In addition to departmental requirements for graduate admission, applicants must fulfill University requirements found in the UCSB General Catalog (General Requirements for Graduate Degrees) http://www.catalog.ucsb.edu/2008cat/general/g.htm#DegEmphSpec.

To be considered for admission to the M.A./Ph.D. and Ph.D-only degree programs in film and media studies, a student must show a strong aptitude for scholarly work and demonstrate intellectual maturity. Students who are admitted will be required to attain a basic level of competence in the discipline in conjunction with their specific program of study. Many of the students admitted to the program will have achieved such a base level of competence by having completed an undergraduate major in film and media studies or taken film and media studies courses while majoring in a closely related humanities, arts, or social science discipline (such as literature, dramatic arts, philosophy, history, or women’s studies) with an emphasis on critical thinking and writing.

Applications to both the M.A./Ph.D and Ph.D-only programs are accepted in the Fall Quarter (September - November) only. The application deadline for all applicants is December 1, when the department will begin screening applications for a limited number of competitive openings and funding opportunities.

Admission to the M.A./Ph.D. and Ph.D.-only programs are based on seven application components:

1. On-line Application: https://www.graddiv.ucsb.edu/eapp/ A $60 non-refundable application fee must be paid by Visa or MasterCard, check or money order, before the application will be processed.
2. Two copies of official transcripts from all post-secondary institutions attended should be mailed to the Graduate Program Assistant at the address at the bottom of the page. A 3.0 GPA of your upper-division courses is a campus-wide minimum requirement for UCSB graduate study.
3. A Statement of Purpose, including a resume, describing your reasons for wishing to earn a Ph.D. in Film and Media studies. The coversheet is found on the Graduate Division website.
4. A writing sample that demonstrates a high level of ability to write theory, criticism, or historical narrative. It should be 8-20 pages of a coherent, complete essay, and does not have to be about film or media and should be mailed to the address at the bottom of this page.
5. Three letters of recommendation should be mailed to the address at the bottom of this page. The required cover sheet which must be used with each letter is found on the Graduate Division website.
6. GRE exam scores (Institution Code 4835, sent electronically via ETS). Scores are good for five years.
7. TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) exam. International students whose native language is not English will be required to obtain a minimum score of 600 paper / 250 computer / 100 internet prior to admission.
8. The minimum IELTS score for consideration is an overall score of 7 or higher.

UCSB does not admit students conditionally in order to learn English prior to beginning an academic program; an excellent command of written and spoken English is required prior to enrollment.

Detailed procedures about the ELPE, Minimum Proficiency Requirements in Spoken and written English, and the TA Language Evaluation Exam are outlined under English as a Second Language (ESL) on the graduate application webpage
www.graddiv.ucsb.edu/admissions/application/ and on the international student webpage at www.graddiv.ucsb.edu/admissions/international/For further clarification and elaboration, please see the Graduate Division website:
https://www.graddiv.ucsb.edu/admissions/application/

Information and Questions: grad@filmandmedia.ucsb.edu

Director of Graduate Studies: Professor Edward Branigan
Graduate Program Assistant: Melany Miners  (805-893-8535)

Graduate Program
Department of Film and Media Studies
University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-4010

grad@filmandmedia.ucsb.edu
phone: 805-893-8535 fax: 805-893-8630

Rev. 01/29/08