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Senior Residence

Senior Residence

Every candidate for a bachelor’s degree must be registered at UCSC for a minimum of three quarters. In addition, of the final 45 quarter credits, 35 must be in regular courses of instruction taken as a registered student at UCSC (including during the summer session).

The credit requirement for residence is applied differently to students participating in one or more of the off-campus study programs approved by the Academic Senate or the division. Participating students may satisfy the requirement in either of two ways:

  1. Complete 35 of their final 45 credits before leaving the Santa Cruz campus to participate in one or more off-campus approved study programs. In this scenario, students do not have to return to Santa Cruz for any additional coursework after they have finished the program(s).
  2. Complete 35 of their last 90 credits at the Santa Cruz campus, with a minimum of 10 credits completed at UCSC after their return from the off-campus approved study program(s).

A student who takes courses outside UCSC, e.g., at community college, may choose at the time of graduation to have only some of the credits completed outside counted toward the 180-credit graduation requirement in order to meet the residency requirement. Subject credit will still be given for lower-division courses and courses at other campuses of the University of California that are not counted toward the graduation requirement. This will not require a petition, and the credit will be reduced by the Office of the Registrar, in consultation with department or college advisors, or the Admissions Office, as needed.

Open campus / Concurrent Enrollment: For students who have been admitted and matriculated at UC Santa Cruz, but who have not yet graduated, the grades earned in Open Campus/ Concurrent Enrollment courses taken after their first matriculation at UCSC appear on the student’s UC Santa Cruz transcript, are notated as Open Campus courses, count toward University of California and UC Santa Cruz Grade Point Average (GPA), and count toward senior residency requirements.  For more information on Open Campus, see UCSC SIlicon Valley Extension.