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This post is part of a series about the colleges at UC Santa Cruz. For more information and a general overview of the college system at UCSC, see this post.

History

In 1968, Merrill College became UCSC’s fourth college. The name “Merrill” comes from Charles Merrill Jr, an educator and philanthropist who donated much of the money to make Merrill a reality.

Theme

Merrill’s theme is “Cultural Identities and Global Consciousness”. The core course involves readings detailing how people fight to preserve their culture as other powers spread through the world. Keep reading »

This post is part of a series about the colleges at UC Santa Cruz. For more information and a general overview of the college system at UCSC, see this post.

History

Crown College was founded in 1967. Unlike its predecessors, I don’t believe Crown wasn’t named after anybody in particular — the name Crown just sort of came along. The famous chemist Kenneth Thimann, who the Thimann labs at UCSC  are named after, was the first provost.

Theme

Crown’s theme and core course revolve around ethics with technology. What are the social implications of technology — how do we decide what is ethical and what is not?

Keep reading »

This post is part of a series about the colleges at UC Santa Cruz. For more information and a general overview of the college system at UCSC, see this post.

History

Founded in 1966, Stevenson was UCSC’s second college. Stevenson is named after Adlai Stevenson, a former Illinois governor who also ran against Dwight Eisenhower for president.

Theme

Stevenson’s theme is “Self and Society” — the theme revolves around how an individual can find him/herself and how he/she can later benefit society.

It’s definitely worth noting that Stevenson’s core course actually takes two quarters, but it fulfills more general education requirements than a normal core class. I did recommend not deciding a college based on its theme, but be aware that the core class can be very tiring.

Keep reading »

This post is part of a series about the colleges at UC Santa Cruz. For more information and a general overview of the college system at UCSC, see this post.

History

In 1965, Cowell College was founded as the first college at UCSC. The college is named after Henry Cowell, who owned much of the property that UCSC exists on currently. The Cowell family became wealthy by withdrawing the limestone from the hills and from raising cattle. Many areas around Santa Cruz are named after Cowell.

Theme

Cowell’s theme revolves around justice — what is it, and how does media define it?

Keep reading »

If you choose to attend UCSC, one of your first choices will be deciding which of the ten subcolleges you want to live in. This decision can definitely be pretty daunting and unclear, especially if you’ve never visited the campus. Many of the brochures that the school sends out don’t properly tell you what it’s like to live at a college, so I’ve taken some time to write a post about each college in hopes that you can make a more-informed decision.

The UCSC college system

UCSC is divided into ten subcolleges:

1. Cowell College
2. Stevenson College
3. Crown College
4. Merrill College
5. Porter College
6. Kresge College
7. Oakes College
8. College Eight
9. College Nine
10. College Ten

Essentially, your choice of college determines where you live for your first year or two of school. Your major won’t make a difference in what college you attend — all majors are allowed into all colleges. You’ll also be in classes with students from all colleges, so your academic life is not really affected by which college you choose.

Each college has its own unique architectural style, so if you don’t like the looks of one, chances are you’ll like the looks of another. Within a college, you have your own advisers and your own student events.

The impact of your choice

Because UCSC is such a large campus, your college is likely where you’ll spend most your free time and meet most of your friends, so it’s a good idea to make sure you make a good choice. Choose a college based on its location, reputation, aesthetic value, and simply overall appeal. You’re going to live here at least one year (if not longer), so choose a college that you actually like.

I strongly recommend taking a tour of the school — no amount of photos can really substitute for seeing a college in person.

The theme and “Core” class

Every college has its own “theme”, which revolves around an issue of sorts — “power in society”, “environment and society”, and so forth. First quarter of your freshman year, you’re required to take a writing class (called “Core”) that revolves around the theme of your college.

The school advertises these themes a lot, but beyond the first quarter of your freshman year, the theme really won’t make a difference. I don’t recommend even factoring the college’s theme into your decision at all really, since the other factors will probably make a much bigger difference.

Each college does have its own stereotype of sorts, and sometimes the stereotype ties in with the theme of the college, but not always. Keep reading »

So today marks March 15th, 2009. Today’s the day when the UC system (and other college systems) begin to inform applicants if they will be admitted or not.

Not all of the UCs will inform you on this date — some may have already informed you, others will inform after. But typically, you’ll start to receive notices now. I heard from UCSC, UCSD, and UCD all on March 15th.

Here’s a list of the UCs and a quick link that should let you check your application status. Chances are you’ve already received an e-mail telling you how to check. I recommend reading that. Keep reading »

Typically, most colleges divide their academic year into semesters, trimesters, or quarters. However, there are a few other ones out there. When explaining the difference between quarter and semester system and then what system the CSUs/UCs use, I mentioned that CSU Stanislaus uses a different academic system altogether, known as the “4-1-4″ system.

CSU Stanislaus isn’t the only school on this system — MIT actually uses the 4-1-4 system as well.

So what is the 4-1-4 system? Is it any good?

A year in the 4-1-4 system

In the 4-1-4 system, the year is again divided into three sessions. The first and the last session are pretty similar to a semester, though they only last 13 weeks instead of the usual 15.

The middle session, however, only lasts about a month, providing a distinct opportunity to travel abroad, dabble briefly in another subject, or work on a large project.

A typical student might take 4 courses in the first term, 1 course in the second, and another 4 in the third (thus the name “414″). Keep reading »

According to the LA Times, the UC regents are considering making the admission requirements less steep, mainly by requiring fewer tests and allowing more applications to be reviewed.

The controversy comes in the form of dropping standardized tests like the SAT and ACT — are such tests a good indicator of whether a student is qualified for college or not? Should their importance be lessened, strengthened, or left as it is?

Even if the general admission requirements lessen, that doesn’t mean it will become easier to be admitted. Many UCs, especially Berkeley and LA, are still very tough to get into as it is. All this will do is lessen the admission requirements, allowing more to apply. The number admitted would stay the same.

Personally, I think having more applicants is good, but not requiring several tests will only save students money and time. Avoiding a bad score will help a student’s chances, yes,  but in the end the best way to allow more kids to enter college is simply to have more resources devoted to education.