Engineering at University of California - San Diego

If you plan to study engineering, take a look at what University of California - San Diego has to offer and decide if the program is a good match for you. Get started with the following essential facts.

UCSD is located in La Jolla, California and approximately 39,576 students attend the school each year. In 2021, 1,069 engineering majors received their bachelor's degree from UCSD.

Want to know more about the career opportunities in this field? Check out the Careers in Engineering section at the bottom of this page.

UCSD Engineering Degrees Available

• Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering
• Master’s Degree in Engineering
• Doctorate Degree in Engineering

UCSD Engineering Rankings

Each year, College Factual ranks engineering programs across the country. The following shows how UCSD performed in these rankings.

Note: Rankings don't always give a complete picture of a school's strengths and weaknesses, so it's a good idea to extend your research and also look at other factors when trying to decide if the school is right for you.

Bachelor’s Degree Overall Quality & Other Notable Rankings

The engineering major at UCSD is not ranked on College Factual’s Best Colleges and Universities for Engineering. This could be for a number of reasons, such as not having enough data on the major or school to make an accurate assessment of its quality.

Ranking Type	Rank
Best Engineering Master’s Degree Schools	34
	51
Best Engineering Doctor’s Degree Schools	56
	94
Most Focused Engineering Bachelor’s Degree Schools	122
Best Value Engineering Schools	150
	183
Best Value Engineering Bachelor’s Degree Schools	226

In 2021, 816 students received their master’s degree in engineering from UCSD. This makes it the #10 most popular school for engineering master’s degree candidates in the country.

There were 162 students who received their doctoral degrees in engineering, making the school the #15 most popular school in the United States for this category of students.

Engineering Student Demographics at UCSD

Take a look at the following statistics related to the make-up of the engineering majors at University of California - San Diego.

UCSD Engineering Bachelor’s Program

Of the 1,069 students who graduated with a bachelor’s in engineering from UCSD in 2021, 75% were men and 25% were women.

Prospective students may be interested in knowing that this school graduates 32% more racial-ethnic minorities in its engineering bachelor's program than the national average.*

The following table and chart show the race/ethnicity for students who recently graduated from University of California - San Diego with a bachelor's in engineering.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Students
Asian	360
Black or African American	9
Hispanic or Latino	213
White	259
International Students	151
Other Races/Ethnicities	77

UCSD Engineering Master’s Program

During the 2020-2021 academic year, 816 students graduated with a master's degree in engineering from UCSD. About 76% were men and 24% were women.

The following table and chart show the race/ethnicity for students who recently graduated from University of California - San Diego with a master's in engineering.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Students
Asian	85
Black or African American	3
Hispanic or Latino	30
White	130
International Students	537
Other Races/Ethnicities	31

UCSD also has a doctoral program available in engineering. In 2021, 162 students graduated with a doctor's degree in this field.

Concentrations Within Engineering

Engineering majors may want to concentrate their studies in one of these areas. The table shows all degrees awarded in this field awarded for all degree levels at University of California - San Diego. A concentration may not be available for your level.

Concentration	Annual Degrees Awarded
Electrical Engineering	410
Mechanical Engineering	379
Biomedical Engineering	315
Computer Engineering	225
Civil Engineering	192
Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering	143
Chemical Engineering	130
Other Engineering	94
Materials Engineering	72
Systems Engineering	36
Biological Engineering	22
Engineering Physics	17
Environmental Engineering	9
Engineering Science	3

Related Majors

• Architecture & Related Services
• Natural Resources & Conservation
• Mathematics & Statistics
• Physical Sciences
• Computer & Information Sciences

Careers That Engineering Grads May Go Into

A degree in engineering can lead to the following careers. Since job numbers and average salaries can vary by geographic location, we have only included the numbers for CA, the home state for University of California - San Diego.

Occupation	Jobs in CA	Average Salary in CA
Software Applications Developers	148,550	$127,950
Systems Software Developers	88,910	$131,700
Civil Engineers	45,060	$109,680
Architectural and Engineering Managers	31,580	$175,010
Electronics Engineers	29,210	$123,540

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
• O*NET Online
• Image Credit: By Znode at English Wikipedia under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.