Hear from a Slavic Major
who studied in Russia

UCSB’s Slavic Program strongly urges its students to study in Russia through the UC Education Abroad Program (UCEAP) in St. Petersburg. Given the increasing globalization of our world, living in Europe will help expand your understanding of diverse, culturally-rooted attitudes and behaviors. You will enhance your cross-cultural awareness, competency, and adaptability. Living and studying in Russia will expand your perspective, improve your critical thinking, increase your independence, and better prepare you for a career in an increasingly globalized international community.

If you are studying Russian, you have already shown that you have international and multicultural interests. Why not take that interest a step further and have a transforming and life-enriching experience?  Go live in St. Petersburg and experience Russian language and culture firsthand!

• Study in a country that plays a vital geopolitical role in the world
• Observe the ongoing political, economic and social changes that have taken place since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 and see how Russia is reinventing itself after 76 years of communism
• Make vast improvements in your language skills by being immersed in the language and using it 24/7
• Expand your career opportunities by learning a language spoken natively by 160 million people and as a second language by 100 million others in Europe and Asia
• Walk the streets, see the architecture, visit the countryside and tour the palaces that have inspired Russian writers like Dostoevsky, artists like Chagall, and filmmakers like Eisenshtein
• Walk across Red Square at night when it’s snowing; hang out in Gorky Park; watch the drawbridges rise late at night in St. Petersburg; pick mushrooms at a dacha
• Enhance your résumé for job or graduate school applications

Returning UCEAP students often describe their experiences abroad as life-changing and uniquely valuable for future choices of professional and personal goals.

While it is possible for students to go abroad at almost any point in their academic careers, the particular time that you study abroad depends on what courses you plan to take and when you have fulfilled the necessary prerequisites for the program you wish to attend. While students can participate as early as their sophomore year, students wanting to fulfill upper-division major requirements should, in most cases, study abroad during their junior or senior year. 

See here for UCEAP program offerings in Russia.

All UCEAP students automatically earn UC credit for the work they complete abroad. However, the application of credit to major requirements is subject to the discretion of the department.

Use Gaucho Credit Abroad to search for the types of credit (i.e. major, minor, GE areas, or electives towards graduation) that UCSB students received for courses taken on UCEAP. You can find more UCEAP courses in the UCEAP Course Catalog and additional course listings on UCEAP partner university/program websites.

• Explore program options
• Attend info meetings
• Contact the UCSB EAP Office
• Contact the Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies

Academic Planning Form Tutorial

Gaucho Credit Abroad Database