University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB)

Palm-framed vistas of the blue Pacific and the golden Santa Ynez Mountains. The scent of eucalyptus mixed with the saltwater breeze. Breathtaking natural beauty combined with enormous intellectual vitality. This is the University of California, Santa Barbara, and there is no other campus quite like it, anywhere. Here on the edge of the Pacific, in a setting removed from urban pressures and distractions but vibrant with cultural and academic activity, many of the country's most promising students join a community of scholars whose accomplishments are internationally recognized and whose skills as teachers of undergraduates are evident each day in laboratories and classrooms. In the humanities and the arts as well as in engineering and the sciences, UCSB introduces students to novel ways of thinking, learning, and conducting research. The Highest Quality Pioneering research is a critical component of the highest quality education. UCSB's 1,000-member faculty includes five Nobel Prize winners and scores of elected members or fellows of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The campus is one of only 62 research-intensive institutions elected to membership in the prestigious Association of American Universities. Within this community of scholars, the life of the mind, the pursuit of knowledge, and the experience of growth, both personal and intellectual, are the hallmarks of daily life.