Student Life

Why Study at UCSB

UC Santa Barbara is acknowledged by various sources for excellence in research and strengths in graduate education.

• The Institute for Scientific Information in its publication Science Watch placed UCSB among the most influential (top 10) of 100 notable federally funded universities in the nation.
• The National Research Council is currently working on new rankings of graduate programs throughout the United States but in the 1995 publication of Research-Doctorate Programs in the United States: Continuity and Change, half of UCSB graduate programs ranked within the top 25 departments nationally.
• U.S. News and World Report conducts an annual ranking of graduate programs. UCSB is ranked within the top 45 doctoral institutions overall, and individual rankings of many UCSB departments are also provided in this publication.
• Psychology Professor Leda Cosmides was one of 13 2005 National Institutes of Health Pioneer Award recipients out of a field of 850 nominations from fields including neuroscience, genetics, epidemiology, chemistry, stem cell biology, behavioral science, infectious diseases, and technology development
• From Wikipedia
  • 2006 U.S. News and World Report ranks the following UCSB graduate programs as follows
    • Biology
    • Chemical Engineering (9th)
    • Chemistry
    • Computer Science
    • Earth Sciences (21st)
    • Economics
    • Electrical Engineering (19th)
    • English
    • History
    • Materials Science and Engineering (3rd)
    • Mathematics
    • Physics (10th)
    • Political Science
    • Psychology
    • Sociology
  • The Geography graduate program was ranked 4th in the nation by the 1995 National Research Council Report
  • The UCSB School Psychology program was ranked 2nd in the nation in a study published in The School Psychologist Winter 2007
  • In 2004, ISI Essential Science Indicators found that publications by the UCSB Electrical Engineering program were cited more in "Thomson ISI-indexed journals of electrical & electronic engineering between 1998 and 2002." than any other institution's publications
  • UCSB is especially active in the interdisciplinary field of nanotechnology and nanoscience
    • Houses the California NanoSystems Institute, an internationlly renowned center for research in the physical sciences
    • Hosts the Center for Nanotechnology in Society, a national center for research in the humanities and social sciences