Santa Cruz

The alumni network at UC Santa Cruz include 145,000+ graduates worldwide. A few of the people who have studied at UCSC are-

• Andy Samberg- Comedian, Writer, Famous Actor (Brooklyn Nine-Nine)
• Maya Rudolph- Actress and Comedian
• Rebecca Romijn- Actress and Former Model
• Tom Franco- Actor
• Bell Hooks- Popular Author, Theorist
• Ezra Klein- Journalist and Political Commentator

Some of the top recruiters of UC Santa Cruz graduates, as per the details mentioned in First Destination Survey are-

• Amazon
• Google
• Apple
• Microsoft
• KPMG
• General Motors
• Tesla

The University of California, Santa Cruz ranking is #181 in 2026. Its ranking has improved massively from 2025 (#196). A few of the subject rankings are given below-

• Physical Sciences: #98
• Social Sciences: #126-150
• Education Studies: #151-175
• Computer Science: #176-200

UC Santa Cruz UG Dean's Award is a merit based scholarship. The students are considered automatically for this scholarship. The award amount is USD 12,000 - USD 100,000 paid evenly for 4 years. Holistic review is done for this scholarship, giving priority to the academic record. 

At UC Santa Cruz, 70+ UG majors are available. Whereas, at the PG level, around 66 courses are available. Study areas that are available are-

• Arts
• Social Sciences
• Humanities
• Sciences
• Engineering

Yes, MS in Applied Economics & Finance course of UC Santa Cruz is a STEM OPT course. This course is of 1-year duration. It is one of the top picked course among Indian students. The graduates of this course have gone into Tech giants like Apple, Google, Amazon, Twitter, Bloomberg, etc. For admission to this course, a Bachelor's degree is required. 

Yes, UC Santa Cruz is considered a public ivy university. Public Ivy universities are those public universities in the U.S. that are preceived to provide a college experience on the level of Ivy League universities. In 2025, this university ranked among the Top 15 Alt Ivies of 2025 by Town & Country. 

The University of California, Santa Cruz, is one of the most demanding universities when it comes to the minimum GPA requirements for admission. For international students, a GPA of 3.4 or above out of 4.0 is recommended for admission. Along with GPA, applicants must also focus on other admission requirements like meeting the English language requirements for UG and PG, and submission of mandatory documents like academic records, updated CV/resume, ACT / SAT / GMAT / GRE test scores (if required), as per the requirements of the programs.

UC Santa Cruz is known for offering the best academic programs for its international students in the USA. OSU offers 73 majors and 43 minors in the undergraduate programme and 66 postgraduate programs for its students. The UC Santa Cruz top programs are ranked by Shiksha Popularity Rankings that are as follows: