UC Merced is welcoming the largest class in university history this fall, as record numbers of first-year and transfer students propel total enrollment to an all-time high of 9,647 students. 

The university’s enrollment grew by 704 students, a nearly 8% increase from last fall. This surpasses the previous record of 9,148, set in Fall 2023. 

Even more striking is the growth among new students. UC Merced welcomed 3,157 new students this fall — an increase of 748 students, or 31%, from last year’s 2,409. The previous record for new students was 2,678, set in Fall 2021. 

Fueled by a $38 million gift from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott — her second to UC Merced and the largest single philanthropic gift in the university's history — and the sustained generosity of the Bobcat community, 2025-26 was UC Merced's strongest fundraising year on record. 

The campus raised more than $68 million during the fiscal year, pushing Boldly Forward: The Campaign for UC Merced to nearly $180 million. The milestone nearly doubled the prior fundraising record of $36 million, set in 2022-23. 

Five faculty members in the UC Merced School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts have been appointed to endowed chairs, recognizing their scholarship and contributions to research that serve underrepresented communities, advance human rights and shape the future of communications.

"These works are a tribute to nature, to culture, and to time itself." 

That's how UC Merced Chancellor Juan Sánchez Muñoz described "Four Seasons of Yosemite" during a reception at the Leo and Dottie Kolligian Library, where campus leaders and community members, donors and the artist himself gathered to celebrate the university's milestone acquisition of the four monumental stained-glass murals. 

The growing energy across campus is palpable as UC Merced prepares for its 21st academic year. Fall semester instruction begins Wednesday, Aug. 26, furthering the mission of one of the nation’s top public research universities to provide knowledge and opportunity to a vibrant and diverse student body.

Orientation sessions and move-in days for on-campus student residents began the week of Aug. 17, leading a slate of welcome-to-campus activities.

UC Merced researchers are launching a project that could change how Central Valley growers harness the sun’s energy, using a family of light-active molecules developed at the university to design smarter agricultural greenhouses.

For the second year, UC Merced has partnered with the Campos Foundation to host the Campos ENgage Engineering Summer Bridge Academy, a weeklong summer program aimed at supporting underrepresented minority and female students interested in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). 

This is part of a series of profiles of new UC Merced Bobcats enrolled for the fall 2026 semester.

Driven by a passion for animal care, incoming biological sciences major student Esperanza Garcia is already well on her way toward a future in veterinary medicine.

In “The Miracle of Merced,” author James H. Erickson chronicles the volunteers, educators and community leaders who helped transform a patch of land into the nation’s first research university of the 21st century.

The book tells the story of the people who refused to let go of the vision: bringing a world-renowned University of California campus to Merced.

UC Merced doctoral students Brianna Aguilar-Solis, Vanessa Sanchez and Nora Shamoon have been awarded the 2026-2027 UC President's Pre-Professoriate Fellowship, a University of California Hispanic Serving Institutions Doctoral Diversity Initiative award that supports promising scholars from California Hispanic-serving institutions as they pursue careers in academia.  

Each will receive a full year of support, allowing them to focus full-time on their research.