Saturday, July 25, 2009

How good of a school is Santa Cruz


How good of a school is Santa Cruz?
I want to be a marine field biologist, and I've heard that UCSC has a good background in natural science. It also offers an exchange program to University of Queensland, Australia, another school I've been looking at. But I just want to know how good of a school Santa Cruz really is before I get my heart set on it... Any input? Also, if you can suggest some other good schools for marine biology, please do. Thanks in advance!
Higher Education (University +) - 2 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
"The College of the Atlantic is the best school for undergraduate marine science, bar none. Among the elites, Duke, Brown, Stanford, UNC, and Cornell have strong marine science programs. UCLA, UCSB, UCSD, Occidental, Stanford, Humboldt State, Oregon State, U Oregon, UW, Hawaii-Manoa, Alaska-Fairbanks, U Miami, Eckerd, U Maine, U Florida, URI, and the 5 College Consortium are other good options."
2 :
Some California friends of mine are deep into the college application process. They've made extensive use of a couple of thick books available at bookstores or through Amazon.com that describe colleges in detail, including rankings, strong programs, lifestyle, costs, etc. Using them, you'll be able to find out about all the schools that offer marine biology courses and majors. As you probably know, UC Santa Cruz is right near Monterey Bay, with its famous aquarium and marine wildlife preserve. Santa Cruz is a lively town, with ethnic restaurants, bookstores, and a famous surfing beach. The only bad thing I've ever seen there is their persistent "homeless" problem, with drifters and odd characters strumming guitars and panhandling on the main shopping street. You can read the Santa Cruz Sentinel [ http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ ] on line to get an idea of the place. Guidance departments are pretty well swamped with duties related to college and scholarship applications, so you and your folks will have to do almost all the research yourselves. It's a very time-consuming process. My friend says, "It's no wonder so many kids throw up their hands and just enroll at the nearest community college. They have no idea how to go about selecting the best colleges to apply to."
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