Students may come to the University of California, Santa Barbara with many expectations: to be challenged academically, to enjoy the beautiful Pacific coast scenery and to party hard. From day one, students say, UCSB doesn't disappoint.
Lectures can be large but professors expect students — of whom there are about 25,000 — to quickly catch on to material. The school offers over 200 majors, degrees, and credentials, and it's recognized for its innovation and research. The Koegel Autism Center at the Gervitz Graduate School of Education is a state-of-the-art treatment center, and the school is also home to the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, a program focused on scientific discovery.
Despite its rigorous academics, UC Santa Barbara is regularly ranked as a top party school.
The campus is constantly abuzz, with clubs tabling outside the University Center and vendors lined up along the miles of bike racks. The neighboring town of Isla Vista houses many students, plus local restaurants (one of the most famous being late-night burrito stop Freebirds), copy shops, grocery co-ops and every other service a college student could need.
UCSB has a solid graduation rate of about 87%, and students go on to earn median salaries of nearly $75,000 in their early careers.
