We provide information here for any applicant with prior degrees awarded outside of the United States. We also outline health insurance, UC EAP guidelines for those applicants in an exchange program with UC, and links to the International Student and Scholar Services office on campus which directs the visa sponsorship process for admitted international students.
Note: The Division of Graduate Studies does not provide preliminary applications or evaluations of your credentials. We do not offer conditional admission.
If you have questions about a program’s requirements for admission, please reach out to the individual program.
Expand sections below for information on a specific topic.
Admission Requirements for All Applicants
In order to qualify for admission to graduate school at UC Santa Cruz, all applicants must have:
- A bachelor’s degree or its equivalent from an accredited university awarded (conferred) prior to the quarter in which admission is sought.
- Applicants with a three-year undergraduate degree must also hold a post graduate diploma, Master’s Degree, or a higher degree.
- Vocational, secretarial, associate, or technical degrees are not acceptable as a first degree.
- Degrees that are completed through extension universities are not acceptable as first degrees.
- Degrees that follow the Bologna Accord must state as such in the official transcript.
- A cumulative or overall GPA of 3.0 (on a 4 point scale) in the last two years of undergraduate education. This should be displayed on your official academic records.
English Language Requirements
Please view the language requirements for admissions and for Teaching Assistants on our Test Score Requirements page.
Academic Records from non-US schools
Admitted students who graduated from a school outside of the United States must submit a course-by-course ICAP evaluation from World Education Services (WES) in order to verify their degree(s) for admission. No exceptions permitted.
- If your degree is not awarded (conferred) by the third week of classes, your enrollment at UC Santa Cruz, as well as all financial support, will be subject to cancellation if you do not provide evidence of graduation, and of satisfying any further conditions set by the department.
- We do not provisionally admit graduate students at UC Santa Cruz. You are required to provide a final transcript with degree certification to the Graduate Division at UC Santa Cruz.
Students who have attended an institution in China
- Admitted students who graduated from an institution in China need to submit a course-by-course ICAP evaluation from World Education Services (WES) in order to verify any degrees earned in China.
- The WES ICAP evaluation is not necessary for transfer work or study abroad done in China; those course credits should appear on the home school’s records.
Students who have attended an institution in India
- Is your school affiliated to a university? You must upload unofficial transcripts or marks sheets from the university, not the affiliated school.
- Also, in the Prior Institutions section of the application, only enter the name of the main university (e.g. Anna University, Visvesvaraya Technological University, Osmania University, etc.) to which your college or institution is affiliated.
- Admitted students who graduated from an institution in India need to submit a course-by-course ICAP Evaluation from World Education Services (WES) in order to verify any degrees earned in India.
- Students with three-year degrees from India must also have been conferred:
- A Post Graduate Diploma (PGD) in the same field of study; or
- A Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM); or
- A master’s degree, to be considered eligible for admission.
Translations
- English translations and the original language unofficial transcript must be uploaded to your application so that they can be reviewed by the admissions committee. If you are offered and accept admission to UC Santa Cruz, you will submit official transcripts and translations if needed to World Education Services.
- Again, for degree verification purposes, you must confer with the World Education Services’ (WES) regarding their requirements for documentation.
- The following guidelines are only for the unofficial transcript you will upload to your application.
- All academic records must be issued in the original language and accompanied by English translations prepared by the issuing institution. If translations are not available from the institution itself, translations may be prepared by government or official translators.
- In order for translations to be acceptable, they must bear the stamp or seal of the issuing institution or government agency and the original signature of the translator. They must be complete and exact word-for-word translations of the original documents, not interpretations.
- Do not convert grades to the American scale.
- Specially prepared English versions are not acceptable in place of documents issued in the original language.
- We do not offer conditional admission.
Note: Academic records must be translated in their entirety, including any information that appears on the reverse side of any document. We will not accept the following:
- Photocopies that have not been stamped, attested and endorsed by the Registrar at your home university
- Documents in envelopes that have been opened; do not send academic records that are not in sealed and endorsed envelopes.
