Undergraduate Education at UCSB

What is known as a “liberal arts and sciences education” combines the in-depth focus of a major, disciplinary expertise, the breadth of General Education courses and electives, and the freedom to explore new ideas and discover new intellectual vistas. Although some majors provide specific skills, competencies, and academic content designed to prepare students for graduate or professional study or careers, all liberal arts and sciences degrees prepare students for a wide variety of career pathways. 

 The challenges of today’s post-pandemic society and global economy call for college graduates with a broad-based, integrative education that “exposes students to diverse modes of knowing, interpreting, and engaging the world.” Pre-professional training alone will not provide students with the cultural, social, and scientific literacies needed to make informed ethical choices and to create new approaches to technology, medicine, social media, artificial intelligence, the environment, human rights, poverty, democracy, and citizenship. 

 Business and professional leaders don’t want employees with narrow vocational training. More than a particular major, they want college graduates trained in critical thinking, critical analysis, communication, and imagination; students with broad-based knowledge, literacy, and the ability to collaborate, innovate, solve problems, work well in diverse groups, and make informed ethical decisions. They tell us that economic prosperity depends on graduates who can bring analytic skills, creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship to the workforce.

 One study conducted by the Association of American Colleges and Universities that surveyed business executives and asked them what they were looking for in college graduates found that 93% agreed that a “candidate's demonstrated capacity to think critically, communicate clearly, and solve complex problems is more important than undergraduate major.” 92% agreed that “innovation is essential to our company’s continued success.” 95% agreed that their company “puts a priority on hiring people with the intellectual and interpersonal skills that will help them contribute to innovation in the workplace.” 

 It is important to plan ahead and to think about both learning outcomes (the skills, competencies, and disciplinary knowledge a major will teach you) and career outcomes (the future career pathways to which courses of study might lead). However, in thinking about future income, it is important to realize that earnings for all college graduates are greater than earnings of those without college degrees. Although some  are filled with students who majored in Literature, History, Philosophy, Classics, Ethnic Studies, and Psychology, as well as Political Science. Like employers, professional schools value a comprehensive, transdisciplinary education.

 It is often said that college graduates today can expect to have many different jobs during their careers. Our education is designed to prepare you for the jobs that don’t exist today, the jobs that will be created in the future. In an interview, Sheryl Sandberg (Chief Operating Officer at Facebook, and former Vice President of Google) warned about the limitations of trying to plan one’s career as an undergraduate. She said that it would have been a mistake for her to decide what she was “going to do” when she was in college since, she recounted, at the time “there was no Internet, no Google, no Facebook.” The problem with a “plan,” she said, is that it limits one “to today’s options.” You will help to create the jobs that don’t exist today. 

Walter Issacson described the genius of Steve Jobs as his “ability to apply creativity and aesthetic sensibilities to a challenge” and to connect “artistry to technology, poetry to processors.” In introducing the I-Pad, Jobs explained the key to Apple’s success: “It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough,” he said; “it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our heart sing.” 

 Students often pair a major and a minor from a different discipline to develop their breadth, skills, and versatility, and demonstrate them to graduate and professional schools and prospective employers. Certificate programs are also offered through Professional and Continuing Education. Examples of certificate programs affiliated with UCSB departments include: Strategic Investments, Technology Management, and Emergency Medical Technician. Minors and certificates are recorded on student transcripts.

 You can find helpful information about career pathways by visiting Career Services. UCSB students can access a very informative guide, “What Can I Do With This Major?,” that has links to multiple resources, including the Occupational Outlook Handbook published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which has current data about potential career outcomes and salaries associated with various fields of study. Many professional organizations have resources to help you understand career pathways often associated with their areas. For example, see careers for history majors,careers in biology, or careers for sociology graduates.