Dear Students,
We are delighted to welcome you to UC Santa Barbara, where your energy and excitement enrich our vibrant campus life. Whether you are beginning or continuing your educational journey with us, we look forward to learning, exploring, and growing together.
At UC Santa Barbara, you – our students – are our highest priority, and we are dedicated to both your academic and personal growth. As you experience our campus and all it has to offer, we hope you will feel the strong sense of community that is at our core. We are not only passionate about education, but care deeply about our neighbors, our environment, and each other. This attitude of sensitivity and support informs our approach to daily campus life.
We work collaboratively to foster a campus culture that is compassionate, inclusive, supportive, and safe. This is a place where we celebrate our differences, and learn from the variety of perspectives represented in our vibrant community. By honoring and respecting each other, we create a living and learning environment where we can all pursue our dreams and reach our highest potential.
This is also a place of high ambition and broad impact. You will find that academic excellence and diversity are central to UC Santa Barbara’s mission, as demonstrated by our campus’s exceptional rankings. To share just a few examples, Forbes magazine ranks UC Santa Barbara No. 8 among America’s top public colleges. For the past decade, U.S. News and World Report has consistently placed our campus among the highest ranked public research universities in the nation.
UC Santa Barbara is a Minority-Serving Institution as well as the first member of the Association of American Universities to be recognized as a Hispanic-Serving Institution. Newsweek has ranked us the No. 1 Hispanic-Serving Institution in the country, and the New York Times College Access Index ranks us among the nation’s top colleges most committed to economic diversity.
Of course, it is our people who continue to make UC Santa Barbara shine, especially our students. My wife, Dilling, and I are proud and honored to have you at UC Santa Barbara. We look forward to seeing your smiling faces during our daily walks on our beautiful campus!
Sincerely,
Henry T. Yang
Chancellor