Transcripts & Academic Requirements
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Academic Requirements for Admission
In order to qualify for admission to graduate school at UC Santa Cruz, applicants must have:
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A bachelor's degree or its equivalent from an accredited university awarded (conferred) prior to the quarter in which admission is sought.
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Applicants with a three-year undergraduate degree must also hold a post graduate diploma, Master’s Degree, or a higher degree.
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Bologna Accord degrees are acceptable for admission purposes. Degrees that follow the Bologna Accord must state as such in the official transcript.
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Vocational, secretarial, associate, or technical degrees are not acceptable as a first degree.
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Degrees that are completed through extension universities are not acceptable as first degrees.
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A cumulative or overall GPA of 3.0 (on a 4 point scale) in the last two years of undergraduate education.
Satisfaction of minimal standards does not, however, guarantee admission, since the number of qualified applicants far exceeds the number of places available. As a consequence, many well-qualified applicants cannot be accommodated. Students must refer to individual departments for additional admission criteria.
Academic History for the Application
Unofficial transcripts are accepted for the application process. Upload your unofficial transcripts in the online application. Official copies are not currently required for the application (only for accepting an offer of admission), however we reserve the right to change this requirement at any time.
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Unofficial copies may either be scanned versions of your official transcript or a downloaded PDF from your institution's online portal.
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Refer to the Document Scanning Guidelines for requirements and information about scanning and uploading your unofficial transcripts to the admissions application.
In your application please include every college-level institution you have attended, regardless of length of time in attendance, and whether academic course work was completed or not. If you attended an institution through a study-abroad or exchange program, please list the home institution only.
DO NOT include a "Degree Date" if you will not or have not earned a degree from that university; we will verify every degree you indicate as having received if you are offered and accept admission to UCSC.
Failure to disclose your complete enrollment history on the application for admission may disqualify you from consideration or result in the revocation of an admission offer. See our policy on Application Falsification for more information.
Degree Verification Requirement
You must present official evidence that you have received a 4-year bachelor's degree or it's equivalent from an accredited institution of higher education to qualify for graduate study at UC Santa Cruz. Verification of UC Santa Cruz bachelor's degrees can usually be accomplished electronically.
Your overall GPA, major of study, degree title, and month and year your degree was awarded must be displayed on the official transcript. If your university doesn't display degree award information on the official transcript, and does not issue a degree certificate with this information, you must include a diploma.
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Students who graduated from a school in the United States must send in official, sealed transcripts with all final grades, final GPA, and must show the month/year the degree was awarded.
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Students who graduated from a school outside of the United States must submit a course-by-course ICAP evaluation from World Education Services (WES). No exceptions permitted. WES will route your evaluation directly to our campus when you order your report, you should not mail a separate copy of the report or transcripts/certificates to us.
We also require verification of any graduate-level degree(s) earned.
Academic records (transcripts, diplomas, certifications) submitted to UCSC will NOT be returned to the applicant, nor will copies be forwarded to any other persons or agency
Did you attend a school outside of the United States?
Please refer to the instructions for submitting International Transcripts.
Particular guidance is provided for students who attended schools in China and India.
Delivery Instructions for US-earned Degree Verification
Hard copies:
Transcripts and/or degree verifications must be sealed (unopened) in an envelope originating from the degree-granting institution. Only one copy of your transcript is required. Official transcripts should be addressed to:
GRADUATE APPLICATION PROCESSING
UC Santa Cruz
1156 High Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95064
For parcel services (FedEx, DHL, UPS), indicate "Kerr Hall - 500" after the street address.
Electronic copies:
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Official e-transcripts are acceptable from these approved transcript services: Parchment, Credential Solutions, e-Scrip Safe, National Student Clearinghouse, OpenCerts, or World Education Services only.
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We do not accept transcripts or certificates that do not use an e-transcript service (i.e. the school emails your transcripts or certificates to UC Santa Cruz). Your school must mail a hardcopy transcript and certificate to UC Santa Cruz in a signed and sealed envelope if they do not use a transcript service.
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We do not accept PDF or scanned copies of transcripts that come to us from the student directly, either.
E-transcripts should be addressed to either UC Santa Cruz Graduate Admissions or gradadm@ucsc.edu.
Your major of study, degree title, and month and year your degree was awarded must be displayed on the official transcript or degree verification.
PLEASE NOTE: Make sure your transcripts are not sent to Undergraduate Admissions at UC Santa Cruz as that is a separate office.
We highly recommend you manually write-in our email address [gradadm@ucsc.edu] for e-transcript services like Credentials Solutions, Parchment, eScrip and others; using their pre-selected address for UC Santa Cruz or University of California, Santa Cruz, will typically default to undergraduate admissions and will delay the arrival of your transcripts.