- Documents that do not arrive in sealed envelopes endorsed by the issuing institution or certified translator
- Documents that arrive without the official seal of the university
- Photocopies notarized by a notary public
- Photocopies endorsed by a lawyer, professor, judge etc.
- Unofficial translations
- Non-literal translations
If your home university does not provide English translations of transcripts, you must:
- Request two transcripts from your university. One copy will be used for a translator, the other will be uploaded to your application.
- Give one copy to a certified English translator and request a complete, word-by-word, literal English translation; upload the other transcript directly to your application.
- Ask the translator to put both the original language transcript and their English translation into a sealed envelope; they must endorse the envelope by signing across the seal.
- Send the sealed, endorsed envelope from the translator to UC Santa Cruz Graduate Admissions; we will upload this to your application record.
EAP and Non-Degree (NDG) Applicants
Applicants currently in the EAP program will need to follow particular instructions for filing their application. Please follow the instructions outlined below:
- Go to https://applygrad.ucsc.edu/apply/and click “Start New Application.”
- Select the appropriate “NDG” (non-degree) program from the list of programs (for example, “Psychology NDG”).
- If the course of study you plan to pursue does not offer a non-degree option, select the most closely applicable degree-seeking program.
- Complete the admission application. These application pages will not need to be completed; click the “section not applicable” link at the top of the page to proceed in the application:
- Fee Waiver Instructions
- As an EAP applicant, you will not be required to pay an application fee.
- Financial Support
- Fellowships
- Fee Waiver Instructions
- Recommendations: In addition to your required 3 recommenders you must also register Ralitsa Kirova, rkirova@eap.ucop.edu, from the UC EAP office as a recommender.
- This will allow Ralitsa to upload an EAP cover letter to your application explaining to faculty the benefits of admitting EAP applicants to their program.
Passports and Visas
You will need a passport from your own government and visa from a U.S. Consulate to enter this country. The types of visas available to you are the F-1 student visa or the J-1 exchange visitor visa. After you have been admitted and submitted your Financial Certificate form, you will be issued the appropriate document in order to obtain your student visa. To apply for a visa, take your passport and Certificate of Eligibility (1-20) plus proof of adequate financial resources for your studies and living expenses to a U.S. Consulate.
Admitted students with questions about visas will be put in contact with the International Student Services office (ISSS) at UCSC.
Financial Support, Documentation
Every student is responsible for having sufficient funds for initial expenses. Before a U.S. Consul will grant a visa, you must prove that you will have sufficient money to meet all your expenses while studying in the United States. You must show documented evidence of the source of your funds and guarantee that you will receive them while at UCSC.
- International applicants will be required to submit up-to-date evidence of financial support for the first academic year after they have received formal admission to a graduate program. Information sent prior to receiving an admission letter will be considered invalid.
- If you are admitted, you will receive an e-mail with instructions on how to prepare the materials for your I-20; an I-20 will be issued by UC Santa Cruz’s International Student and Scholar Services (ISSS) office only after all standard admissions requirements have been met.
- Before ISSS can issue an I-20, you will be required to complete and return an I-20 Request Packet showing that you are able to undertake this level of expense for your education at UCSC.
- Should you receive financial support from your department, your letter of acceptance will be sufficient.
- Before ISSS can issue an I-20, you will be required to complete and return an I-20 Request Packet showing that you are able to undertake this level of expense for your education at UCSC.
Financial aid for International Students
- International applicants are eligible for merit based financial support in the form of fellowships, teaching assistantships and/or graduate research assistantships, as offered and/or available by departments.
- International students are unfortunately not eligible for grants, loans, or work-study awards through the UCSC Financial Aid Office.
- “Financial aid programs” are restricted to U.S. citizens and permanent residents
- “Need based” financial aid is not available to international students.
Unless you have received a definite offer in writing of a teaching or research assistantship before your arrival, you should not expect to receive an offer later and you should plan on other sources of income. Students who come without adequate resources, in hope of locating some form of aid after arriving here, face the very real possibility of not being able to complete their educational programs.
Health Insurance
Information on student insurance coverage may be obtained from the UC Santa Cruz Heath Center.