University of California - Irvine Overview

University of California - Irvine is a public institution situated in Irvine, California. Irvine is a great location for students who prefer city over country life.

What Is University of California - Irvine Known For?

• The student loan default rate at UC Irvine is 1%, which is significantly lower than the national rate of 10.1%. That's great news for students who are worrying about paying off their student loans.
• The doctor's degree is the highest award offered at UC Irvine.
• For the 2017-2018 academic year, 82% of the faculty were full-time.
• After graduation, UC Irvine bachelor's degree recipients go on to jobs where they make $58,400 a year. That's about 43% more than their peers at other schools.
• On average, it takes about 4.2 years for students from UC Irvine to earn a bachelor's degree. This is excellent when compared to the average of 4.4 years.

University of California - Irvine Rankings

We have ranked UC Irvine as #406 out of 2,587 colleges and universities in the country in our 2022 Best Colleges list.

These rankings may look different from those published by other outlets, because we use an outcomes-based approach rather than a subjective one. We get our data from a number of places, including the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and the College Scorecard. For more information, check out our rankings and methodology page.

UC Irvine has been awarded the following overall awards by our latest rankings.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#56	Best Graduate Certificate Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#184	Best Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Program Level Awards

These are highlights of some of the most noteworthy awards granted to specific programs at UC Irvine.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#1	Best Dance Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#1	Best Cultural Studies & Analysis Doctor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#1	Best Computer Systems Networking Doctor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#3	Best Criminology Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#9	Best Drama & Theater Arts Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#15	Best Music Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#17	Best Teacher Education Grade Specific Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#25	Best Education Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#29	Best Visual & Performing Arts Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#101	Best Business, Management & Marketing Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Awards From Around the Web

The following table lists some notable awards UC Irvine has earned from around the web.

Rank	Ranking Name	Source
#21	Best Teacher Education Grade Specific Schools	College Factual
#70	Best Education Schools	College Factual
#89	Best Nursing Schools	Nursing Degree Search
#94	Best Computer & Information Sciences Schools	College Factual
#97	Best Business, Management & Marketing Schools	College Factual
#130	Best Health Professions Schools	College Factual

Where Is University of California - Irvine?

Contact details for UC Irvine are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	501 Aldrich Hall, Irvine, CA 92697
Phone:	949-824-5011
Facebook:	https://www.facebook.com/UCIrvine
Twitter:	https://twitter.com/ucirvine

How Do I Get Into UC Irvine?

You can apply to UC Irvine online at: admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/apply-now.html

Admission Requirements for UC Irvine

Submission	Required?
High School GPA	required
High School Rank	recommended
High School Transcript	required
College Prep Program	required
Recommendations	neither required nor recommended
SAT or ACT Scores	required
TOEFL	required

How Hard Is It To Get Into UC Irvine?

The acceptance rate at UC Irvine is 30%, which means the school is highly selective when deciding who will be admitted and who won't. Even if you have great grades and test scores, that may not be enough. So be sure to look for ways to make your application memorable.

Approximately 45% of accepted students are men and 55% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 30%, and the acceptance rate for women is 30%.

Average Test Scores

About 91% of students accepted to UC Irvine submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 600 and 680. Math scores were between 630 and 750.

UC Irvine received ACT scores from 30% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT English scores ranged between 25 and 33. Math scores were between 26 and 31. Composite scores were between 26 and 33.

Can I Afford University of California - Irvine?

The overall average net price of UC Irvine is $46,083. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group.

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.

Student Loan Debt

Almost 66% of college students who graduated with the class of 2018 took out student loans, but that percentage varies from school to school. At UC Irvine, approximately 27% of students took out student loans averaging $5,012 a year. That adds up to $20,048 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at UC Irvine is 1.3%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.

University of California - Irvine Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are 29,638 undergraduate students at UC Irvine, with 28,990 being full-time and 648 being part-time.

There are also 6,665 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 28,990 full-time undergraduates at UC Irvine, 47% are male and 53% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

The racial-ethnic breakdown of University of California - Irvine students is as follows.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	10,880
Black or African American	578
Hispanic or Latino	7,336
White	3,717
International Students	4,714
Other Races/Ethnicities	1,765

Geographic Diversity

California students aren't the only ones who study at University of California - Irvine. At this time, 36 states are represented by the student population at the school.

Over 87 countries are represented at UC Irvine. The most popular countries sending students to the school are China, India, and South Korea.

Online Learning at University of California - Irvine

In 2019-2020, 35,949 students took at least one online class at the school.

The following chart shows how the online learning population at UC Irvine has changed over the last few years.

This school is the 128th most popular in California for online learning according to the online graduations recorded by the Department of Education for the academic year 2019-2020.

Online Affordability Rankings of UC Irvine

The following table shows how UC Irvine is ranked for affordability for both in-state and out-of-state students among colleges and universities that are not mostly online.

Major	Tuition for In-State Students	Tuition for Out-of-State Students
Criminology	#19	#31
General Engineering	#61	#76

Online Growth Rankings of UC Irvine

The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at University of California - Irvine was 4,182.1%. This is the #54 largest growth rate of all schools that are mostly online. This refers to all students at UC Irvine regardless of major.

