Make It Your Own

Introduction
I would say that if you are really interested in a laid back academic environment, this is the school for you. From what I've seen, there is not a lot of competition--if you want to do well in class, you're competing with yourself, not your peers. Santa Cruz has a beautiful campus, but there is a lot of walking, so if you don't want to deal with rain or hiking hills to get to class sometimes, stay away.
I chose UCSC because they had all of the majors I was interested in exploring, they had a radio and tv station, education abroad programs, and a gorgeous campus with friendly people. This is still true, and I'm glad I'm here.

However, if you can't be around tons of social demonstration (UCSC's Students Against War was recently listed as a 'credible threat' by the government) or ultra-liberal viewpoints, this may not be the school for you.

Campus Life and Social Life
Social life in Santa Cruz is really what you make it. There are always a lot of activities on campus, whether it's stand-up comedy for free in the Barn, or free cultural events with dancing and food, you can always find something to do. However, the campus does have CSO's (Campus Security Officers) who will break up any illegal or loud partying, so the best bet is to either party small or off-campus. Santa Cruz does not stress school spirit by way of athletics, although we do have good tennis, soccer, and swim teams. There are tons of clubs on campus, although finding them can be hard.
There is a prevalent drug culture in Santa Cruz, but not everyone buys into that. However, most people are okay with other people smoking even if they don't.

In Santa Cruz you really have to be your own activities director. It's easy to plan trips with friends to San Francisco or Monterey (both nearby) and there are mountains to hike and a beach and boardwalk to visit if (and when) you get bored with shopping downtown. Overall, the campus is pretty quiet, but the people are friendly--if you try, they'll try. Advertisement
Academics
As a student in the History department, I have been pleased with the quality of the teaching and the devotion of the professors. However, in lower division classes of any subject you do run the risk of getting TAs or Professors who have no interest in teaching their students, so be sure to use sites like ratemyprofessor.com or the campus livejournal community to ask about classes before enrolling.
The workload varies--some classes have two books a week or more while others have just a few pages and some homework problems; it all depends on the professor. A nice thing about Santa Cruz is that you get narrative evaluations along with your grades, so if you got a B in a class but you tried really hard, your evaluation will reflect that.
The only problem of late is enrollment--as the campus populations grows, class sizes increase as does demand. Enrolling in required classes can sometimes be a pain, but 'crashing' and auditing are allowed.

Student Body
Students at UCSC are often Californians. They range from politically apathetic to politically voracious and are into everything from ceramics to surfing to publishing. They probably have an opinion on John Basedow and the word 'hella.' Aside from that, a UCSC student is hard to categorize.

In Closing...
Santa Cruz is a great school; like most campuses it may not be as open-minded as it thinks it is, but it certainly tries.