College Factual  by our College Data Analytics Team
       Unbiased Factual Guarantee

University of California - Santa Barbara Data & Information Overview

448 awards Ranking Badges
Great Price Value for Your Money
29% Acceptance Rate
If you want to know more about University of California - Santa Barbara, such as what majors does it offer, how diverse it is, how well it ranks, and more, this is your one-stop resource.
Want to dig deeper into a particular stat? Just click on its tile and you’ll be taked to a more in-depth page on the figure. In addition, you can use the links below to quickly jump to any section on this page.

How Well Is University of California - Santa Barbara Ranked?

#45 Best Colleges in Nation
#10 Best Colleges in CA
Communication & Media Studies Highest Ranked Major
Quality Badge

2024 Rankings

In its yearly rankings, College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities to determine which ones are the best in a variety of categories, such as overall value, quality, diversity, which schools are the best for each major, and much more.

University of California - Santa Barbara was awarded 448 badges in the 2024 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is communication & media studies.

Explore Best Ranked Schools for You

Explore the best ranked schools for the programs you are most interested in.

Overall Quality

UCSB is ranked #45 out of 2,217 schools in the nation for overall quality on College Factual's 2024 Best Colleges list. This puts it in the top 5% of all schools in the nation. This is an improvement over the previous year, when UCSB held the #50 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.

UCSB is also ranked #10 out of 168 schools in California.

See all of the rankings for University of California - Santa Barbara.

Is It Hard to Get Into UCSB?

29% Acceptance Rate
60% Of Accepted Are Women

Acceptance Rate

Even if you have the best grades and high test scores, that may not be enough to get into UCSB since the school has one of the most selective in the country. Its acceptance rate is a mere 29%, so there's no shame if you don't get in. Be sure to apply to other schools just in case.

Learn more about University of California - Santa Barbara admissions.

University of California - Santa Barbara Faculty

17 to 1 Student to Faculty
88% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

The student to faculty ratio at University of California - Santa Barbara is about average at 17 to 1. This ratio is often used to gauge how many students might be in an average class and how much time professors will have to spend with their students on an individual level. The national average for this metric is 15 to 1.

Percent of Full-Time Faculty

When estimating how much access students will have to their teachers, some people like to look at what percentage of faculty members are full time. This is because part-time teachers may not have as much time to spend on campus as their full-time counterparts.

The full-time faculty percentage at University of California - Santa Barbara is 88%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  88 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at University of California - Santa Barbara

91% Freshmen Retention
68% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

University of California - Santa Barbara has a freshmen retention rate of 91%. That's a good sign that full-time students like the school and their professors enough to want to stick around for another year. It's also a sign that the admissions team did a good job in choosing applicants who were a good fit for the school.

Freshmen Retention Rate  91 out of 100
0
100

Graduation Rate

The on-time graduation rate for someone pursuing a bachelor's degree is typically four years. This rate at UCSB for first-time, full-time students is 68%, which is better than the national average of 33.3%.

On-Time Graduation Rate  68 out of 100
0
100

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at University of California - Santa Barbara.

University of California - Santa Barbara Undergraduate Student Diversity

22,480 Full-Time Undergraduates
54.4% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
55.5% Percent Women

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 23,196 undergraduates at UCSB with 22,480 being full-time and 716 being part-time.

How Much Does University of California - Santa Barbara Cost?

$16,252 Net Price
12% Take Out Loans
$28,096 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of UCSB is $16,252. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group. See the table below for the net price for different income groups.

Net Price by Income Group for UCSB

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$10,568 $11,606 $14,583 $21,581 $31,486

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.Note that the net price is typically less than the published for a school. For more information on the sticker price of UCSB, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.

Student Loan Debt

While almost two-thirds of students nationwide take out loans to pay for college, the percentage may be quite different for the school you plan on attending. At UCSB, approximately 12% of students took out student loans averaging $7,024 a year. That adds up to $28,096 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at UCSB is 1.8%. 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.

Get more details about paying for University of California - Santa Barbara.

How Much Money Do UCSB Graduates Make?

$66,491 Avg Salary of Grads
High Earnings Boost
Yearly salaries vary depending on what you major in, but on average, bachelor's degree recipients from UCSB make around $66,491 per year during the early years of their employment. That's great news for UCSB students since it is 57% more than the average college graduate's salary of $42,485 per year.

undefined

See which majors at University of California - Santa Barbara make the most money.

Location of University of California - Santa Barbara

California State
22,480 Full-Time Undergraduates
Suburb Campus Setting
Located in Santa Barbara, California, University of California - Santa Barbara is a public institution. UCSB is located in a safe and convenient suburb.

Get more details about the location of University of California - Santa Barbara.

undefined

Contact details for UCSB are given below.

Contact Details
Address: 5221 Cheadle Hall, Santa Barbara, CA 93106
Phone: 805-893-8000
Website: www.ucsb.edu/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ucsantabarbara
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ucsantabarbara

University of California - Santa Barbara Majors

60 Majors With Completions
6,989 Undergraduate Degrees
729 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 60 majors graduated from University of California - Santa Barbara. Of these students, 6,989 received undergraduate degrees and 729 graduated with a master's or doctor's degree. The following table lists the most popular undergraduate majors along with the average salary graduates from those majors make.

Most Popular Majors Bachelor’s Degrees Average Salary of Graduates
Sociology 717 $28,687
Economics 695 $59,465
Child Development & Psychology 567 $28,978
Communication & Media Studies 462 $41,054
Natural Resources Conservation 377 $33,029
General Biology 377 $30,350
Germanic Languages 377 NA
Political Science & Government 315 $35,379
International Studies 290 $35,213
Film, Video & Photographic Arts 182 $27,057

Learn more about the majors offered at University of California - Santa Barbara along with which ones have the highest average starting salaries.

Online Learning at UCSB

14% Take At Least One Class Online
0% Take All Classes Online

Online courses area a great option for busy, working students as well as for those who have scheduling conflicts and want to study on their own time. As time goes by, expect to see more and more online learning options become available.

In 2020-2021, 3,665 students took at least one online class at University of California - Santa Barbara. This is a decrease from the 26,149 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year Took at Least One Online Class Took All Classes Online
2020-2021 3,665 69
2019-2020 26,149 25,164
2018-2019 407 15
2017-2018 365 0
2016-2017 246 0

Learn more about online learning at University of California - Santa Barbara.

If you’re considering University of California - Santa Barbara, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.

Curious on how these schools stack up against UCSB? Pit them head to head with College Combat, our free interactive tool that lets you compare college on the features that matter most to you!

Notes and References

Footnotes

*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.

References

More about our data sources and methodologies.

Popular Reports

College Rankings
Best by Location
Degree Guides by Major
Graduate Programs

Compare Your School Options