Fall 2023 Frosh

We are so excited to welcome you to the Crown and UCSC Family. Your next four years will be filled with opportunities, fun, and, of course, some learning too. As your Crown College Advisors we will be working alongside you as part of your team on your journey to graduation. We are here and ready to answer any questions you may have, and to connect you with other resources on campus. We may not know every answer, but we are a great place to start and can direct you to the best resources for whatever you are facing. Feel free to read our bios and get to know us a little better–we look forward to getting to know you over the next few years.
Another member of your team are your Major Advisors located inside the Academic Departments across campus. You will work more with your major advisors when it gets closer to declaring your major and upper division coursework. Your major advisors are a huge asset but you will mostly be working with us in your first two years.
Finally, we want to introduce you to your Crown Peer Advisors. Our Peer Advisors are undergraduate students who are available as a resource to their peers for basic academic advising. They are trained to provide assistance through student-to-student interactions, and may also share personal experiences for further support. In the Fall, your Crown Peer Advisors are available everyday to assist with navigating your MyUCSC portal, guiding you through enrollment (adding, swapping, editing classes), finding and choosing GE and elective courses, helping you find the correct form, and providing other helpful tips, just to name a few. You will also find helpful advice from our Peer Advisors throughout this webpage.

Getting Started/Orientation

The Crown Element
Crown Activities

Crown Core Course

Crown CAFE
To continue your orientation to UCSC and Crown College during your fall quarter, the Crown Advisors will provide a canvas course during the Fall called Crown CAFE (Crown Advising for the Frosh Experience). More information on this will be provided during virtual advising week later this summer.
Selecting a major at UCSC

Undecided?
- Use the Getting Started Guides to see a list of all the UCSC majors and videos about each major—intrigued by a subject or major? Explore your level of interest by taking an introductory course!
- Read through the catalog page for any majors of interest and pay special attention to the upper division courses, as this is where the most interesting classes of the major will be found. Pay attention to what sparks your curiosity!
- UCSC groups majors into Advising Clusters–this can be a good way to connect with multiple majors at once.
- Use GEs to your advantage – explore majors by taking one of their courses for a GE credit
- Thinking about med school or grad school? Some grad schools do not care what you major in, but others have specific requirements. If you aren’t sure about yours, look into specific grad programs to see what they require.
- Any information is good information. If you take a class and didn’t enjoy it at all, you can probably cross that subject off your list.
Enrollment
Major Classes

Finding the Right General Education courses

Actually enrolling in classes
The Orientation Office has some great videos for enrolling in courses and will have their wonderful Orientation Leaders available for help when enrolling. Please reach out to them first, if they feel like the question would be better answered by us, they will refer you.
In future quarters, you will be enrolling on your own so we recommended meeting with Crown Advisors or Peer Advisors in advance to answer any questions you may have.

Academic Resources and Tips!
College is all about learning in collaboration. You will learn from faculty members and with faculty members. You will also learn from and with your peers, and campus as a whole. No one makes it through their college years alone, and you are not expected to figure everything out on your own. This is why advisors and other academic resources exist!
- Learning Support Services offers a variety of tutoring and group support services. Often tutoring is less about turning an F into a C, but turning a B+ into an A or actually grasping the subject matter to best serve you as you continue to build on what you learn.
- There are a variety of cultural resources centers, health services, and student involvement through the Division of Student Success.
- You can find support through so many areas at the university, including these listed on Admissions’ website.
- Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) is here to help you as you navigate any stressors, anxiety, or other mental health challenges you may face during your time here at UCSC. They can help you process something going on in your life that is impacting your school work, help you develop strategies for managing your stress and anxiety, or help you in understanding yourself and your needs better. All UCSC students get 5 free sessions per quarter!
Campus Involvement

- List of all UCSC registered clubs/organizations
- Engineering clubs/organizations
- Athletics, recreation and fitness
- Getting involved in research on campus
- You don’t have to be an art major to be involved in the arts
- And so much more! Trust us, if you are interested in something, there is likely a group to get involved with. If not, you can create your own!
We hope you found this information helpful! We are so looking forward to you joining us here at Crown and please reach out to us at any point (CrownAdvising@ucsc.edu, CrownPA@ucsc.edu).
