Congratulations on your admission to UC Merced!
You've earned your spot. Here's what we're putting in your hands.
What Makes ESS Different
Your classroom has no walls.
Step outside and you're in a 6,500-acre nature reserve—protected wetlands home to species found nowhere else on Earth, right at the edge of campus. UC Merced runs four field stations across the Sierra Nevada, including sites inside Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks. You won't just read about ecosystems in a textbook. You'll stand in them.
Learn more about our Living Labs →
Your professors are doing work that matters.
Our faculty have given TED Talks, appeared on Shark Week, and are recognized as leaders in their fields. They study everything from ancient shark teeth to the microbes that control our planet's chemistry to the soil beneath California's farms. At a big university, professors like these lecture to hundreds of students. Here, you'll work beside them.
Your skills won't expire.
AI can already pass tests and write essays. The skills that will matter in your career are the ones computers can't do—asking new questions, designing experiments, making sense of confusing data, adapting when things don't go as planned. That's what you learn when you do research. That's what this program builds.
See where our students and alumni are now →
Your Next Steps
Come see for yourself. Walk the trails. Meet our students. Ask them what it's really like here.
Have questions? Reach out to one of the ESS Academic Advisors:
- Chelsea Flannery (cflannery@ucmerced.edu)
- Cynthia Granados (cgranados10@ucmerced.edu)
- Maricela Melendrez (mmelendrez2@ucmerced.edu)
Explore the program.
One More Thing
We're not here to give you a chance. We're offering you a unique advantage.
We hope to meet you soon.
