The University of California Santa Barbara's Department of Psychological & Brain sciences is a top ranking program. Faculty members include prominent scholars working in four graduate research training areas: Cognitive and Perceptual Sciences, Developmental and Evolutionary Psychology, Neuroscience and Behavior, and Social Psychology. The graduate program is large enough to field a full range of graduate courses and seminars, but small enough to provide a sense of community and a high level of faculty attention per student. Currently, there are 30 full-time faculty members supervising approximately 65 graduate students. This excellent student-to-faculty ratio ensures an enriched and personal graduate experience where each student works closely with his or her faculty mentor. It is reassuring to note that the Psychology Department at UCSB offers not only a quality research-oriented program, but one whose graduates have been highly successful in the competition for academic, private sector, and post-doctoral positions
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One of ten campuses of the prestigious University of California system, UCSB provides an exciting intellectual environment in a setting of natural beauty. Nestled between the Santa Ynez mountains and the Pacific Ocean on an 815 acre promontory, jutting into the sea, the campus includes a scenic lagoon and a landscape of native and exotic flora. Part of the campus is designated as a natural preserve and contains undeveloped, ecologically important dunes facing the Channel Islands.

The UCSB campus student community numbers approximately 20,150, 2,900 of whom are graduate students. Offering instruction, professional training, and research in more than forty fields of scholarship, UCSB is the site of numerous research laboratories, centers, institutes, and libraries and the home of five Nobel Laureates. Throughout the year, the campus is a scene of diverse cultural programs including concerts, lectures, art exhibits, film, dance, and drama performed by students, faculty, visiting artists, and a variety of national touring companies.

The city of Santa Barbara is a well known destination for tourists and vacationers. It offers a wide variety of outstanding theatrical and musical productions, art and natural history museums, botanical and zoological gardens, festivals, fine shops and restaurants, and breathtaking views of mountains, Spanish-style architecture, beaches, palm trees and the sea. Downtown Santa Barbara is 10 miles from campus; Los Angeles is about two hours south by car, and San Francisco is six hours to the north.

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