University of California - Santa Barbara Data & Information Overview

Find out more about how University of California - Santa Barbara ranks, how diverse it is, what majors it offers, and other essential facts below. All you need to do to learn more about a stat is click on its tile, and you'll be taken to another page that analyzes that data more closely. Also, you can use the links below to scroll to any section of 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 - Santa Barbara 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 - Santa Barbara was awarded 152 badges in the 2021 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is natural resources conservation.

Overall Quality

College Factual ranked UCSB as #133 out of 1,715 colleges and universities in the country on its 2021 Best Colleges list. This puts it in the top 10% of all schools in the nation.

Out of the 116 colleges in California, UCSB is ranked at #16.

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

Is It Hard to Get Into UCSB?

Acceptance Rate

The acceptance rate at University of California - Santa Barbara is a competitive 33%, 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.

Average Test Scores

About 75% of students accepted to UCSB 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 590 and 720.

UCSB received ACT scores from 59% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 28 and 33.

Learn more about University of California - Santa Barbara admissions.

University of California - Santa Barbara Faculty

Student to Faculty Ratio

The student to faculty ratio at University of California - Santa Barbara is about average at 18 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 85%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Retention and Graduation Rates at University of California - Santa Barbara

Freshmen Retention Rate

The freshmen retention rate of 93% tells us that most first-year, full-time students like University of California - Santa Barbara 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.

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%.

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

Excellent Overall Diversity at UCSB

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 23,070 undergraduates at UCSB with 22,601 being full-time and 469 being part-time.

UCSB 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 96.04 out of 100, UCSB is one of the most diverse schools in the nation.

Get more detailed information on diversity and student demographics at University of California - Santa Barbara.

How Much Does University of California - Santa Barbara Cost?

The overall average net price of UCSB is $16,236. 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 +
$10,733	$11,760	$14,984	$21,096	$31,436

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

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 UCSB, approximately 37% of students took out student loans averaging $6,168 a year. That adds up to $24,672 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at UCSB is 2.3%. 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?

The pay for some majors is higher than others, but on average, students who graduate with a bachelor's degree from UCSB make about $55,300 a year during their first few years of employment after graduation. This is good news for future UCSB graduates since it is 39% more than the average college graduate's salary of $39,802 per year.

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

Location of University of California - Santa Barbara

Located in Santa Barbara, California, University of California - Santa Barbara is a public institution. Santa Barbara is considered a suburb and offers tranquility and safety near the excitement of a city center.

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

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

During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 60 majors graduated from University of California - Santa Barbara. Of these students, 6,327 received undergraduate degrees and 868 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
Child Development & Psychology	696	$30,000
Sociology	627	$30,200
Economics	582	$59,200
Communication & Media Studies	445	$36,300
General Biology	352	$30,100
International Studies	333	$32,200
Natural Resources Conservation	329	$34,400
Political Science & Government	273	$34,700
Statistics	158	$43,400
Film, Video & Photographic Arts	154	$27,800

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

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.

In 2017-2018, 365 students took at least one online class at University of California - Santa Barbara. This is an increase from the 246 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year	Took at Least One Online Class	Took All Classes Online
2017-2018	365	0
2016-2017	246	0
2015-2016	164	0
2014-2015	162	0
2013-2014	85	0

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

Related Schools

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

• Rutgers University - New Brunswick
• University of California - Riverside
• University of Iowa
• University of Missouri - Columbia
• University of South Carolina - Columbia

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

• National Center for Education Statistics
• College Scorecard
• Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System
• Image Credit: By Nandaro under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.