Discovering Eighth College: A New Approach to Education at UC San Diego

UC San Diego (UCSD) is known for its unique college system, where the undergraduate experience is divided into eight residential colleges. Each college has its own distinct philosophy, general education requirements, and campus culture. This structure provides students with a smaller community within the large university, tailoring their academic experience based on their interests and values. As the newest addition to UC San Diego, Eighth College offers a fresh perspective on higher education.

UCSD's College System: A Foundation for Personalized Learning

When students apply to UCSD, they rank the colleges based on personal preference, and the university places them in one based on availability and their preferences. The choice of college does not limit a student’s choice of major, as all majors are available across all colleges. Each college features its own residential halls, dining hall, library, and common areas, fostering a strong sense of community.

General Education Requirements Across Colleges

Each college has its own general education requirements. While all colleges require students to complete courses in college writing, math, science, social sciences, and the humanities, the number of required classes for each subject differs from college to college. Most colleges have specifically designed thematic courses that all students at that college must take regardless of major. Some colleges require courses in a foreign language, and some don’t.

A Quick Look at Other Colleges

Revelle College: Known for its rigorous curriculum with 16-20 required general education courses, including a strong emphasis on Western Civilization. Housing consists of a cluster of multistory residence hall buildings overlooking Revelle Plaza, primarily with triple rooms.
John Muir College: Offers flexibility with 11-14 required general education courses, allowing students to choose themes in math, natural science, and social sciences. Housing includes two high-rise residence halls with primarily triple rooms and some singles.

Read also: Navigating UC San Diego's College System
Thurgood Marshall College: Focuses on "Dimensions of Culture" with 15 required general education courses, including a 3-course sequence emphasizing university-level writing. It is considered the most luxurious college, with suites varying from triple, single, and mini-double rooms surrounding a common area.
Earl Warren College: Emphasizes ethics and society, with 12 required general education courses for engineering majors and 18 for non-engineering majors. Residence halls feature suites of single and triple rooms overlooking the UC San Diego Ecological Reserve.
Eleanor Roosevelt College: Promotes a global perspective with 13-17 required general education courses, including a 5-course sequence on the "Making of the Modern World." It is considered to have the best dorms and dining halls, with residence hall suites primarily consisting of triple rooms and some single rooms.
Sixth College: Encourages innovation with 16 required general education courses, including a "Culture, Art, and Technology" sequence. Housing is in the North Torrey Pines Living and Learning Neighborhood, one of the newer residence halls.
Seventh College: Focuses on interdisciplinary learning with 14 required general education courses, including a "Synthesis" sequence and a "High Impact" experiential learning course. Residents live in apartments with a full kitchen, in single, double, or triple rooms.

Read also: UCSD Summer Tuition Explained

Eighth College: A New Vision

Eighth College at UCSD opened for undergraduate students in the fall of 2023. It aims to prepare students to face difficult global challenges through civically engaged pedagogy and experiential- and community-based learning. The college welcomed its inaugural first-year class in Fall 2023; the first transfer class will enroll beginning in Fall 2026.

"Inspiring Minds, Empowering Success"

Eighth College's theme revolves around "Inspiring Minds, Empowering Success," focusing on student-centered learning, innovation, accessibility, and success in the 21st-century world. The college’s academic programs, general education (GE) requirements, and extracurricular opportunities emphasize collaboration, creativity, problem-solving, and self-discovery.

General Education Requirements: Critical Community Engagement

Eighth College requires 14 general education courses. Central to Eighth College's curriculum is the "Critical Community Engagement" (CCE) series, which includes three lower-division courses (two of which involve intense instruction in university-level writing) and one upper-division project-based course. The CCE series provides an interdisciplinary approach to developing a close understanding of factors that have historically led to discrimination, structural and institutional racism, social exclusion, intentional and unintentional marginalization, and harm to diverse communities. All four courses provide training in interdisciplinary inquiry and community engagement.

CCE Course Themes: The CCE courses are characterized by ambitious reciprocal and respectful efforts inside the classroom and in daily endeavors to respond to historical and imminent challenges facing our communities locally and throughout the world.

Additionally, students must complete:

Two Arts courses
Two Humanities courses
Two Natural Sciences courses
Two Quantitative Reasoning and Engineering courses
Two Social Sciences courses

Eighth College students may pursue any of the majors offered at UC San Diego. With the approval of both departments or programs and the college provost, a student in good standing may declare a double major. Eighth College students may declare an optional minor. Eighth College encourages students to study abroad, engage in research, internships, and other UC San Diego sponsored educational enrichment programs.

Read also: Choosing a UCSD Diploma Frame

The SYNAPSE Core Sequence

One distinct feature of Eighth College is its interdisciplinary core sequence, known as SYNAPSE (SYNthesizing Advanced Practices for an Equitable Education). This 3-course sequence covers topics like collaboration and innovation, equity and social justice, and reflection and metacognition. These courses focus on developing essential 21st-century skills, such as critical thinking, ethical decision-making, teamwork, and effective communication.

Residential Life at Eighth College

Eighth College students call the Theater District Living and Learning Neighborhood home. The college’s neighborhood promotes a sense of community and healthy living through physical, mental and social well-being by connecting with nature for learning, relaxation and recreation.

Eighth College has five residential communities:

Azad Hall: A nine-story building with both apartment and residential hall style living spaces, housing around 200 residents. Azad means free in Persian, Hindi, Bengali, and Kurdish.
Podemos Hall: A sixteen-story building which accommodates approximately 350 residents. Each apartment is designed to house anywhere between 9 -12 residents. Podemos means "We can" in Spanish.
Pulse Hall: A ten-story building with both apartment and residential hall style living spaces that houses around 400 residents. Pulse brings ideas of heart, love, dance, and music and is an inclusive rhythm that connects groups that don't speak the same language through rhythm built into the body.
Sankofa Hall: A twenty-one story building which accommodates approximately 700 students. The building holds both apartment and residential hall style living spaces.
Survivance Hall: A eleven-story building with both apartment and residential hall style living spaces that houses around 400 residents. Survivance is a term originating from Native American Studies and is a powerful name and act of recognition for Native communities. The eleventh floor will house a conference center for Eighth College.

Residents live in one of five residential halls ranging from nine to twenty-one stories tall. Four offer apartment and residential hall-style living spaces, and one offers apartments designed to house between 9 and 12 residents. Opened in Fall 2023, making these the newest residential halls on campus.

Community and Engagement Theme

The Community & Engagement theme is both timely and persistent. It is at the heart of some of the most difficult challenges that humanity faces, worldwide: structural racism; widening disparities in economic wealth, health and wellbeing; climate disruption; ecological degradation; the globalization of chronic and infectious disease types and vectors; and the declining resilience in the capacity of human settlements and working lands to adaptively respond to increasingly frequent and devastating shocks happening worldwide. Importantly, the Community & Engagement theme leverages and is aligned with campus-wide efforts to combat structural racism and anti-Blackness.

Resources and Amenities

Eighth College has a variety of spaces where students can study, including reservable rooms in Survivance Hall. Residents of Eighth College have study lounges on every floor of their residential building that they may use to study or socialize. The community kitchen is available for all Eighth College residents to use to cook their meals. All the residential buildings in Eighth College come with a laundry room available to residents. Eighth College has multiple grills available for students to use.

Policies and Procedures

All posters and flyers must receive an approval stamp at the Eighth College Residence Life Office, located on the first floor of Sankofa Hall. Materials will not be approved to remain posted for longer than seven (7) days. Postings of any kind are not allowed in outdoor Eighth College spaces, including outside pillars, doors, windows or columns.

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