Graduate applications, enrollment increase at UC Santa Cruz

Graduate student enrollment at UC Santa Cruz is projected to top 1,625 for fall 2014, about 9 percent of total enrollment, indicating continued strong interest in the academic programs offered.

Fueling the growth is an incoming class, estimated at 520 new students, up from 460 last year and 391 the previous year.

"This growth illustrates the continuing strong upward trend in UC Santa Cruz’s attractiveness and reputation as a doctoral-granting and research institution," said Tyrus Miller, vice provost and dean of graduate studies. "We hope to match the size and proportion of graduate education at other UC campuses where the percentage of graduate students is typically more than 15 percent," Miller said.  

Graduate applications to UCSC this year reached a historic high at 4,259, up more than 18 percent from a year ago. The increase is consistent with an upward trend that's been happening since 2007.

Miller said graduate enrollment is projected to be 1,633 this year. A year ago 1,465 graduate students were enrolled; 1,389 were enrolled in 2012.  

The number of new international students has grown to 132 in 2014, up from 84 in 2013 and 49 in 2012, Miller said.  Much of the growth in international students has been at the Baskin School of Engineering, where nearly 78 percent of applicants are from outside the United States.
 
Miller said the increase in graduate students also reflects efforts in developing new graduate programs including Ph.D.s in Latin American and Latino Studies, Feminist Studies, Visual Studies, and Film and Digital Media, and new Masters degree programs in Technology and Information Management, Games and Playable Media, and Theater Arts.  

He said he expects the increases to continue over the next several years with investment in new faculty, additional graduate support, and further new professionally oriented Masters programs, especially Silicon Valley-related programs in areas such as Data Science.