Campus Life

UC Merced’s Graduate Division provides many programs throughout the year to ensure students succeed academically, including faculty and peer mentoring programs, free tutoring, and social and well-being activities to help foster a sense of belonging and community.

UC Merced’s national reputation for sustainability continues to grow, with the Sierra Club naming the university No. 5 on its 2020 “Cool Schools” list and The Princeton Review placing it on its Green College Honor Roll.

UC Merced rose into the top 100 of the U.S. News & World Report rankings of National Universities earlier this month, and the university already has another milestone to celebrate.

According to numbers released today (Sept. 24), UC Merced’s total student enrollment has surpassed 9,000 for the first time. The 9,018 students enrolled for the Fall 2020 semester — which is being administered through remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic — include more than 8,276 undergraduate students and 742 graduate students.

The coronavirus has changed the way people work and live: One population feeling it most acutely is students.

This semester undoubtedly will be different for both new and returning UC Merced students. While courses mainly will be remote this fall, UC Merced remains committed to student success no matter the learning modality.

Bobcats go back to school today and while most are not physically returning to campus, there are still plenty of festivities planned to kick off the semester.

A new chapter began at UC Merced on June 1 with the completion of the massive $1.2 billion Merced 2020 Project, an extensive expansion of the campus’ physical space and capacity.

The project is the largest public-private partnership social infrastructure project completed in U.S. history and will enable the UC’s newest and fastest-growing campus to accommodate up to 10,000 students.

Professor Matthew Zawadzki is with the Department of Psychological Sciences in the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts. His research examines social psychological processes as applied to health. This is the first of a two-part discussion.

The Class of 2020 has officially graduated and while students didn’t cross the stage in typical commencement fashion, the celebration was memorable.

In the first virtual commencement for a University of California campus, UC Merced honored its more than 1,500 bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral graduates with traditional commencement festivities.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has altered many things this spring on the UC Merced campus — from classes and research to events — UC Merced is making sure the Class of 2020 has a forum to commemorate students’ achievements and successes.

UC Merced will host the University of California’s first-ever virtual commencement ceremony Saturday, May 16, to recognize the more than 1,500 candidates who have registered to participate.

UC Merced’s support for students who are building leadership skills, engaging in community outreach or searching for careers is going strong during the campus’s move to remote instruction, with the Office of Leadership, Service and Career providing new webinars, online workshops and virtual events.