University of California Merced

The University of California, Merced is a public research university in Merced, in California's San Joaquin Valley. It opened to undergraduates in 2005 as the tenth University of California campus and was founded to extend the UC system into the Central Valley. The campus occupies a planned site beside Lake Yosemite, inland from the Sierra Nevada.

Three schools organize academic work: Engineering; Natural Sciences; and Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts. Graduate programs concentrate in environmental systems, materials science, physics, chemistry, applied mathematics, engineering, cognitive and information sciences, public health, and interdisciplinary humanities. The Sierra Nevada Research Institute and the Health Sciences Research Institute are the principal organized research units. Nearby national parks shape environmental fieldwork.

Enrollment is about 9,000 students, the smallest in the UC system, with a graduate population of about 800. Many undergraduates are first-generation students from California; graduate cohorts are more national and international. Faculty number a few hundred. As a young campus it does not have a long roll of famous graduates and instead shares the academic culture of the University of California.

Graduate study is research-centered, with the PhD as the main degree and a smaller set of master's programs. Supervision follows the UC committee model, with qualifying examinations and a dissertation. The calendar is the UC semester system. Doctoral students are typically supported by fellowships, teaching assistantships, and research grants. Merced is a city of about 90,000; Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area are a few hours away by road.

In the Grad School Navigator directory, University of California Merced lists 3 graduate programs across 3 subjects: 1 master's program and 2 doctoral programs, with the widest choice in computer science, materials science & engineering and mathematics.