Join Us for Transfer Day!
At UC Santa Cruz, we love our transfer students! Transfer Day 2026 – our biggest on-campus event for admitted transfer students and their families – will take place on May 9, 2026. Come celebrate with us on our beautiful campus!
Transfer Day
Saturday, May 9, 2026
9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Pacific Time
Admitted transfer students, join us for a special preview day designed just for you! This will be a chance for you and your family to celebrate your admission, tour our beautiful campus, and connect with our extraordinary community. Events will include campus tours led by a S.L.U.G. (Student Life and University Guide), next steps presentations, information on Orientation, Financial Aid, Housing, and Career Success, and majors and resources tables. Come experience Banana Slug life – we can’t wait to meet you!
Deals & Discounts - More Coming Soon!
20% discount off one apparel or gift item! The Bay Tree Campus Store is temporarily located in the Granary Building at the base of campus, and will be open on Transfer Day.
Free admission for admitted students (additional visitors pay regular admission). Seymour Marine Discovery Center – Come learn about the cutting-edge ocean research happening at our Coastal Science Campus. The Seymour Center offers pathways into ocean science through internships, volunteer opportunities, and other experiential learning programs.
Enjoy 15% off one Slug Shop item of your choice! Stop by 1520 Pacific Avenue in Downtown Santa Cruz, or enter the coupon code “2026SLUGS" at checkout when purchasing any UCSC branded item that is currently in-stock online.
Downtown businesses love Banana Slugs! Local retailers, eateries, and service providers offer student specials year-round.
Special group rate of $229 per night! Available Thursday, May 7 through Monday, May 11. Please book by Friday, May 1.
Special rate of $249 plus applicable taxes! Complimentary hot breakfast each morning, and parking fees waived for your stay.
Special group rate of $265++ per room for 2 nights minimum. Breakfast buffet is included with rate. Available May 8 to May 11.
Special group rate of $280 per room. Covers Friday, May 8 through Sunday, May 10. Must book by Wednesday, April 15.
Special rate of $157.64-$173.92 per night! To Reserve your Special Rate room, please email ogutierrez@engagehospitality.com or call (831) 426-2664 (M-TH only). Available Friday, May 8 and Saturday, May 9.
Dream Inn is the exclusive beachfront hotel in Santa Cruz. Every guestroom features a breathtaking ocean view and private balcony. Special group rate of $419 available May 8-10 with complimentary parking.
Tours: Choose Your Own Adventure!
Join us for a campus tour, or for a more specialized tour of our academic or student life facilities. Get to know the environment where you may be spending your time for the next few years. Explore the residential colleges, dining halls, classrooms, libraries, and favorite student hangout spots, all in our lovely campus between the sea and the trees! Can’t wait? Take a virtual tour now!
Mock Lectures
Location TBD
History Professor Elaine Sullivan and Literature Professor Renee Fox faculty lecture. Why are mummies such popular fodder for contemporary stories, movies, comic books, and other media? Together, an Egyptologist and a Victorian literature expert explore aspects of ancient Egypt that exploded into the popular Western imagination in the 19th and early 20th centuries and discuss how this Victorian Egyptomania still reverberates today. The lecture will move back and forth in time and back and forth in discipline to uncover how and why the ancient past can become integral to contemporary identity, society, and aesthetics. Along the way, it might even help you learn how to escape a mummy’s curse.
Location TBD
Who Gets to Be an American?: A Case for an Enslaved Founding Father
During the Revolutionary War, David George led one of the great mass escapes in slavery’s history, from a plantation called Silver Bluff, on the Savannah River, in the South Carolina backcountry. This talk will tell David George’s incredible story and reflect on two key questions: What does it mean to leave a legacy in a society one departs from? And what counts as a democratic institution in a society that limits democratic participation? As white men in the United States built political institutions and barred Black people (and women and other minorities) from them, Black churches became sites of refuge from slavery and eventually for organizing for voting and other civil rights (through church leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr.). David George helped create the model for these churches during the American Revolution. If the founding fathers were those who built America’s democratic institutions during the Revolution, was David George one of them?
