by our College Data Analytics Team
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 - San Diego was awarded 135 badges in the 2025 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is general biology.
Explore the best ranked schools for the programs you are most interested in.
College Factual ranked UCSD as #49 out of 2,152 colleges and universities in the country on its 2025 Best Colleges list. This lands it a coveted spot in the top 5% of all colleges and universities in the country.
UCSD also holds the #8 spot on the Best Colleges in California ranking.
See all of the rankings for University of California - San Diego.
Even if you have the best grades and high test scores, that may not be enough to get into UCSD since the school has one of the most selective in the country. Its acceptance rate is a mere 24%, so there's no shame if you don't get in. Be sure to apply to other schools just in case.
The student to faculty ratio is often used as a measure to gauge how much access students will have to their professors - the lower the number, the better. At University of California - San Diego, this rate is 19 to 1, which is high when compared to the national average of 15 to 1.
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 - San Diego is 88%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.
University of California - San Diego has a freshmen retention rate of 93%. 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.
The on-time graduation rate for someone pursuing a bachelor's degree is typically four years. This rate at UCSD for first-time, full-time students is 68%, which is better than the national average of 33.3%.
Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at University of California - San Diego.
During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 31,842 undergraduates at UCSD with 30,939 being full-time and 903 being part-time.
| $0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $9,055 | $10,263 | $13,639 | $20,297 | $30,300 |
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 UCSD, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.
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 UCSD, approximately 26% of students took out student loans averaging $6,437 a year. That adds up to $25,748 over four years for those students.
The student loan default rate at UCSD is 2.0%. 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 - San Diego.
See which majors at University of California - San Diego make the most money.
Get more details about the location of 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/ |
| Most Popular Majors | Bachelor’s Degrees | Average Salary of Graduates |
|---|---|---|
| Computer Science | 819 | $112,006 |
| Cell Biology & Anatomical Sciences | 769 | NA |
| Cognitive Science | 768 | $39,839 |
| International Studies | 537 | $45,168 |
| General Biology | 518 | $34,504 |
| Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods | 468 | $60,973 |
| Economics | 455 | $51,192 |
| Chemistry | 445 | $45,310 |
| Public Health | 400 | $39,144 |
| Political Science & Government | 380 | $33,345 |
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 2022-2023, 3,305 students took at least one online class at University of California - San Diego. This is a decrease from the 22,292 students who took online classes the previous year.
| Year | Took at Least One Online Class | Took All Classes Online |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-2023 | 3,305 | 48 |
| 2021-2022 | 22,292 | 1,070 |
| 2020-2021 | 36,854 | 26,615 |
| 2018-2019 | 0 | 0 |
Learn more about online learning at University of California - San Diego.
If you’re considering University of California - San Diego, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.
Curious on how these schools stack up against UCSD? 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!
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.