Founded in 1965, UC Santa Cruz is a public research university and one of 10 campuses in the University of California system. Located 75 miles south of San Francisco on 2,000 acres of redwood forestland overlooking the Pacific Ocean, UC Santa Cruz has a strong commitment to environmental sustainability. The campus is also known for its liberal arts education and interdisciplinary approach to research.
UC Santa Cruz’s academic programs are organized into five divisions: Arts and Humanities, Physical and Biological Sciences, Social Sciences, Jackson School of International Studies, and the Baskin School of Engineering. Within these divisions are 35 academic departments offering more than 80 undergraduate majors and nearly 60 graduate programs.
Some notable alumni and faculty of UC Santa Cruz include author Kurt Vonnegut, Nobel Prize-winning physicist George Smoot, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Mark Schoofs, Academy Award-winning filmmaker Jennifer Phang, former NASA astronaut Sally Ride, and Nobel Prize-winning economist Kenneth Arrow.