Location TBD
Hedonism and the Good Life - What does it take for a person's life to go well for that person? Are some types of pleasure better than others, and how can we tell? Is being happy the only thing that matters for living a good life, or are there other important values? We explore answers to these questions in this lecture from PHIL 22: Introduction to Ethical Theory.
Learning Support Services
Peer tutoring services are available and free of charge on our campus. Learn more about how to connect and participate in a community of learning where your success matters. Catch up, keep up, and excel with support.
Orientation Session
Get into the Banana Slug spirit by joining the staff of Orientation! Learn what happens next after you accept your admissions offer at UCSC, and how this team supports students in transitioning to the university.
Connect with STARRS
Join the staff of our Services for Transfer Re-Entry and Resilient Scholars to kick-off your Transfer Day experience! These folks are dedicated to supporting and advancing the social mobility of the students they serve by providing transformative higher education experiences. Learn more about how they can support you, and from their transition student mentors.
Transfer Student Panel
Meet your Transfer Peer Mentors! Join us for an informal panel featuring some of our current students who started out as Banana Slug transfers. In this frank discussion, you will learn from the experiences of students who came before you. Our Peer Mentors love helping transfer students on their journey, so come to them with your questions!
Discover Transfer Housing
Where will you live for the next few years? Find out about the variety of on-campus housing opportunities for transfer students, including residence hall or apartment living, themed housing, and our unique residential college system. You will also learn about how students receive assistance finding off-campus housing, as well as dates and deadlines and other important information. Meet with the Housing experts and get your questions answered!
View a Mock Dorm Room
9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Cowell Provost’s House
Connect with Financial Aid
9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 - 4:00 p.m., Kresge 3201
Bring your questions! Find out more about next steps with the Financial Aid and Scholarship Office (FASO) and how we can help make college affordable for you and your family. FASO distributes over $500 million every year in need-based and merit-based awards. If you haven’t filled out your FAFSA or Dream App, do it now!
Special opportunity: Financial Aid One-on-one Drop-in Advising offered from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. (12:00 - 1:00 p.m. break), location TBD.
Career Success
Our Career Success team is ready to help you succeed! Find out more about our many services, including jobs and internships (both before and after graduation), job fairs where recruiters come to campus to find you, career coaching, preparation for medical school, law school, and graduate school, and much more!
Information Sessions
Various Times and Locations
Find out more about academics at UCSC! Representatives from the four academic divisions and the Jack Baskin School of Engineering will welcome you to campus and help you learn more about our vibrant academic life.
11:00 - 11:45 a.m., Kresge 3101 (TBD)
Join us for a presentation and conversation to better understand the changing world of LGBTQIA2S+ identities.
1:00 - 1:45 p.m., Kresge 3101 (TBD)
Únase a nosotros para una presentación y conversación con el fin de comprender mejor el mundo de las identidades LGBTQIA2S+.
12:00 - 5:00 p.m., Cowell College
Exhibition: Paths of Play: Games of Resistance and Imagining Otherwise
Student Resources & Majors Fair
Is there tutoring available on campus? What about mental health services? How can you build community with your fellow Banana Slugs? This is a chance to begin connecting with some current students, faculty, and staff members! Explore your major, meet the members of a club or activity you’re interested in, and get connected with support services on campus. More information coming soon.
Summer Session
Hit the ground running in the fall after beginning coursework this summer! Learn more about flexible in-person and online options, and how your financial aid can support you.
Dining Options
A variety of food and drink options will be available throughout campus. Specialty food trucks will be located on the outdoor basketball courts, and inexpensive, all-you-care-to-eat lunches will also be available at the campus dining halls. Vegetarian and vegan options will be available. Bring a reusable water bottle with you – we’ll have refill stations at the event!
