I visited the University of CA, Santa Barbara on a sunny
Friday morning in January and came away with a very favorable impression. The warm sunshine may have helped but I
learned a lot more on my tour that dispelled the myth of UCSB as a “party”
school. Here’s what I discovered makes UCSB
distinctive from other University of California campuses:
Academics
--With a population of 23,000 undergraduates and only 3,000
grad students, undergrads have many
opportunities for research.
--College of Letters
and Science has no impacted
majors so students applying to this school can select any major they wish.
--College of
Engineering is quite small and very selective—1,500 Average GPA
for admission is 4.30 and SAT scores are: 652 R /749 M
Engineering offers a 3/5 year BS/MS
program, which allows students to graduate in 5 years with a masters degree.
All engineering students do senior
projects.
For engineering, applicants should
take the Math II SAT Subject test and declare engineering as their first choice
major.
--The College of
Creative Studies, also highly selective, allows students who are passionate
about one field of study pursue research and/or creative projects. Only 500 students total.
8 majors are offered: Art, Biology,
Chemistry/Biochemistry, CS, Math, Music Composition, Physics, Writing and
Literature.
All students are expected to
“publish” by the time they graduate.
Students will work one on one with
a professor.
Applicants should take the SAT Subject
Test in their chosen field and a supplemental application/essay is required.
--Of its pre-professional programs UCSB offers Technology Management (TMP), which
brings in local entrepreneurs to teach students how to launch start-ups.
--Our tour guide had a Professional
Writing Minor. This program offers 4 tracks: Professional Editing, Multimedia Communication,
Business Communication, Writing and Civic Engagement, and Science
Communication. Each track includes two capstone courses and an internship and prepares
students for real world job experience.
Living Environment
and Extracurriculars
--UCSB is the only UC to guarantee four years of campus
housing; 82% of students live within one mile of campus.
--No football team but UCSB’s Varsity Soccer team is very
popular with student fans.
--The beach is minutes away and a wonderful stress-break
between or after classes. Some classes
actually take place on the beach.
--Because UCSB is the only major university and college in
the region, students find many internship and job opportunities usually only
open to post-grads—examples include medical scribing in hospitals, working at
law firms, supervising research.
--Greek Life is 12% of student body but doesn’t dominate
(according to our tour guide).
