UC Santa Cruz Ethnic, Cultural, and Gender Studies (Bachelor's): Tuition, Graduate Salary, and Debt
- Bachelor's in Ethnic, Cultural Minority, Gender, and Group Studies
- Public university
- Santa Cruz, CA
- About 120 graduates a year
College Scorecard June 2026 release · BLS wages May 2025
The short answer
UC Santa Cruz ethnic, cultural, and gender studies graduates earn about what ethnic, cultural, and gender studies graduates earn nationally, $31,140 in their first year. The typical graduate leaves with $19,747 in federal loans, close to the national median of $22,938. Several California programs report higher pay.
How it compares
Each figure is the median for graduates of the program. The California and national columns are the medians across all ethnic, cultural, and gender studies bachelor's programs that report the figure.
Five years out, UC Santa Cruz graduates earn more than the national figure and about $2,505 more than the California median.
Debt and first-year pay at every California ethnic, cultural, and gender studies program
Programs in the upper left give graduates higher pay for less debt. Dashed lines mark the California medians.
Hover over or tap a dot to see the school. Only programs that report both earnings and debt are shown.
What graduates earn over time
Pay rises about 82% between the first and fifth year.
Year 1 and year 5 figures come from different graduating classes, so the growth rate is an estimate.
Does family income change the outcome?
Graduates who received Pell Grants, which go to students from lower-income families, earned more in their first year than other graduates. They also borrowed less. At this program, the outcome does not look worse for students with less money.
Paying back the loans
On a standard 10-year plan, the median debt means a payment of about $209 a month, or 8.1% of a graduate's typical monthly pay in the first year.
The government publishes these as ranges to protect privacy. They were measured in 2018 to 2020, partly during the pandemic pause on federal loan payments, so the forbearance share may be higher than usual. Separately, 33 parents took out Parent PLUS loans for these students, with a median of $33,369.
Where graduates work, and what the pay is worth
95% of graduates (170 of 179) were working in California one year after graduating. Prices in the Santa Cruz area are about 10% above the national average, so a $31,140 salary here buys what about $28,336 buys in a typical US city.
Careers this field leads to
These are the jobs that the federal crosswalk from fields of study to occupations links to ethnic, cultural, and gender studies, largest first. Pay is the median across all experience levels.
Interpreters and Translators
$70,770Median pay in California. 5,560 people work in this job in California. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 2% from 2025 to 2035, with about 6,000 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.
About UC Santa Cruz
Ethnic, Cultural, and Gender Studies ranks 21st of 35 bachelor's programs at UC Santa Cruz by first-year earnings. The top three are Computer Engineering ($79,969), Electrical Engineering ($78,842), and Computer Science ($75,150).
Other ethnic, cultural, and gender studies bachelor's programs near Santa Cruz
Common questions
The median graduate earns $31,140 one year after graduating and $56,551 five years after. The median across ethnic, cultural, and gender studies bachelor's programs in California is $30,984.
The median federal loan balance is $19,747, which ranks 15th lowest of 20 ethnic, cultural, and gender studies bachelor's programs in California. That works out to about $209 a month over 10 years.
On the numbers, yes for most students. Debt equals 63% of first-year earnings, against a national median of 69%, and the share of borrowers in default two years into repayment is 10% or less. If the highest possible early salary is the main goal, several California programs report higher pay.
Most do. 95% (170 of 179) were working in California one year after graduating.
About this data
- Earnings and debt only include students who received federal financial aid (grants or loans).
- Earnings only count graduates who were working and not enrolled in more school. Graduates who went straight to further study are not included.
- Debt only includes federal loans. Private loans and credit cards are not counted.
- Some schools with several campuses report one combined figure for all of them. We count each of those schools once, and leave them out of California comparisons when their main campus is in another state.
- Scorecard figures describe graduating classes from several years ago. BLS wages are from May 2025.
- School-level numbers like tuition, admission rate, and graduation rate are for the whole school, not the ethnic, cultural, and gender studies program.
Sources
- U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard, field of study and institution files, June 2026 release
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections 2025 to 2035
- Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Price Parities, 2024
- NCES, CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk, and IPEDS institution directory, 2024