Welcoming Our Community of Scholars this Fall 2025
The Graduate Division team is excited to welcome 889 new graduate students to UC Santa Barbara at the Orientation and Resource Fair on September 24. To kick off the academic year, we’re sharing a digital snapshot about our incoming cohort.
Graphics, script, and video editing by Marge Perko | Narration by Jayline Naranjo Lagunas
This year's graduate student cohort represents 50 countries across every habitable continent across the globe. Over thirty-eight percent of our incoming cohort are born abroad, with over 40 percent of international students originating from China. The United States still leads in the number of students attending UCSB, making up 61.19 percent of the total number of new graduate students.
Our domestic students come from 41 states across the nation, including scholars from Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands. California is still the source of the largest number of US students, making up 61.19 percent. Texas and New York provide the second and third largest populations of incoming graduate students from the USA.
This cohort is made up of many communities from here and around the world. Students of Asian origin make up the majority at 38.96 percent, followed by White/Caucasian students at 35.7 percent. Chicanx/Mexican Americans make up the third largest group at 11.37 percent. Overall, students from underrepresented communities make up 28.2 percent of the new cohort. Over twenty percent of our new students are the first in their family to pursue a college degree.
There is a near-even split between male and female numbers among our newest students. Diverse gender identities make up 2.7% of the total incoming student population.
Age demographics among our incoming students range from the youngest at 20 years old, and the oldest in their fifties. The majority of our new students are in their twenties, with 68 percent of this new cohort between 22 to 25 years old.
Learn more about our graduate student cohorts over the years by visiting our UCSB Graduate Statistics page.