When we speak of partially online, we are referring to schools whose online population is less than 50% of its total student body. Mostly online refers to those with online populations greater than or equal to 50%.

University of California - Irvine Undergraduate Concentrations

The table below shows the number of awards for each concentration.

Major	Bachelor’s	Graduate Certificate	Master’s	Doctor’s	TOTAL
Computer Science	805	0	65	27	897
General Biology	770	0	0	0	770
Child Development & Psychology	698	0	11	11	720
Business/Managerial Economics	696	0	0	0	696
Public Health	501	0	20	10	531
Business Administration & Management	306	0	182	9	497
Economics	441	0	15	13	469
Criminology	429	0	32	3	464
General Education	367	0	7	15	389
Computer Engineering	288	0	69	11	368
Mathematics	289	0	19	17	325
Mechanical Engineering	263	0	39	16	318
Political Science & Government	307	0	3	6	316
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	0	0	308	0	308
General Psychology	306	0	0	1	307
Sociology	238	0	8	13	259
Teacher Education Grade Specific	0	119	123	0	242
Chemistry	148	0	19	46	213
International Studies	194	0	0	0	194
Electrical Engineering	100	0	39	24	163
Biomedical Engineering	120	0	30	12	162
General English Literature	122	0	16	4	142
Law	0	0	0	140	140
Civil Engineering	93	0	32	12	137
Pharmacy/Pharmaceutical Sciences	119	0	0	10	129
Film, Video & Photographic Arts	125	0	0	0	125
Computer Information Systems	103	0	13	1	117
Fine & Studio Arts	107	0	10	0	117
Drama & Theater Arts	85	0	20	0	105
Medicine	0	0	0	93	93
History	73	0	10	5	88
Chemical Engineering	68	0	16	2	86
Physics	55	0	18	13	86
Anthropology	77	0	2	6	85
Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering	79	0	0	0	79
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies	71	0	7	1	79
Applied Mathematics	0	0	73	4	77
Neurobiology & Neurosciences	51	0	12	11	74
Geological & Earth Sciences	52	0	6	16	74
Nursing	47	0	17	1	65
Human Biology	62	0	0	0	62
Computer Software & Applications	61	0	0	0	61
Urban Studies	57	0	0	0	57
Natural Resources Conservation	44	0	12	0	56
Philosophy	42	0	4	7	53
Materials Engineering	30	0	14	8	52
Legal Research	0	0	47	0	47
Dance	40	0	6	0	46
Ethnic Studies	43	0	2	0	45
Management Information Systems	44	0	0	0	44
Journalism	36	0	0	0	36
Linguistics & Comparative Literature	18	0	11	6	35
Biochemistry, Biophysics & Molecular Biology	17	0	4	12	33
Biotechnology	0	0	29	0	29
Romance Languages	27	0	0	2	29
Statistics	0	0	23	6	29
General Social Sciences	29	0	0	0	29
Mathematics & Computer Science	28	0	0	0	28
Ecology, Evolution & Systematics Biology	13	0	7	7	27
Computer Systems Networking	0	0	22	4	26
Urban & Regional Planning	0	0	19	5	24
Music	16	0	5	2	23
Public Policy	0	0	22	0	22
Microbiological Sciences & Immunology	18	0	0	3	21
Teacher Education Subject Specific	21	0	0	0	21
Cell Biology & Anatomical Sciences	4	0	2	13	19
Area Studies	19	0	0	0	19
Environmental Engineering	14	0	2	2	18
Physiology & Pathology Sciences	15	0	0	2	17
Cognitive Science	13	0	0	4	17
Demography & Population Studies	0	0	11	0	11
General Engineering	0	0	10	0	10
Manufacturing Engineering	0	0	6	3	9
East Asian Languages	7	0	0	2	9
Biomathematics & Bioinformatics	0	0	3	5	8
Pharmacology & Toxicology	0	0	8	0	8
Mental & Social Health Services	0	0	8	0	8
Other Visual Art	0	0	5	3	8
Writing Studies	0	0	7	0	7
Medical Science	0	0	7	0	7
Classical Languages & Literature	4	0	0	0	4
Systems Theory	0	0	3	1	4
Genetics	3	0	0	0	3
Cultural Studies & Analysis	0	0	1	2	3
Germanic Languages	0	0	1	1	2
Religious Studies	2	0	0	0	2
Other Social Sciences	0	0	2	0	2
Computational Science	0	0	1	0	1
Environmental Design	0	0	0	0	0
Botany/Plant Biology	0	0	0	0	0
Accounting	0	0	0	0	0
Information Science	0	0	0	0	0
Other Computer & Information Sciences	0	0	0	0	0
Educational Administration	0	0	0	0	0
Health & Medical Administrative Services	0	0	0	0	0
Liberal Arts General Studies	0	0	0	0	0
Classical & Ancient Studies	0	0	0	0	0
Design & Applied Arts	0	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	9,320	119	1,545	653	11,637

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• National Center for Education Statistics
• Image Credit: By TFNorman under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.