University of California - San Diego Data & Information Overview

Find out more about how University of California - San Diego ranks, how diverse it is, what majors it offers, and other essential facts below. Want to know more about a specific stat? Just click on its tile, and you'll go to a page that goes more in-depth on that subject. You can also use the links below to go directly to any section on this page.

• Rankings
• Admission and Acceptance
• Faculty
• Retention and Graduation Rates
• Diversity
• Cost
• Student Debt
• Average Earnings
• Location
• Majors
• Online Learning
• Related Schools

How Well Is University of California - San Diego Ranked?

2021 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 - San Diego was awarded 164 badges in the 2021 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is chemistry.

Overall Quality

UCSD landed the #94 spot in College Factual's 2021 ranking of best overall colleges in the United States. The higher ed experts analyzed 1,715 colleges and universities across the nation to determine this ranking. This puts it in the top 10% of all schools in the nation.

Out of the 116 colleges in California, UCSD is ranked at #12.

See all of the rankings for University of California - San Diego.

Is It Hard to Get Into UCSD?

Acceptance Rate

University of California - San Diego has an acceptance rate of 34%, which means the school is serious about who it admits. Take your time in putting together a strong application that highlights why you are a good fit for UCSD.

Average Test Scores

About 84% 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 600 and 680. Math scores were between 610 and 730.

UCSD received ACT scores from 52% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 27 and 33.

Learn more about University of California - San Diego admissions.

University of California - San Diego Faculty

Student to Faculty Ratio

At University of California - San Diego, the student to faculty ratio is 19 to 1. Compared to the national average of 15 to 1, this is somewhat high. This could mean that class sizes may be larger than they are at other colleges or universities or that professors may be required to teach more classes.

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 - San Diego is 85%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Retention and Graduation Rates at University of California - San Diego

Freshmen Retention Rate

University of California - San Diego has a freshmen retention rate of 94%. 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.

Graduation Rate

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 58%, 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.

Excellent Overall Diversity at UCSD

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 30,285 undergraduates at UCSD with 29,491 being full-time and 794 being part-time.

UCSD Diversity Score

For each college and university, College Factual calculates an overall diversity score that takes four factors into account: gender, ethnicity, age, and home location of the student. Then, the schools with the best mixtures of students with respect to these factors are ranked the highest.

With an overall score of 97.32 out of 100, UCSD is one of the most diverse schools in the nation.

Get more detailed information on diversity and student demographics at University of California - San Diego.

How Much Does University of California - San Diego Cost?

The overall average net price of UCSD is $13,318. 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 UCSD

$0-30 K	$30K-48K	$48-75	$75-110K	$110K +
$8,452	$9,674	$12,898	$19,247	$27,508

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.

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 39% of students took out student loans averaging $5,491 a year. That adds up to $21,964 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at UCSD is 1.7%. 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.

How Much Money Do UCSD Graduates Make?

Although some majors pay more than others, students who graduate from UCSD with a bachelor's degree go on to jobs where they make an average salary of $59,900 in their early years. This is good news for future UCSD graduates since it is 50% more than the average college graduate's salary of $39,802 per year.

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

Location of University of California - San Diego

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

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
Facebook:	https://www.facebook.com/UCSanDiegoLife
Twitter:	http://twitter.com/ucsandiego

University of California - San Diego Majors

During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 86 majors graduated from University of California - San Diego. Of these students, 8,037 received undergraduate degrees and 2,676 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
International Studies	500	$37,500
Biochemistry, Biophysics & Molecular Biology	498	$36,900
Cognitive Science	479	$36,200
Economics	451	$42,000
Computer Science	412	$80,800
Mathematics & Computer Science	387	NA
Cell Biology & Anatomical Sciences	376	NA
Political Science & Government	313	$31,200
Communication & Media Studies	305	$33,800
General Biology	268	$29,000

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

Learn more about online learning at University of California - San Diego.

Related Schools

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

• University of California - Los Angeles
• University of Colorado Boulder
• University of Connecticut
• University of Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh Campus
• University of Washington - Seattle Campus

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!

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

• National Center for Education Statistics
• College Scorecard
• Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System
• Image Credit: By Znode at English Wikipedia under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.