University of Santa Cruz (UCSC)
Locations: CA-Santa Cruz
Degrees: Bachelor's, Master's, Doctorates
Programs: Linguistics, Art, Global Economics, Film/Digital Media, Music, Network/Digital Technology, and many others (approx. 100 total)
Tuition Range: $13,416 - 22,878 per Year
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Located in the coastal town of Santa Cruz, California, the University of Santa Cruz (UCSC) hosts an annual enrollment of over 16,000 students and offers about 100 different undergraduate and graduate degree programs–including majors in Art, Economics, History, Philosophy and more. Included in the catalog are several media arts-related opportunities; students can earn both undergraduate and graduate degrees in Film and Digital Media, for example, while the Computer Science department offers a concentration in Game Design. Students can also prepare for careers in multimedia and communications design through the Network and Digital Technology major, and musical students can minor in Electronic Music (which includes audio production training).
Expect to spend about four years earning a bachelor’s degree from UCSC, and roughly three years for advanced degrees. As a public university, UCSC offers tuition discounts to California residents (roughly $13,000 per year); non-residents will pay nearly $23,000 per year for undergraduate programs, and around $16,000 a year for graduate studies.
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One Student Review
Located in the coastal town of Santa Cruz, California, the University of Santa Cruz (UCSC) hosts an annual enrollment of over 16,000 students and offers about 100 different undergraduate and graduate degree programs–including majors in Art, Economics, History, Philosophy and more. Included in the catalog are several media arts-related opportunities; students can earn both undergraduate [...]
Review by Jordan S.
August 10, 2012 1I graduated from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 2011 with a degree in film and digital media. I did this because I’ve worked on my own music projects, film projects, all degrees of digital media. I’ve worked on these projects for the past ten years, since I was a teenager. So I went to school. A big reason I did was because I wasn’t going to. I was just going to continue working on my projects, but my family wasn’t having that. So my mom and my dad were able to offer to pay for my college, if I would go. So I did, and here I am now. I live in my high school bedroom, at my mom’s house. I’m working my butt off, making all kinds of content.
And I would say that the level is higher, of quality, than before school, but a lot of that is just maturity and my own skills improving. I learned a lot in school, and I got to learn from some people who have been doing it longer and done bigger things, but in terms of any kind of certification of skills, I’m not as well off as someone that studied zombies. Usually at Santa Cruz, you can actually make your own major, and that guy that made a zombie major, at least he gets to write some textbook about the rules of zombies and stuff, in film, and hypothetical scenarios that he could be an expert on. I don’t have that. I’m just another dude that went to film school.
So yeah. If I had student debt, if I had had to pay for this myself, I would have never done it. I would have never, ever, ever done it, even though if I hadn’t gone to college, I would have never met the bass player in my band. But he’s from my hometown. Maybe I would have met him eventually, if I had never gone to school. You never know. So, yeah, it was fun. But in terms of what you pay for, it’s not even close to a sure thing. Even if you are talented and you are driven and you are unique, there’s still . . . it’s not like going to a trade school, and oftentimes they’re marketed as such, and that’s a real problem with these institutions. So that’s my two cents.
Found work after graduation? Yes