Degree Programs

The degrees offered by our 16 departments and programs encourage our learners to go out into the world to explore and grow as scholars and as citizens.

In the UC San Diego School of Social Sciences, we care about doing good, doing well, and making a difference. What do you care about? Discover your passion with us.

Explore undergraduate and graduate degree offerings:

Anthropology

Study all things human and our nearest nonhuman relatives, too. Put on the lenses of biology or culture to see the evolution of societies past and present.

Cognitive Science

Meld computing and neuroscience to understand thinking, action and interaction in the real world. Geek out on brains, extended minds or design.

Communication

Free speech. The social power of mass media. Recognize communication as a force that grows out of communities and shapes them, driving change. 

Computational Social Science

Dynamic pricing of rideshare services, automated tutoring systems and mitigation strategies for disinformation campaigns. These all require a novel computational social science skillset to address. 

Critical Gender Studies

Question popular ideas about gender and sexuality. Challenge the status quo in a lively, tight-knit community of creative thinkers.

Economics

Figure out how to alleviate poverty or navigate the stock market. Your return on investment is a marketable degree with cosmopolitan flair.

Education Studies

Want to change schools and classrooms for the better, for learners of all kinds? You belong here, helping to create the education of tomorrow.

Ethnic Studies

Work for social justice, knowing power is unequally distributed and too often based on flawed ideas about gender, race, ethnicity and class.

Global Health

Cures, preventions, interventions. Contribute to the well-being of the world by understanding health, illness, and healing across the globe.

Human Developmental Sciences

Cells to societies, change is the only constant. Learn about growth from birth to old age. Improve lives and social services across the lifespan. 

Latin American Studies

Democracy and drugs. Gender and migration. Business and poverty alleviation. Medicine and culture. Build a career-empowering custom degree.

Linguistics

The richness of the world’s spoken and signed languages can take your breath away. It can also translate into a career in language therapy or computing.

Political Science

Pick up cutting-edge tools to change the world of politics at home and abroad. You can elect prelaw or the latest in mining and crunching data.

Psychology

Explore behavior and emotion in experimental studies of the brain and mind. You can also take a dive outside the lab, in clinical or business psychology.

Sociology

Immigration and the American workforce. Inequality and social movements. What works in society and what doesn’t? Take a big-picture, fact-driven view.

Urban Studies and Planning

Sustainable cities, for the long haul. Help build an urban future that makes financial sense, creates community, and supports people and the environment.