University of California - San Diego Overview

Located in La Jolla, California, University of California - San Diego is a public institution. The surrounding area of the school is a good match for students who enjoy city life.

What Is University of California - San Diego Known For?

• The 1% student loan default rate at UCSD is better than the national rate of 10.1%. That's a good sign that you may be able to pay off student loans easier than your peers at other schools can.
• Although it may not be available for every major, the doctor's degree is the highest award a student can attain at UCSD.
• For the 2019-2020 academic year, 86% of the faculty were full-time.
• A student who earns a bachelor's degree from UCSD makes roughly $74,771 a year. This is 83% more than their peers from other colleges and universities.

University of California - San Diego Rankings

We have ranked UCSD as #205 out of 2,018 colleges and universities in the country in our 2023 Best Colleges list. This puts it in the top 15% of all schools in the nation. UCSD also holds the #26 spot on the Best Colleges in California ranking.

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.

UCSD has also been awarded the following overall awards by our latest rankings.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#91	Best Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#191	Best Bachelor’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 UCSD.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#1	Best Biological Engineering Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#10	Best International Studies Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#13	Best Information Technology Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#16	Best Civil Engineering Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#22	Best Computer Information Systems Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#32	Best Social Sciences Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#33	Best Computer & Information Sciences Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#33	Best Physical Sciences Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#51	Best Business Administration & Management Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#94	Best Business, Management & Marketing Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Awards From Around the Web

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

Rank	Ranking Name	Source
#12	Best Physical Sciences Schools	College Factual
#33	Best Biological & Biomedical Sciences Schools	College Factual
#35	Best Computer & Information Sciences Schools	College Factual
#43	Best Psychology Schools	College Factual
#53	Best Education Schools	College Factual
#57	Best Computer Science Schools	Computer Science Degree

Where Is University of California - San Diego?

Contact details for UCSD are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	9500 Gilman Dr, La Jolla, CA 92093
Phone:	858-534-2230
Website:	www.ucsd.edu
Facebook:	https://www.facebook.com/UCSanDiegoLife
Twitter:	http://twitter.com/ucsandiego

How Do I Get Into UCSD?

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

Admission Requirements for UCSD

Submission	Required?
High School GPA	required
High School Rank	neither required nor 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 UCSD?

You'll need to do what you can to make your application stand out if you plan to apply to UCSD. The school screens its applicants carefully and has a fairly low acceptance rate of 37%. So, don't just throw your admission packet together at the last minute!

Approximately 45% of accepted students are men and 55% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 36%, and the acceptance rate for women is 37%.

Average Test Scores

About 89% of students accepted to UCSD submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 620 and 710. Math scores were between 650 and 770.

UCSD received ACT scores from 34% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT English scores ranged between 26 and 35. Math scores were between 27 and 33. Composite scores were between 28 and 34.

Can I Afford University of California - San Diego?

The overall average net price of UCSD is $46,793. 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

It's not uncommon for college students to take out loans to pay for school. In fact, almost 66% of students nationwide depend at least partially on loans. At UCSD, approximately 33% of students took out student loans averaging $6,268 a year. That adds up to $25,072 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at UCSD is 1.0%. 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 - San Diego Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are 31,842 undergraduate students at UCSD, with 30,939 being full-time and 903 being part-time.

There are also 7,734 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 30,939 full-time undergraduates at UCSD, 50% are male and 50% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

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

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	10,358
Black or African American	530
Hispanic or Latino	6,762
White	5,845
International Students	5,247
Other Races/Ethnicities	2,197

Geographic Diversity

California students aren't the only ones who study at University of California - San Diego. At this time, 42 states are represented by the student population at the school.

Over 101 countries are represented at UCSD. The most popular countries sending students to the school are China, India, and South Korea.

Online Learning at University of California - San Diego

In 2019-2020, 36,854 students took at least one online class at the school.

