UCSC has the smallest student body of all the UC campuses and is the second youngest along with UC Irvine, which opened at about the same time as UCSC. (As of 2005, UC Merced is slated to open in the fall of 2005 and has already begun accepting students.) Majors and graduate degrees are offered in a broad range of academic fields.

The undergraduate program is organized around a residential college system similar to Oxford and Cambridge. The ten colleges—Cowell College, Stevenson College, Crown College, Merrill College, Porter College, Kresge College, Oakes College, College Eight, College Nine, and College Ten—provide services such as housing, academic assistance, activities and a selection of college-related coursework. Each college has a distinct architectural style and student housing, along with at least one resident faculty provost. Each provides a mandatory "core course" for incoming freshmen centering on a central topic, or "theme," that is unique to each college. College sizes vary, but roughly a third of students live on campus within their college community. Upon enrollment, students select five colleges they want to join in order of preference and are assigned to a college based on a lottery system. Most students get into their first college choice, and nearly all are assigned to at least their second or third choice. Students choose their colleges based on a variety of factors, such as the college's physical setting, perceived social atmosphere and core course. Coursework, academic majors and general areas of study are not limited by college membership, though colleges "host" the offices of various departments and faculty.

Until recently, most classes did not assign letter grades, using written evaluations instead. Letter grades are now given, as at other UC campuses, but in many courses grades are still supplemented with evaluations. Students may still take some of their courses on a pass-no pass basis, but each academic program has different policies regarding how this may be done, and a few majors do not permit pass-no pass grading.

As of 2004, UCSC's faculty includes two members of the Institute of Medicine, twenty members of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, eleven members of the National Academy of Sciences, and one MacArthur Fellow. The University spent $54 million on research for the 2002-2003 academic year, and holds claim to 79 active inventions and 18 patents (2002). The young Baskin School of Engineering, UCSC's first professional school, and the Center for Biomolecular Science and Engineering are garnering recognition, as has the work UCSC researchers have done on the Human Genome Project. UCSC's most prestigious science departments are in Astronomy/Astrophysics and Ocean Sciences, as UCSC administers Lick and Keck Observatories as well as the Long Marine Laboratory. Furthermore, according to a 2003 Thomson Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) report, UCSC ranked 1st in the nation for academic research impact in the field of space sciences. UCSC also ranked first in the nation for its academic research on physics and second in the world for most influential research institution in the physical sciences, according to two 2001 ISI reports.

Some 80% of UCSC undergraduates are accepted into the graduate or professional school of their choice, and the percentage that go on to earn doctorate degrees is among the highest in the nation.

In September 2003, the NASA Ames Research Center took a bold step towards increasing the science output, safety, and effectiveness of NASA's missions through the infusion of new technologies and scientific techniques. A ten-year task order contract valued at more than $330 million was awarded to the University of California to establish and operate a University Affiliated Research System (UARC) [1] . UCSC manages the UARC for the University of California.