The Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) Department offers a contiguous bachelor’s/master’s path program, which can be completed with an appropriate bachelor’s degree at UC Santa Cruz in five years. The program provides highly motivated undergraduate majors the opportunity to earn separate bachelor’s (B.A.) and master’s (M.A.) degrees. This pathway provides an additional level of preparation and experience to help students pursue careers in industry or government, or to increase their competitiveness for doctoral programs.

Students applying to the EEB Contiguous Bachelor’s/Master’s Path must be UC Santa Cruz undergraduates who are in the process of developing or conducting an independent research project with an EEB ladder rank faculty as their advisor or co-advisor. The undergraduate thesis advisor is the person who recommends applicants to the contiguous B.A./M.A. program and agrees to continue serving as their master’s advisor or co-advisor. Students applying to this program will either be completing an undergraduate degree in one of the majors administered by EEB (i.e., biology, ecology and evolutionary biology, marine biology, or plant science) or completing an undergraduate degree in a related field and have completed and done well in the EEB coursework relevant to their proposed research. The master's degree consists of 35 total credits, 15 credits from upper-level undergraduate courses and 20 credits in graduate-level courses.

Applications to the contiguous B.A./M.A path are completed in a two-step process. In spring of the undergraduate’s junior year, they will complete the EEB departmental application form as described in the checklist below. If approved for the additional-year Contiguous Bachelor’s/Master’s Path, students will go through the regular EEB master’s program application process in fall of their senior year. Admission to the program is not guaranteed; significant progress on the thesis research project combined with an excellent academic track record will indicate the preparedness of the student to undertake this accelerated master’s program.