Student Testimonial Detail

Benjamin Bohr

I will finish up my B.A. degrees at UCI this Spring quarter, and in the fall, I will I start a PhD program in Political Science (with an emphasis in international relations) at UC San Diego. This degree program will serve as a steppingstone for my future career as a university professor and researcher. I attribute no small part of my acceptance to this top-10 political science department to the freedom and guidance I enjoyed as a UCI Global Cultures major!

A disproportionate number of UCI's brightest students graduate with a Global Cultures major because this program has found a rare recipe for academic and personal success. The structure of the major strikes a hard-to-achieve balance between academic flexibility and guidance. As a Global Cultures major, I had the freedom to delve into a wide variety of academic interests—from linguistic integration in the European Union to global music movements to international law. This flexible curriculum allowed me to complete both the Global Cultures requirements, as well as my second major, Political Science, in just four years.

The program's director, Dr. Armin Schwegler, not only permits his students to indulge their diversity of interests, but also encourages and facilitates student involvement in an even broader array of on- and off-campus activities. For example, with Dr. Schwegler's help, I studied abroad on two separate occasions, in Sweden and France, and had virtually all of my classes count towards my major. These opportunities to learn foreign languages and about different cultures are among the most enjoyable and formative experiences of my undergraduate career.

The Global Cultures curriculum is more than just flexible. I found that the few required core courses were among the most rigorous and informative classes I took during my time at UCI. Additionally, the faculty members affiliated with the major are particularly helpful in their suggestions and guidance for creating a fulfilling plan of study. My major emphasis was inter-area studies, through which I pursued my interdisciplinary and non-regionally defined interest in how globalization affects political institutions and power arrangements.