Rachel Carson Dorm Reviews at UC Santa Cruz

The dorms are extremely small. My freshman year, I was in a room meant for two people, however there were three of us living in it. This is extremely common at UCSC due to the lack of housing, so this is not a Rachel Carson specific issue. The furniture is decent and the room was pretty clean upon moving in. If you are placed in a triple room and have the choice of what bed you want (top bunk, bottom bunk, or loft), DO NOT CHOOSE LOFT! Unless you are a minimalist with very few clothes and personal items, the loft bed will not have adequate space for your belongings. There is a very small dresser under the bed (along with your desk), but you have no real closet and minimal living space. Additionally, if you are on the taller side, it has very little space for being at your desk and getting into your dresser, so being tall just makes it feel even more cramped and miserable. Aside from that, I believe that RCC is one of the better dorm choices at UCSC. It definitely isn't ideal, but the buildings are newer than most other residential areas. Additionally, I requested an all girls floor and UCSC housing could not accommodate this. On move in day I was very surprised to see that I was on a co-ed floor. I have yet to meet anyone at UCSC who was able to get a single gender floor.

I absolutely loved living at Rachel Carson during my freshman year of college and would wholeheartedly recommend living there to any incoming UC Santa Cruz student. Were we kind of far away from the rest of campus? Of course. Rachel Carson is on the outskirts of the west side of campus, but that's part of the reason why I loved it. Even though the university as a whole is generally pretty quiet (the stereotype of it being a party school is NOT accurate, let me tell you), there's something really relaxing about being further removed from the hubbub of central campus. Plus, the ocean views could even rival Cowell's. As for the dorm rooms themselves, most are triples, meaning that you would be rooming with two other students, unless you were able to snag one of the coveted quad rooms or a single. I don't recall there being any doubles in the building where I lived. My room in particular was most likely a double that the university converted into a triple (which my roommates and I complain/joke about to this day), so it was very small and cramped. Luckily, my roommates and I became close friends so this wasn't a huge issue. Most likely, your room will consist of three beds, two being bunk beds and one being a loft (the desk and "closet" will be under that person's bed), desks of course, and open closets (you couldn't pay for doors UCSC??). I've thought about this a lot and I would recommend that if you have the ability, go for the bottom bunk. The top bunk is a pain when making the bed and its really hard to get down from in the middle of the night if you need to go to the bathroom. The same goes for the loft bed, but also the closet is comparatively much smaller and you can't stand up under the loft, which makes going in and out to access the desk more difficult. As for the rest of the room, its really nothing out of the ordinary and probably even a bit dingier than most dorm rooms, but you can't really compete with those gorgeous views and wonderful ocean breezes, can you? As for the bathrooms, they are cleaned every day Monday through Friday, which means that they can get a bit grimy on the weekends, but nothing too bad. I lived on an all female floor, so our main problem was hair in the showers and kind of all over everywhere. Ultimately though I was very impressed with how clean the bathrooms were, especially since they were being used by a boatload of people. Speaking of hair in the shower, maintenance was always great about fixing the drains when they were clogged with hair (happened more frequently than you would think). In fact, maintenance on the whole was pretty superb. If something breaks or isn't working correctly, maintenance will arrive generally within 24 hours of placing a request. In fact, most of the staff at Rachel Carson College (and UCSC in general) goes above and beyond to help you when you need it. They are so caring and welcoming and really want the best for their students, which I really can't say for many places. I went to staff at RCC a plethora of times for different issues and even cried a few times in their office. The RAs are fantastic as well- I talked to mine ALL the time, she was amazing. And the common rooms!!! How could I forget? They're really nothing fancy (although I know that one or two had vending machines), just a few sturdy wooden tables and chairs for studying and a tv and couch that had seen better days. Its really the people that inhabit them that make all the difference, you know? My friends and I often had movies nights in that common room, and whether it was watching The Great British Baking Show, having chemistry study sessions, or making some new craft, I always had a lot of fun in that lobby with some of the most amazing people I had ever met. So give Rachel Carson College a try; I guarantee that you'll like it.