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University of California-Davis: Rankings, Admissions, Cost & Majors

1076 awards Ranking Badges
Fair Price Value for Your Money
42% Acceptance Rate

University of California-Davis is a public institution in Davis, California enrolling 32,253 undergraduates. It accepts 42% of applicants and has an on-time graduation rate of 86%, above the national average of 33%. College Factual ranks it #46 of 5,159 colleges nationwide in its 2027 Best Colleges ranking (top 1%), and its Value for Your Money analysis rates it a Fair Price.

Source: IPEDS 2025; College Scorecard July 2026; College Factual rankings 2027. Data as of: July 2026.

How Is University of California-Davis Ranked?

University of California-Davis ranks #46 of 5,159 colleges nationwide in College Factual’s 2027 Best Colleges ranking, placing it in the top 1%.

#46 Best Colleges in Nation
#10 Best Colleges in CA
University of California-Davis ranking badge

2027 Rankings

College Factual recognizes the best colleges and universities in its annual rankings. These rankings include categories for best overall colleges, best colleges for each major, best value schools, and much more.

University of California-Davis was awarded 1076 badges in the 2027 rankings.

Overall Quality

According to College Factual’s 2027 analysis, UC Davis is ranked #46 out of 5,159 schools in the nation that were analyzed for overall quality. This puts it in the top 1% of all schools in the nation!

UC Davis also holds the #10 spot on the Best Colleges in California ranking.

See all of the rankings for University of California-Davis.

Is It Hard to Get Into University of California-Davis?

42% Acceptance Rate
46% Of Accepted Are Women

Acceptance Rate

The acceptance rate at University of California-Davis is a competitive 42%, so make sure you take your application seriously when putting it together. Even leaving out a minor detail could be a reason to move you to the rejection pile.

Learn more about University of California-Davis admissions.

What Is the Student-to-Faculty Ratio at University of California-Davis?

22 to 1 Student to Faculty
88% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

The student to faculty ratio at University of California-Davis is 22 to 1, which is high when compared to the national average of 15 to 1. This may indicate that some of your classes will be larger in size than they would be at other schools. However, upper level classes will probably be smaller.

Percent of Full-Time Faculty

Another measure that is often used to estimate how much access students will have to their professors is how many faculty members are full-time. The idea here is that part-time faculty tend to spend less time on campus, so they may not be as available to students as full-timers.

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

Full-Time Faculty Percent  88 out of 100
0
100

What Are the Graduation and Retention Rates at University of California-Davis?

93% Freshmen Retention
86% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

The freshmen retention rate of 93% tells us that most first-year, full-time students like University of California-Davis enough to come back for another year. This is a fair bit higher than the national average of 68%. That’s certainly something to check off in the good column about the school.

Freshmen Retention Rate  93 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 UC Davis for first-time, full-time students is 86%, which is better than the national average of 33.3%.

On-Time Graduation Rate  86 out of 100
0
100

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

How Diverse Is University of California-Davis?

32,253 Undergraduate Students
65.1% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
58.4% Percent Women

The current enrollment includes 32,253 undergraduates at UC Davis.

Get more detailed information on the diversity at University of California-Davis.

How Much Does University of California-Davis Cost?

$17,140 Net Price
20% Take Out Loans
$20,704 Total Student Loans

The overall average net price of UC Davis is $17,140. 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 UC Davis

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$9,211 $9,966 $11,951 $16,294 $31,272

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 price for a school. For more information on the sticker price of UC Davis, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.

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 Davis, approximately 20% of students took out student loans averaging $5,176 a year. That adds up to $20,704 over four years for those students. The student loan default rate is 3.0%. 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. Get more details about paying for University of California-Davis.

How Much Do University of California-Davis Graduates Earn?

$80,838 Avg Salary of Grads
High Earnings Boost

Yearly salaries vary depending on what you major in, but on average, bachelor’s degree recipients from University of California-Davis make around $80,838 per year during the early years of their employment. This is good news for future University of California-Davis graduates since it is 64% more than the average college graduate’s salary of $49,219 per year. Average Salary for University of California-Davis Graduates

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

Where Is University of California-Davis Located?

California State
32,253 Undergraduate Students
Suburb Campus Setting

University of California-Davis is a public institution located in Davis, California. UC Davis is located in a safe and convenient suburb. Get more details about the location of University of California-Davis.

Location of University of California-Davis

Get in touch with University of California-Davis are listed below.

Contact Details
Address: One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616-8678
Phone: 5307521011
Website: www.ucdavis.edu
Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_California,_Davis
Facebook: www.facebook.com/UCDavis
Twitter: twitter.com/ucdavis

What Majors Does University of California-Davis Offer?

26 Majors With Completions
24,334 Undergraduate Degrees

In the latest year of available data, students from 26 majors graduated from University of California-Davis. The following table lists the most popular undergraduate majors along with the average salary graduates from those majors make.

Most Popular Majors Completions Average Salary of Graduates
Multi-Disciplinary Studies 12,167 NA
Child Development & Psychology 986 $29,860
Management Sciences & Methods 870 NA
General Biology 504 $28,791
Economics 503 $44,249
Computer Science 465 NA
Neurobiology & Neurosciences 428 $28,232
Child Development & Family Studies 364 NA
Political Science & Government 353 $32,542
Statistics 343 $47,204

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

Does UC Davis Offer Online Classes?

13% Take At Least One Class Online
0% Take All Classes Online

4,070 students took at least one online class at University of California-Davis.

Online learning is becoming popular at even the oldest colleges and universities in the United States. Not only are online classes great for returning adults with busy schedules, they are also frequented by a growing number of traditional students.

Learn more about online learning at University of California-Davis.

Want to see how other colleges compare to UC Davis? Match them up using College Combat, our free tool for head-to-head college comparisons.

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

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