Graduate interest in UC Santa Cruz has hit a new high with more than 4,700 students applying to earn an advanced degree in the coming academic year.
The Office of Graduate Studies has received 4,744 applications for the 2017–18 academic year. In the last five years, the campus has marked a 36 percent increase in the number of applications.
“We are seeing strong interest in our PhD programs, along with a remarkable surge in in international and domestic applicants for our masters programs. New programs in fields such as Feminist Studies, Computational Media, Scientific Computing, and Latin American and Latino Studies are also helping to make UC Santa Cruz a preferred graduate destination,” noted Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies Tyrus Miller.
Increasing the number of graduate students has been a priority for UC Santa Cruz, as these bright minds are the next generation of professors, innovators, creative artists, and leaders. While they study at UC Santa Cruz, they are an integral part of the research and education mission of the campus.
UC Santa Cruz offers 33 doctoral degrees and 26 master’s degrees across its five academic divisions: arts, engineering, humanities, social sciences, and physical and biological sciences.
In fall 2016, 1,821 graduate students were working toward advanced degrees. Miller projects that figure to grow to close to 2,000 in fall 2017.
New degree opportunities
In fall 2017, the campus will launch two new programs. The first is a two-year master’s degree in environmental science and management with a focus on coastal sustainability.
The new computational media program will offer the master’s and Ph.D. degree and makes UC Santa Cruz the first U.S. university to offer comprehensive degrees in this rapidly growing and deeply interdisciplinary field.
Additionally, the campus is working toward launching new professional master’s programs in serious games—the design of digital games for education, training, and problem solving—and human-computer interaction at its Silicon Valley Campus.
UC Santa Cruz was also one of 28 universities to receive funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities to plan and implement changes to graduate education that will broaden the career preparation of a Ph.D. student beyond a career in the academy.
Prospective graduate students can learn more about UC Santa Cruz programs online.
