Why Study With Us?
Your education in the Social Sciences Division at UC Santa Cruz is about more than just earning a degree. It’s also a journey of self-discovery. We’re here to help you find your purpose, realize your full potential, and be prepared to make the type of impact you envision through your career. Below are just a few of the unique opportunities you’ll have as a student in the Social Sciences Division.
Make a positive impact
Do you want to change the world for the better? Well, you’ve come to the right place. There’s a science to developing and implementing transformative solutions, and you can learn it through our curriculum. A degree in a social sciences discipline prepares you to be the type of leader and innovator our world needs, whether you go on to a career in industry, government, the nonprofit sector, or academia.
Gain real-world experience
Why wait until graduation to start making an impact? In the Social Sciences Division, you don’t have to. We prioritize providing research, hands-on learning, internship, and service experiences beyond the classroom, where our students deepen and apply their learning to make real-world impact. It’s a great way to test out different career paths to find the right fit, and you’ll gain experience that makes your resume stand out.
Our graduate programs support students in either diving into producing professional-quality, high-impact research, or building and applying professional skills through real-world practice. And we offer specific undergraduate experiential learning opportunities through each of the following departments and programs: Anthropology, Community Studies, Economics, Education, Environmental Studies, Global & Community Health, Latin American & Latino Studies, Legal Studies, Politics, Psychology, and Sociology.
Follow your passions
Our degree programs are designed with flexibility to help put you in the driver’s seat on your educational journey. Our undergraduate programs allow you to explore your interest areas through abundant elective choices of courses across campus and easy options for adding a minor or double major or conducting independent study or research. Meanwhile, our graduate program curriculum and faculty mentorship are highly personalized to the unique research interests and professional aspirations of our students.
Join a supportive community
In the Social Sciences Division at UC Santa Cruz, we are national leaders in research on education, inclusion, and student support, and we apply what we learn in our own classrooms, allowing our students to benefit directly from that expertise.
Our approach to education is often collaborative: we aim to work together with our students to build knowledge in ways that utilize their diverse and unique strengths. And we lead campus-wide efforts to meet students’ essential needs, so that they have a strong foundation from which to learn and grow. When our students succeed, we believe the whole world stands to benefit.