UCSB Academic Research Consortium (ARC)

During the seven or eight weeks of your program, you will engage in a weekly slate of academic and professional workshops, such as:

• Graduate Admissions and Application - Revealing the Hidden Curriculum
• Writing Your Graduate Application Documents
• Fostering Faculty Connections for Academic Success
• Self Care in Graduate School
• Graduate Student Financial Literacy

Every year we work with a cross-disciplinary team of fantastic current graduate students who serve as our Program Mentors. These students provide tremendous support and insight into the graduate student experience. They are excellent at providing feedback as we practice your presentations together, but they also generously share about their journeys to where they are today. One of our favorite workshops every year, “Self Care in Graduate School,” is developed and presented by our Program Mentors, and no staff or faculty are in the room. This is a safe space in which students can freely ask any questions they may have and our program mentors are strongly encouraged to be candid with you.

You will spend upwards of 35 hours per week engaged in mentored research. Each student will work with a faculty mentor in their field. Most often you are also mentored by a current doctoral student in that faculty member’s research group. You will be exposed to and experience the daily life of a graduate student. Depending on your field of study, you may be in a wet lab working with rats, you may be compiling a literature review, you may be asking subjects questions while they are actively experiencing a functional MRI, or you may be designing a bilingual research survey. The possibilities are as varied as your interests. Learn more by reviewing some of what our past students have studied.

Located along the central coast of California, UCSB is a community of students, faculty, staff, and researchers, known for exemplary research, a commitment to interdisciplinary studies, diversity, student support, and social engagement. Our program plans several social and networking events each summer, providing a platform to engage outside of the ARC program and across campus constituencies. Non-UCSB students participating in ARC reside in campus housing, just off campus and adjacent to the vibrant community of Isla Vista, a quintessential college town. Students are immersed in the UCSB student culture (bring a bicycle!) and often spend free time exploring the greater Santa Barbara community. Whether exploring cuisine in the Funk Zone, surfing Campus Point, or hiking the local trails, there are rich opportunities to fulfill the goals of a well-balanced life during your ARC summer research experience.

Every student writes an abstract and develops and research presentation at our Summer Research Symposium. In addition, our eight-week students with the UC LEADS and Cal-Bridge programs create research posters and present at a UCSB Summer Research Conference which will include approximately 75 students across multiple summer programs. You will gain the experience and confidence to create and deliver research presentations in a supportive environment geared toward students who are doing this for the first time. Every summer we are extremely impressed with what students accomplish during their seven or eight weeks with us. Students leave the program with a sense of accomplishment, confidence in their academic aptitude and research skills, and often discover clarity around future research interests as a doctoral student.