The UCS program is an interdisciplinary major for students interested in social change who want a meaningful career in public and community services. The program gives students a deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities of urban life by looking at communities through a variety of academic perspectives. This holistic approach provides students with the tools they need to take an active role in their communities and prepare them, upon graduation, for a variety of careers and/or graduate degrees.

As a graduate with a B.A. in Urban and Community Studies from UConn, students have a solid foundation for employment in fields such as social work, public policy, criminal justice, law, public health, social service, community organizing, nonprofit management, urban and regional planning – to just name a few. A degree in UCS also provides an excellent foundation for pursuing a graduate degree in a variety of academic subject areas.

Our flexible curriculum offers our majors the ability to take courses with UCS based on their own personal career or graduate school aspirations. Students may choose to create a personalized degree plan based on their own academic interests or they may choose to follow a specific emphasis area offered by the program.

The table below provides a listing of the Emphasis Areas that are offered through the UCS program as well as examples of the types of career fields or graduate degrees students could pursue if they followed a specific area of study within the major. Click on the Emphasis Area(s) below to view or print course recommendations.