Skip to Main Content
UCLA Logo UCLA Department of Chicana/o and Central American Studies

Graduate Admissions

Graduate Admissions

Application Deadline: December 1st

CCAS Ph.D admission application will be live in mid-September- click here

ATTN: GRE scores are no longer required starting the AY 2022-2023 and continuing years. 

Application Breakdown

To be considered for admission, an applicant must have a Bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution and submit a university application and supplemental materials required by the department. This includes a statement of purpose, transcripts, GPA (we will consider the last 60 semester or 90 quarter units), recommendation letters, and a writing sample. For applicants interested in Expressive Arts, an example of a creative work (visual art or creative writing) should be submitted in addition to the writing sample. We will use the complete application to assess the knowledge and skills of our applicants, their fit with the department’s resources, objectives, and four specializations, and their potential to contribute to the intellectual growth of the department.

Your statement of purpose can be up to 1,000 words in length. This is one of the most important components of your application. Your Statement of Purpose should include the following information: what are your research interests, what do you plan to do in a Ph.D. program, why are you pursuing a Ph.D. in Chicana and Chicano Studies, what do you plan to focus on and with whom at our department you will be interested in working with and why. Statements that articulate interest in undertaking a particular project have a competitive edge over statements that indicate interest only in broad topics or areas of research.

Tips:

We are more interested in what you plan to do in your advanced studies in the Ph.D. program than in a narrative of what you have already done in the past. Draw on your past education and experience to bolster your proposal (to show how well-prepared you are in specific ways) rather than make that history serve as the proposal itself.

Keep it academic. You may include autobiographical information in your Personal Statement, but do not use the very limited space you have for personal or autobiographical details.

The Personal Statement is an opportunity for you to provide additional information that may aid the selection committee in evaluating your preparation and aptitude for graduate study at UCLA. The personal statement will also be used to consider candidates for the Cota-Robles & GOP awards.

Instructions to respond to one of more of the following prompts are provided in the application and include a 500 words limit (approximately 1-page, single spaced, using 1-inch margins and 12-point font):

Describe ways in which your perspectives, experiences, or aspirations have aligned with UCLA’s Principles of Community.

Are there educational, personal, cultural, economic, or social experiences, not described in your Statement of Purpose, that have shaped your academic journey? If so, how? Have any of these experiences provided unique perspective(s) that you would contribute to your program, field or profession?

Describe challenge(s) or barriers that you have faced in your pursuit of higher education. What motivated you to persist, and how did you overcome them?

What leadership experiences, community outreach, service initiatives, or research projects have you participated in or plan to pursue that aim to positively impact others of the broader community?