com/ucsantacruz |
Twitter: | http://twitter.com/ucsc |
How Do I Get Into UC Santa Cruz?
You can apply to UC Santa Cruz online at: admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/apply-now.html
Admission Requirements for UC Santa Cruz
Submission | Required? |
---|---|
High School GPA | required |
High School Rank | neither required nor recommended |
High School Transcript | required |
College Prep Program | required |
Recommendations | neither required nor recommended |
SAT or ACT Scores | required |
TOEFL | required |
How Hard Is It To Get Into UC Santa Cruz?
Approximately 45% of accepted students are men and 55% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 65%, and the acceptance rate for women is 64%.
Average Test Scores
About 89% of students accepted to UC Santa Cruz submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 580 and 670. Math scores were between 580 and 690.
Can I Afford University of California - Santa Cruz?
The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.
Student Loan Debt
Almost 66% of college students who graduated with the class of 2018 took out student loans, but that percentage varies from school to school. At UC Santa Cruz, approximately 36% of students took out student loans averaging $6,332 a year. That adds up to $25,328 over four years for those students.
The student loan default rate at UC Santa Cruz is 2.9%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.
University of California - Santa Cruz Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are also 1,954 graduate students at the school.
Gender Diversity
Of the 16,521 full-time undergraduates at UC Santa Cruz, 53% are male and 47% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity
The racial-ethnic breakdown of University of California - Santa Cruz students is as follows.

Race/Ethnicity | Number of Grads |
---|---|
Asian | 3,842 |
Black or African American | 317 |
Hispanic or Latino | 4,518 |
White | 4,918 |
International Students | 1,275 |
Other Races/Ethnicities | 1,651 |
Geographic Diversity
California students aren't the only ones who study at University of California - Santa Cruz. At this time, 35 states are represented by the student population at the school.
Over 72 countries are represented at UC Santa Cruz. The most popular countries sending students to the school are China, India, and Taiwan.
Online Learning at University of California - Santa Cruz
The following chart shows how the online learning population at UC Santa Cruz has changed over the last few years.

Online Growth Rankings of UC Santa Cruz
The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at University of California - Santa Cruz was 141,233.3%. This is the #3 largest growth rate of all schools that are mostly online. This refers to all students at UC Santa Cruz regardless of major.
When we speak of partially online, we are referring to schools whose online population is less than 50% of its total student body. Mostly online refers to those with online populations greater than or equal to 50%.
University of California - Santa Cruz Undergraduate Concentrations
The table below shows the number of awards for each concentration.
References
*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.
- College Factual
- National Center for Education Statistics
- Image Credit: By Satyriconi under License
More about our data sources and methodologies.
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