UC Santa Cruz loses about one out of every 10 freshmen.

But freshman Lara Blumen, who is busy making plans for summer and fall, is not likely to be one of them. The Southern California student is happy with her choice of schools.

"It’s good for me," she said, sitting in the dining hall at College 10 with two girls from her dorm. "It’s like a family. I’d be overwhelmed by UCLA or UC Santa Barbara."

Despite girlfriends and good grades — A’s and B’s — not everything has been smooth sailing for Lara, who has curly brown hair and a sparkle in her eye.

She had to replace her laptop computer when it died. She found living with a roommate took some adjustment, and she’s romantically unattached — at the moment.

Asked what she likes best about UCSC, she has a ready answer: "The social life. It’s easy to make friends."

UCSC has 15,000 students, more than a quarter of the city’s population and bigger than the city of Scotts Valley. But the 10 colleges where freshmen live create a sense of community.

Lara’s circle includes Samara Diner, Anya Kennerly and Ashley Smith.

Samara, who is from Palm Springs, likes the beach and is impressed by the chemistry department. Anya, from Santa Monica, hasn’t made up her mind on a major, but her complaints are few. She wishes UCSC had the "chains" that UCLA has, like Panda Express and Subway, and a bigger bookstore.

They all live at College 10, which has the newest dorms, and, in Samara’s estimation, the best dining hall.

At lunch, Lara chose a small portion of pasta with puttanesca sauce and a glass of water while Samara opted for salad greens with broccoli and cucumbers and two watermelon slices.

Students talk about the "freshmen 15," the weight they put on when they go away to college, but that hasn’t been a problem for Lara, who dresses as stylishly as she did when she first arrived on campus. She follows the example of her mom, a personal trainer, and tries to go the gym every day. She spends 15 minutes on the treadmill, does crunches and lifts weights.

"I’m trying to get them to go, too," she said, smiling at Samara and Anya. "Couch potato!"

The four girls like hanging out at Cafe Revolutio, in the ground floor of the dorm, and eating out Friday nights at Taqueria Vallarta. They also have discovered Lulu Carpenter’s, the coffeehouse in downtown Santa Cruz.

Over spring break, Anya and Ashley visited Lara’s house in San Diego. They stopped in Visalia, where Ashley lives, too.

Lara skipped a spring break trip to Mexico with a campus community service club to catch up with high school friends.

This quarter, the three are all taking female physiology, a lecture class with 450 students and 17 teaching assistants.

Lara is almost certain she wants to major in film, which is very competitive. She took an introductory film class last quarter and then snagged one of the 80 spots in a film production course for the spring term because her high school credits gave her sophomore standing.

Lara, Anya and Ashley feel comfortable enough with each other that they’d like to room together next year. They plan to request one of the apartments at College 10. There’s a lottery because only 19 apartments are available.

If they don’t get lucky, then Lara wants to live off campus. Her plan is to find a rental and stay in Santa Cruz for the summer, taking classes at Cabrillo College. She figures she could get a start on the math classes she would need for a business management minor.

She’s expecting to get a car this summer, but if that doesn’t pan out, there’s the Metro.

"I’m looking at bus stops," she said.