University of California-Santa Cruz

Admissions

Undergraduate Admissions

Because the University of California Santa Cruz is a research-intensive institution, admissions requirements are high. The admissions committee uses a 14 point selection process that considers such things as ACT or SAT scores, GPA, honors courses, other undergraduate courses, academic accomplishments and academic improvement. Prior to being considered for acceptance to UCSC, all students must meet the admissions criteria of the University of California. This does not guarantee admission to UCSC, though.

Students may gain admission to UCSC in one of four ways but regardless of acceptance method, all students are required to take rigorous courses including history, english, laboratory science, math, foreign language, visual arts and college-preparatory electives. Students must also meet high GPA requirements although residents of California don’t need to quite as high a GPA as non-residents of the state.

The first of the three ways to gain admission is via qualifying in the statewide context. Students accepted via this method must meet minimum testing, curriculum and GPA requirements. The second way that students may gain admission is by qualifying in the local context. Students that are in the top four percent of their California school graduating class may utilize this method. All students that qualify for this will receive a letter of notification in their senior year. Students may also qualify by test scores alone. This requires extremely high ACT or SAT scores only. Finally, to a very small percentage of students, UCSC grants admissions by exception. This entry method is applied to students who do not meet the minimum admissions requirements. UCSC considers other academic accomplishments, special circumstances, socioeconomic background, community contributions and a handful of other extenuating circumstances that signify that a student may succeed even though the grades or scores may not be quite up to par.

Graduate Admissions

Students may apply to only one UCSC graduate school per academic year and will need to submit the online application and fee, official transcripts to all undergraduate or graduate institutions attended, three letters of recommendation and any other supplemental materials that may be required by the individual graduate school to which the student is applying. In order to meet all deadlines and application requirements, prospective students should contact the graduate school of interest because there may be separate requirements.