Student & Alumni Success

UC Merced Recognized on Newsweek’s Inaugural ‘America’s Best Colleges for Women’ List

February 4, 2026

Recent female UC Merced graduates wave to the camera

UC Merced has been recognized on Newsweek’s inaugural America’s Best Colleges for Women 2026 list, a national ranking designed to spotlight institutions that support, advance and elevate women across campus and beyond. Newsweek developed the new report in partnership with Gender Fair...

UC Merced students are depicted in front of a poster explaining their project for I2G.

Creative, Problem-Solving Projects Win at I2G

A semi-automated washing system for bins at a tomato-processing facility and a mobile app for hikers earned big wins at the Fall 2025 I2G, or Innovate to Grow, event at UC Merced. I2G is a unique...

graphic with five individuals higlighted; three females and two males with UC Merced and ARCS logos on blue background

Innovative Research Secures Coveted Fellowships for Ph.D. Students

The ARCS Foundation Northern California awarded five UC Merced graduate students with 2025-26 fellowships. ARCS advances science and technology in the United States by providing financial awards to...

Trinidad Quiroz Signs Professional Contract with Necaxa Femenil

UC Merced women's soccer star Trinidad Quiroz has signed with Necaxa Femenil of Liga BBVA MX Femenil. Quiroz is the first Bobcat to sign a contract with the highest level of women's...

Kevin Arrieta is pictured speaking to an electrical engineering class at UC Merced.

UC Merced Alum, Now a Robotics Expert for Amazon, Advises Students to Get Their Hands Dirty

Kevin Arrieta got into robotics to avoid getting into trouble. Arrieta said he joined the robotics club at Dominguez High School in Compton high school after Gloria Esiobu, the teacher who ran it...

Collage photo of Black male with dark hair and beard wearing blue and gray long sleeve shirt and photo of campus signage and palm trees.

Ph.D. Student Awarded Fellowship to Advance Environmental Health and Harmful Algal Bloom Mitigation

Public health Ph.D. student Felix Agyemang Opoku has been awarded the UC Global Health Initiative Center for Planetary Health Water and Health Summer Research Fellowship. The research...

Female with brown hair in cream turtle neck top in front of building

Doctoral Student Secures New Fellowships to Support Computational Modeling Research

Physics Ph.D. candidate Arabi Seshappan added two prestigious fellowships to her curriculum vitae: the Chateaubriand Fellowship in Science, Technology, Engineering Mathematics & Biology-Health...

High school students will have a wider array of research opportunities through COSMOS starting next summer.

COSMOS Expands to UC Merced, Opening Doors for California’s Brightest Young Scientists

Starting next summer, UC Merced will join an elite group of University of California campuses hosting COSMOS — the California State Summer School for Math and Science — giving some of the...

UC Merced Receives Transformational $38 Million Gift from MacKenzie Scott

The University of California, Merced today announced the largest philanthropic gift in its history, an extraordinary new commitment from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott. This transformational...

Conference of California Sociologists Engages UC Merced Undergrads

More than a dozen undergraduate students in UC Merced’s Sociology Club were immersed in the discipline’s breadth of research and professional possibilities during the California...

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