employer cover photo
employer logo
employer logo

UC Santa Barbara

Is this your company?

UC Santa Barbara reviews

4.4

85% would recommend to a friend

(2,090 total reviews)
avatar

Henry T. Yang

47% approve of CEO

61% positive business outlook

UC Santa Barbara has an employee rating of 4.4 out of 5 stars, based on 2,090 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an excellent working experience there. The UC Santa Barbara employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Education industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

2K reviews
1.0
Apr 18, 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Benefits, and a really pretty campus.

Cons

They make you pay for parking, and the culture just isn't there. It depends where you are in your departments but for the most part everyone is on the older side and is incredibly out of touch with the real world...think unmarried "cat ladies". You are INCREDIBLY UNDERPAID and have little to no movement for growth. It's a government job where pretty much nothing will get done when you ask someone else to do it. The people are nice but really weird, and you won't be going out to grab a beer with them after work, or want acknowledging their existence out of the workplace. It's okay if you need something to do and don't care about making money, but without a second income life can be pretty tough. The staff is roughly 95% women and the men are only in the technical positions. No real applicable experience which is sad.

2.0
Jan 25, 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

there's a beach - although it's too cold to swim there there are pretty views sometimes

Cons

pay is terrible for staff and post-docs there is limited culture there driving is crazy because skateboards have the right of way

3.0
Oct 15, 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Some departments (materials science, theoretical physics, for example) are able to attract the best talents in the world. Obviously the location and the Institute of Theoretical Physics helps. I was dissatisfied the whole time when I was a student there, but once you are out of the place you realize UCSB does offer a very good environment to conduct world-class research, primarily due to stellar academic reputations of individual researchers (but not necessarily the university itself).

Cons

The university itself does not enjoy as high a reputation as its research capacity demonstrates. The undergraduate student body is uninspired at best. Too many superficial Hollywood types from SoCal.

Viewing 1 - 3 of 2,090 Reviews

Glassdoor has 2,328 UC Santa Barbara reviews submitted anonymously by UC Santa Barbara employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if UC Santa Barbara is right for you.