Chemistry & Biochemistry

Letter of Intent

Write a letter to the attention of the CCS Chemistry and Biochemistry faculty, stating your academic interests, your reasons for wanting to study at CCS, and your background in Chemistry. This letter is separate from the essay required in the UC application. Please save and upload this letter as a PDF in order to avoid formatting distortions.

Letters of Recommendation

Letters of recommendation are required for applications to CCS Chemistry and Biochemistry. Please list at least two persons well-acquainted with your academic background and your ability in Chemistry/Biochemistry. The CCS Online Application form will ask for your recommenders’ email addresses and will send them a prompt with a link. This link will direct recommenders to instructions for uploading letters.  We suggest notifying recommenders ahead of time that they should be expecting an email with instructions to upload their letter.  Please request that letters are saved and uploaded as a PDF in order to avoid formatting distortions. 

Transcripts

In addition to the copies you send to the UCSB Office of Admissions, there is a section on the CCS Online Application where you must upload copies of your transcripts from every high school and college you have attended. Transcripts do not need to be official, so a scan or picture of your transcripts may be uploaded (jpeg or PDF). If you are currently enrolled at UCSB, please upload a copy of your course history, which you can obtain using a screenshot from GOLD.  It is your responsibility to ensure that attachments uploaded to your application are clear and legible.

Submitting Work in Evidence of Talent

Although submitting work in evidence of talent is not required for CCS Chemistry and Biochemistry, it helps to give us a more complete idea of your skills and interests. If possible, submit examples of independent research, scientific reports or projects, or any other work that shows your ability and interests.

Decision by the College

For Fall UCSB applicants, the College of Creative Studies cannot inform applicants of decisions on their CCS applications until the University of California Santa Barbara has mailed the campus’ admission/deferral letters in March. CCS decision letters follow immediately thereafter. A denial from CCS does not negatively affect your admission to one of the other colleges at UCSB.

The review process normally takes three to six weeks during the academic year.

If you are a registered UCSB student, you may take Creative Studies classes even if you are not enrolled in CCS, on a space-available, instructor-approved basis.