Undergraduate Students

First-generation Students Shine at UC Merced. This Week Celebrates Them

November 3, 2025

UC Merced Professor Rose Scott, student Narciso Martinez Solorio

More than six in 10 UC Merced undergraduates are the first in their families to attend a university. The national average for four-year universities is about two in 10. Opening doors to opportunity for first-generation students is infused into UC Merced’s DNA. Young people who had little...

Students Get Boost for Med School Plans

First, UC Merced senior Julio Flores wanted to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Then, neurobiology called his name. Now, after research experience in diabetes, he thinks that’s the field for him. In the...

Record Spike in Applications Nets Enrollment Increase

A fall census shows enrollment at the University of California, Merced, has reached 6,195 students — a 7 percent increase over last year — as the campus continues to grow in both numbers and ...

UC Merced Alum Travels to U.K. for Master’s Program in Brain Sciences

With UC Merced in her hometown, Hillary Brown had an easy commute to her college campus. She’ll log many more miles on the way to graduate school. Brown is headed to the University of Glasgow in...

UC Merced San Joaquin Valley PRIME Announces Third Class of Students

Six students with close ties to the San Joaquin Valley are on track to becoming physicians as part of the UC Merced San Joaquin Valley Program in Medical Education (PRIME). The group, which began...

Well-known Technology Sees New Use in Solar Collection

Adapting technology that has become the standard in the automotive, aerospace and air-conditioning industries, Professor Gerardo Diaz has designed and is testing the next generation of solar-...

Record Enrollment, Larger Faculty, Increased Emphasis on Research and Graduate Programs Mark Campus's Ninth Year

The University of California, Merced, kicks off its 2013-14 academic year today with the largest and most diverse class of incoming freshmen, the largest contingent of graduate students, the largest...

On-Campus Housing Accommodates 2,100 Students This Year

Although the UC Merced campus is entering its ninth academic year, the campus is still in a constant state of expansion. To fill a demand for more housing, the newest residence hall — Half Dome — was...

Connection Remains Strong for Bioengineering Grad

It has been four years since Mike Oliveira earned his bachelor’s degree in bioengineering at UC Merced, but the campus still feels like home to him. Now pursuing a Ph.D. at UC Riverside, Oliveira...

Merritt Writing Program Lecturer Reaches Students with Comic Books

In John Bultena’s writing classes, students often explore new literary classics. Like “Batwoman Volume 1: Hydrology.” Bultena, a lecturer in UC Merced’s Merritt Writing Program and recent panelist at...