University of California-Santa Barbara Top Questions

The academics at UCSB are both challenging and open to students. Courses are designed to give students sufficient knowledge of the material. However, this does not exclude a wide range of options for fulfilling class requirements. Often, students can opt to write a research paper for a class if they decide not to place the fate of their grade in exams alone. In addition, the nature of the courses themselves are complex so that the content is explained in many ways. Students will learn through lectures, readings, class discussions, and even experiments.

Since UCSB is a pretty large school, most of our general education classes and our lower division classes usually hold anywhere between 150 and 850 students. Although it seems big and scary, the teachers are usually pretty good at connecting with the whole class through i-clickers which every student has and uses to answer questions. Some classes are smaller, such as writing class and upper division classes. I have a few teachers who know my name because it was a small class around 25 people. One of my favorite classes was my Caribbean Studies class. The professor was voted Teacher of the Year at our school and he is such a great professor. Although I am more math oriented, I actually enjoyed learning about the history of Cuba, Jamaica, and other islands in the Caribbean. My least favorite class was my Feminist Studies class. The lectures were very boring and in preperation for the midterm and final, we had to define around 60 terms and write multiple essays. Although the students at UCSB tend to party on the weekends, they are actually very good students. The library is full of people all the time studying and they can have intellegent conversations outside of the classroom. I am a Financial Mathematics and Statistics major, so I enjoy crunching numbers. I am considering being an actuary once I get out of college. We have an Actuarial Science major, but I choose to have my major so I can be more well rounded in the math world. Some classes can be very challenging, especially my physics class, and some classes are easier, but there is not a class you will find that doesn't challenge you in some way. UCSB has a detailed general education program in order to make us well rounded students. Taking all the general ed classes is tedious but it is worth it in the end.

This campus offers a large variety of majors that are very distinguished. Our Environmental Studies, Geography, and Chemical Engineering majors are one of the best programs in the nation. Many courses are cross listed allowing for ease of double majoring and options. It can be difficult to get the class you want, but usually you can get in through the our online wait list or emailing the professor before the class starts.

This campus offers a large variety of majors that are very distinguished. Our Environmental Studies, Geography, and Chemical Engineering majors are one of the best programs in the nation. Many courses are cross listed allowing for ease of double majoring and options. It can be difficult to get the class you want, but usually you can get in through the our online wait list or emailing the professor before the class starts.

Overall, I've only had a good experience with the academics at UCSB. Many of the teachers I've had have been knowledgeable, helpful, and easy to get in touch with either by e-mail or during their office hours. While you can't expect the get as much attention as you would in a private school, if you are active in seeking it out you can easily get the help you need either from your professor directly or through our campus funded tutoring program CLAS. The class experiences vary highly between different classes, I've had lecture halls with 800+ students (these are more common in lower division or GE classes) to an ecology class I'm currently taking that only has ~40 students in it and is taught by two brilliant and highly experienced ecologists.

As UCSB is a public university, the classes tend to have a lot of students and due to budget cuts, this has only gotten worse over the years. The key is to make your education your own and to take the initiative and challenge yourself. While Professors may seem unapproachable, they are usually more than happy to talk to their students about the classes that they are teaching. Going to their office hours is a great way to do this. Another way is to do independent research with Professors. In my case, I am currently drafting a Senior Honors Thesis, which has afforded me the opportunity of having a Professor as my advisor on my thesis. This has been great as I'm learning how to do research with all the knowledge and wisdom of a Professor at my disposal. I am even taking a graduate course on research design in the Political Science department as an undergraduate. These opportunities were only available because I went out and looked for them.

UCSB's philosophy is "scholarship, leadership, & citizenship". UCSB is designed to nurture and generate the future leaders of tomorrow. UCSB is a chapter of the prestigious University of California system, and as such, is committed to providing quality education and research opportunities. UCSB offers a broad academic curriculum which challenges students to think critically and test their perceived academic limits. Professors at this university will make you work for your degree, but it's only because they genuinely want you to learn. The university is committed to academic excellence as well as fairness and has therefore implemented rigorous evaluations of professors and courses to be completed at the end of each quarter. The university takes these evaluations very seriously and has even terminated faculty as a result of poor reviews. So at UCSB, rest assured that your studies will be challenging, no doubt, but they will also be fair. In general, UCSB offers smaller classes to facilitate learning-conducive environments. There are larger-scale classes for sure, but those tend to be the lower-division classes and almost always have smaller discussion sections to supplement the lectures where students can enhance their understanding of the material. The upper-division classes are much smaller, and, in some cases, provide opportunities to work directly with your professor. There are endless opportunities for students to participate in research - either as a participant or as a research assistant. Many majors create email systems for students interested in applying for research positions as they become available. Moreover, most majors require participation in a research project before a student can graduate. I personally took a research-oriented class which took over my life that quarter, but I am thankful for it because it stretched my academic capacity and showed me that I actually was capable of doing something I never thought I could do.

First year classes are huge: chemistry classes have 300+ students, and the act of signing up for classes can leave many out to dry. Students are smart, but rarely engaged with their learning, and do the minimum they need which is not that much since the school is very non-competitive. Academic requirements need serious revamping. The education at UCSB in the College of Letters of Sciences (pretty much everything except engineering) is geared primarily towards learning for its own sake, but the college of Engineering is much more geared towards jobs with internships heavily promoted by the college and individual departments.

Small classrooms, most profs know you, simple good conversations with peers.

We have a great foreign language program. Science classes suck but people aren't as mean and unhelpful like most other schools