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

University of California - San Diego Undergraduate Concentrations

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

Major	Bachelor’s	Master’s	Doctor’s	TOTAL
Computer Science	537	308	23	868
Cognitive Science	699	2	7	708
International Studies	585	0	0	585
Cell Biology & Anatomical Sciences	530	0	0	530
Economics	436	27	17	480
General Biology	268	141	60	469
Political Science & Government	453	9	7	469
Chemistry	311	52	49	412
Electrical Engineering	166	211	33	410
Mechanical Engineering	232	129	18	379
Public Health	313	30	7	350
Biochemistry, Biophysics & Molecular Biology	347	0	0	347
Biomedical Engineering	123	161	31	315
Applied Mathematics	133	141	0	274
Communication & Media Studies	267	2	2	271
Computer Information Systems	212	28	0	240
Mathematics	219	7	14	240
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	121	106	4	231
Computer Engineering	139	82	4	225
Mathematics & Computer Science	216	0	0	216
General Psychology	216	0	0	216
Neurobiology & Neurosciences	186	4	14	204
Civil Engineering	108	75	9	192
Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology	165	0	8	173
Sociology	157	3	1	161
Ecology, Evolution & Systematics Biology	116	25	16	157
Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering	127	15	1	143
Medicine	0	0	140	140
Chemical Engineering	99	23	8	130
General Education	44	71	12	127
Other Psychology	112	0	3	115
International Relations & National Security	0	108	0	108
General Visual & Performing Arts	84	14	1	99
Other Engineering	39	33	22	94
Anthropology	80	2	9	91
Human Development & Family Studies	87	0	0	87
Child Development & Psychology	78	4	3	85
Pharmacy/Pharmaceutical Sciences	0	21	62	83
Natural Resources Conservation	83	0	0	83
Physics	56	5	21	82
History	69	4	7	80
English Literature (Other)	67	6	6	79
Linguistics & Comparative Literature	74	0	2	76
Biomathematics & Bioinformatics	66	0	9	75
Geological & Earth Sciences	15	38	22	75
Materials Engineering	0	49	23	72
Statistics	58	13	0	71
Drama & Theater Arts	40	18	3	61
Other Social Sciences	57	0	0	57
Public Policy	0	57	0	57
Fine & Studio Arts	50	0	3	53
Philosophy	46	1	3	50
Microbiological Sciences & Immunology	48	0	0	48
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies	46	0	0	46
Real Estate Development	40	0	0	40
Urban Studies	38	0	0	38
Systems Engineering	0	29	7	36
Ethnic Studies	29	4	3	36
Music	17	2	8	27
General English Literature	24	0	0	24
Biological Engineering	22	0	0	22
Area Studies	17	5	0	22
Medical Science	0	22	0	22
Design & Applied Arts	21	0	0	21
Zoology	19	0	0	19
Health & Medical Administrative Services	0	19	0	19
Atmospheric Sciences & Meteorology	18	0	0	18
Engineering Physics	4	9	4	17
Other Physical Science	10	0	1	11
Business Administration & Management	0	9	0	9
Environmental Engineering	9	0	0	9
Liberal Arts General Studies	9	0	0	9
Communication Sciences	0	0	8	8
Computational Science	0	8	0	8
Dance	8	0	0	8
Romance Languages	7	0	0	7
Teacher Education Subject Specific	5	0	0	5
Religious Studies	5	0	0	5
Engineering Science	1	0	2	3
Classical Languages & Literature	2	0	0	2
Slavic, Baltic & Albanian Languages	1	0	0	1
Mental & Social Health Services	0	0	1	1
Physiology & Pathology Sciences	0	0	0	0
Finance & Financial Management	0	0	0	0
Literature	0	0	0	0
Legal Research	0	0	0	0
Materials Sciences	0	0	0	0
Other Visual Art	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	9,086	2,132	718	11,936

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 Znode at English Wikipedia under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.