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Some Questions and Answers
What's special about UCSD and Eleanor Roosevelt College?
How will going to ERC help me get into graduate or medical school?
How will a four-year degree from ERC help me get a good job?
If I want to be an engineer, why take non-engineering courses?
What's special about UCSD
and Eleanor Roosevelt College?
Here you have an unbeatable combination: attending a major research university that offers
more than 100 different majors and, at the same time, enjoying the intimacy of belonging to
a small college. The faculty at UCSD are internationally recognized as experts in their fields; a
recent study by the National Research Council placed 14 UCSD programs among the top ten
nationwide. The comprehensive general education program at ERC will introduce you to a diversified range of academic disciplines. It will help you understand the processes that have created the cultures and the political and economic systems that make up the world in which you'll be living and working. Within ERC, you'll have easy access to student services and many opportunities to get to know staff and faculty personally. Through college programs and activities, you'll make friendships to last a lifetime, have lots of fun, and develop your own interests and skills.
ERC can equip you with the kind of education that will be essential for the 21st Century. Our
approach has been appreciated and supported by grants from the Richard Lounsbery Foundation,
the Ford Foundation, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Other universities study our
programs as models, especially our core curriculum, the six courses in humanities and social
sciences that we call The Making of the Modern World (MMW).
In a large university like UCSD, students are confronted with multitudes of facts and many kinds of
knowledge. The challenge is to combine the parts into an understandable whole; this is the aim of
MMW. Developed and taught by a team of professors from anthropology, history, literature,
political science, sociology, and visual arts, MMW will help you find connections -- between present
and past, among the societies and civilizations that have inhabited earth, and among the many
ways in which humans have responded to their experience. Our hope is to encourage you to
become excited about new learning as you develop your abilities to interrogate and understand the
world and its complexities, and to enjoy the adventure along the way.
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How will going to ERC help me get into graduate or medical school?
Despite the highly specialized knowledge emerging in most fields, graduate and professional
schools look for applicants who are broadly educated. For example, according to a recent survey
of the American Association of Medical Schools, of the relatively few non-science majors who
applied (history, philosophy, economics, English majors), 41% gained admission, whereas biology
majors (most applicants) had a 35% rate of admission. Awareness of global issues is increasingly
relevant in medicine (think of the worldwide spread of AIDS and the Ebola virus outbreaks in
Africa). To research scientists no less than to law students, thinking analytically and writing well
are critical. When funding is scarce, a research proposal's cultural sensitivity and relevance to
social needs can make the difference between funding or none. If you hope to do graduate work,
your mastery of such skills and perspectives will complement the other requisites for graduate
study: an excellent undergraduate record and high scores on exams like the GRE, GMAT, MCAT, or
LSAT (Graduate Record Exam, Graduate Management Admission Test, Medical School Admission
Test, Law School Admission Test). Back to top
How will a four-year degree from ERC help me get a good job?
Two key elements in the job market at any level are (1) having a background that makes your
application stand out from the crowd and (2) demonstrating during interviews that your knowledge
and experience go beyond the ordinary. More and more, employers need people with cross-cultural awareness and the ability to speak a second language in addition to excellent reading and writing skills and a base of general or specialized knowledge.
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If I want to be an engineer, why take non-engineering courses?
Manufacturing and design companies aim to market their products all over the world as well as
among minority consumers in this country. Engineers who have a background broader than the
technical elements of their field improve their options and prospects for career development and
advancement. Back to top
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