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Welcome!

The Graduate Division is here to help you throughout your graduate career, sometimes behind the scenes and sometimes face-to-face. We will assist you — in your search for financial support, in arranging research and teaching appointments, with academic skills-building, with work/life balance issues, and more — from the time you are admitted until you’ve earned your degree.

Choosing Berkeley for your graduate career was a pivotal decision for you, and a wise one. No other university can match the breadth and depth of opportunities offered here. You have been drawn by the reputation of your particular department or program, but Berkeley truly is greater than the sum of its individual parts. In classrooms, libraries, and labs, our students and faculty share a sense of discovery and passion for pushing forward the frontiers of knowledge.

Berkeley is a magical place, and I predict you will fall under its spell as so many other scholars have over the years. Whenever I travel to meetings and universities around the country, and around the world, I meet people who were once graduate students at Berkeley. They always want to reminisce with me.

They’re also keen to know about new degree programs, new research, and new student initiatives. I encourage you to take advantage of the richness all around Berkeley. Go to lectures in different disciplines, attend film festivals, live performances, and art exhibits. Join a political club or work for a student journal. Make time for a hiking trip in the Sierra or sailing lessons on the Bay. Get out of the libraries and labs on occasion and go to a graduate student social event. You can thrive with a full, multifaceted life here.

Here is your first assignment as a new graduate student. On a beautiful fall afternoon, take a bus, bike, or walk from campus to the Berkeley Marina. Walk the length of the Berkeley pier, gaze back at the East Bay hills, look across to San Francisco, and then watch the sun set beyond the Golden Gate Bridge. These are going to be some of the best years of your life.

Andrew J. Szeri
Dean of the Graduate Division

 

Last Updated: May 28, 2013 12:36 PM