If you're looking for the experience of a lifetime – and the ability to spend your graduate studies making a difference in the world of academia – consider joining the UC Merced family and contributing to the University of California's historic commitment to serving the state, nation and world through education, research and public service.
Academics: The small size of our individualized graduate groups and our interdisciplinary approach to advanced learning lay a foundation for academic exploration not easily found at other universities. Students at UC Merced get to explore concepts and connections between related fields while acquiring mastery in their areas of specialization.
Location: UC Merced offers a unique experience on all fronts. We're located in an area with a low cost of living and proximity to the best California has to offer. Yosemite National Park is a short 75 miles away, and San Francisco, Monterey, and Sacramento are all within a two-hour car ride. Smaller cities like Fresno and Modesto are about an hour away.
Research: "Research is in our DNA." World-class faculty and innovative students are continuously engaged in cross-disciplinary research and scholarship to answer problems that affect people, industry, communities and beyond. UC Merced is at the forefront of research being conducted in various fields such as climate change, solar and renewable energy, water quality and resources, artificial intelligence, cognitive science and biomedicine.
Funding: UC Merced provides competitive financial support and resources to our graduate students. More than 97 percent of our Ph.D. students are fully funded through fellowships, teaching assistantships (TA), and graduate student researcher (GSR) assistantships.
360 Degree Educational Support: The enrichment of the educational and social experience of the graduate community is an essential part of UC Merced. We provide coordinated events and services to assist our students in enhancing their professional, intellectual and leadership skills.
Personal Interactions: Our students participate in close working relationships with faculty in an informal atmosphere conducive to professional growth.
“Because our campus is still small, my principal investigator isn’t the only professor who knows me or my skills. I’ve been plugged into a variety of networks simply because the professors in my school know me well enough to introduce me to their contacts.”
— Heather Thompson, Quantitative Systems Biology