Here on the edge of the Pacific, in a setting removed from urban pressures and distractions but vibrant with cultural and academic activity, many of the country’s most promising students join a community of scholars whose accomplishments are internationally recognized and whose skills as teachers of undergraduates are evident each day in classrooms and laboratories.
In the humanities and the arts as well as in engineering and the sciences, UC Santa Barbara introduces students to novel ways of thinking, learning, and conducting research.
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The UCSB campus occupies a 989-acre site at the edge of the Pacific Ocean. |
The Highest Quality
Pioneering research is a critical component of the highest quality education. UCSB’s 1,000-member faculty includes five Nobel Prize winners and scores of elected members of national and international academies and societies as well as dozens of winners of Guggenheim and Fulbright Fellowships. The campus is one of only 62 research-intensive institutions elected to membership in the prestigious Association of American Universities.
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Within this community of scholars, the life of the mind, the pursuit of knowledge, and the experience of growth, both personal and intellectual, are the hallmarks of daily life.
Colleges and Schools
UCSB enrolls 20,000 students, about 2,900 of them at the graduate level. Competition for admission is keen. In recent years the campus has enrolled the most academically competitive and ethnically diverse classes in its history.
More than 200 majors, degrees, and credentials are offered through UCSB's five schools and the Graduate Division. The College of Letters and Science alone offers nearly 80 majors. The College of Creative Studies offers an alternative approach for students pursuing advanced, independent work in the arts, mathematics, or the sciences. The College of Engineering offers degree programs in five disciplines.
The university also has two professional schools: the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, and the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education.
About UCSB
The preeminent scholarship, instruction, and public service that define UCSB have helped shape its identity as a place of enormous and exceptional possibility—a magnet for innovation.
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Originally a small, independent teachers’ college, Santa Barbara joined the renowned University of California system in 1944 and has since grown to be an integral and important part of public postsecondary education in the state.
Recognition of UCSB’s academic quality takes many forms. One of the most prestigious is support from the National Science Foundation. The campus is now home to 11 national centers and institutes, eight of which are sponsored by the NSF, including the Materials Research Laboratory, the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, the Southern California Earthquake Center, and the renowned Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics.
The California NanoSystems Institute—one of the California Institutes for Science and Innovation—focuses on dramatic breakthroughs in materials, devices, and resulting technologies, made possible by controlling form and function at the nanoscale. The institute is a research partnership between UCSB and UCLA. New research buildings at both campuses house the institute.
At the interdisciplinary Center for Film, Television and New Media, scholars study everything from silent films to the latest in digital media and satellite communications in the context of a strong liberal arts and sciences curriculum. Construction of a privately funded state-of-the-art facility for the center will break ground this year.
The Community
The vast majority of students live within walking distance of their classes. Seven miles of bikeways link this close-knit academic community, giving students easy access to a rich array of social, cultural, academic and athletic events.
Another distinguishing characteristic of the campus is its proximity to two very different communities. Isla Vista, the adjacent community that is home away from home to a majority of UCSB’s students, is a place for social and civic growth, where students serve on local boards and county committees. Nearby Santa Barbara—an energetic, mid-sized city with a deep concern for history, the arts, and the environment—is highly regarded for its cultural and recreational resources.
The Campaign for UC Santa Barbara
UC Santa Barbara is conducting its first comprehensive fund-raising campaign to capitalize on the vibrant intellectual assets and extraordinary potential that distinguish this campus as an international leader in education and innovation. The campus seeks to generate at least $500-million in private support for programs, projects, and facilities to ensure UCSB’s excellence for future generations.
The UCSB Libraries consist of the Donald C. Davidson Library and the Arts Library, which house approximately 2.8 million books and journals and an extensive collection of maps, technical reports, government documents, manuscripts, satellite imagery, and audio recordings.
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As a member of the California Digital Library, the Association of Research Libraries and the Center for Research Libraries, the UCSB Libraries participate in cooperative programs with other major, national research libraries to provide collections and services for the UCSB community.
UCSB’s general collection and several specialized units and services are located in Davidson Library. Examples of specialized units include the Sciences and Engineering Library, the Map and Imagery Laboratory, the Curriculum Laboratory, the East Asian Library, and the Ethnic and Gender Studies Library.
Also located in Davidson Library is the Department of Special Collections, whose holdings include rare books and manuscripts and several distinguished collections, including the Performing Arts Collection, the Wyles Collection on the American West, the Skofield Printers’ Collection, and the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives.
The Arts Library is a full-service branch library that supports academic programs in art and music. In addition to the substantial book and journal collections, special materials in the Arts Library collection include auction and exhibition catalogs, more than 60,000 sound recordings, and music scores.
Contact the UCSB Libraries at (805) 893-2478, or visit www.library.ucsb.edu
Computing facilities on campus are readily available to all registered UCSB students. Instructional Computing (IC) has an Open Access lab with both Macintosh and IBM computers for general student use. Access to instructional labs is designated by course requirements. Computing facilities set aside for use by classes are IC labs, including the Media Center and Language Lab in Kerr Hall, the Humanities and Social Sciences Computing Facility, and the Life Sciences Computing Facility.
Additional information is available at www.ic.ucsb.edu (will open in a new browser window)
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Instructional Development enhances teaching and research at UCSB through its offices of Instructional Consultation and Instructional Resources.
Instructional Consultation offers expertise in various teaching methods, curriculum development, testing, and evaluation. The Instructional Improvement Program provides financial support for faculty involved in innovative instructional projects. This enables faculty to teach in the most effective manner and to share their latest research with students.
Instructional Resources provides numerous technological aids to support the educational process, including student learning and language laboratories, comprehensive media production, and presentation support.
The University Art Museum serves as a unique educational resource for academic and community audiences throughout the region. It has earned an international reputation for its innovative and culturally diverse exhibitions, catalogues, and interdisciplinary programs.
The Museum has a distinguished Fine Art Collection of over 8,500 works and over 750,000 architectural drawings, historic photographs, writings, scrapbooks, and three-dimensional objects in the Architecture and Design Collection. It seeks to promote scholarship, inspire creative excellence, and deepen an understanding of the visual arts produced throughout the world.
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Student docents learn about museum practices and study both the permanent collection and current exhibitions in order to serve as gallery guides for Museum visitors. In conjunction with its exhibitions, the Museum organizes gallery talks, artist lectures, academic symposia, and special performances.
Contact the Museum at (805) 893-2951 for information on tours and special programs, or visit www.uam.ucsb.edu
Arts & Lectures promotes the arts as an integral and necessary facet of education that elevates the human spirit and provokes the imagination, inspires personal discovery and intellectual inquiry, and sustains an inclusive and diverse community. It presents an innovative, unique, entertaining, and diverse program of exceptional performances, films, and lectures to enhance the educational experience at UCSB, foster artistic excellence and creativity, and connect the campus to the richly varied communities of the Central Coast.
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Arts & Lectures presents performances featuring touring artists from all over the world—first-rate dancers, classical and world musicians, performance artists, and theater companies. It screens films—international cinema, independent films, documentaries, and the best Hollywood movies, and occasionally, restored silent classics. It operates an Artists-in-Residence program that includes master classes, lecture-demonstrations, open rehearsals, and classroom discussions at UCSB in addition to visits to local schools.
Contact the Ticket Office at (805) 893-3535 to join our mailing list, or visit www.artsandlectures.ucsb.edu
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