University of California, San Diego
La Jolla, California | Admissions Phone: 858-534-4831
E-mail: admissionsinfo@ucsd.edu | Website: www.ucsd.edu
ADMISSION
Admission Rate: 30%
Admission Rate - Men: 30%
Admission Rate - Women: 30%
EA Admission Rate: Not Offered
ED Admission Rate: Not Offered
Admission Rate (5-Year Trend): -7%
ED Admission Rate (5-Year Trend): Not Offered
% of Admits Attending (Yield): 23%
Transfer Admission Rate: 50%
# Offered Wait List: 11,868
# Accepted Wait List: 7,372
# Admitted Wait List: 0
SAT Reading/Writing (Middle 50%): 620-700
SAT Math (Middle 50%): 630-770
ACT Composite (Middle 50%): 26-33
Testing Policy: ACT/SAT Required
SAT Superscore: No
ACT Superscore: No
% Graduated in Top 10% of HS Class: 100%
% Graduated in Top 25% of HS Class: 100%
% Graduated in Top 50% of HS Class: 100%
ENROLLMENT
Total Undergraduate Enrollment: 30,285
% Part-Time: 2%
% Male: 50%
% Female: 50%
% Out-of-State: 6%
% Fraternity: 14%
% Sorority: 14%
% On-Campus (Freshman): 89%
% On-Campus (All Undergraduate): 39%
% African-American: 3%
% Asian: 37%
% Hispanic: 19%
% White: 19%
% Other: N/A
% Race or Ethnicity Unknown: 3%
% International: 19%
% Low-Income: 30%
ACADEMICS
Student-to-Faculty Ratio: 19:1
% of Classes Under 20: 43%
% of Classes Under 40: 65%
% Full-Time Faculty: 84%
% Full-Time Faculty w/ Terminal Degree: 98%
Top Programs
Biological Sciences
Chemistry and Biochemistry
Cognitive Science
Communication
Computer Science
Economics
Engineering
Political Science
Retention Rate: 94%
4-Year Graduation Rate: 62%
6-Year Graduation Rate: 86%
Curricular Flexibility: Less Flexible
Academic Rating: 
FINANCIAL
Institutional Type: Public
In-State Tuition: $11,442
Out-of-State Tuition: $40,434
Room & Board: $14,286
Required Fees: $2,728
Books & Supplies: $1,127
Avg. Need-Based Aid: $19,366
Avg. % of Need Met: 85%
Avg. Merit-Based Aid: $13,933
% Receiving Merit-Based Aid: 3%
Avg. Cumulative Debt: $21,061
% of Students Borrowing: 45%
CAREER
Who Recruits
1. Nordson Corp
2. Sherwin Williams
3. IQVIA
4. Hulu
5. Netflix
Notable Internships
1. Inuit
2. Dow Jones
3. American Express
Top Industries
1. Business
2. Engineering
3. Education
4. Research
5. Operations
Top Employers
1. Google
2. Qualcomm
3. Apple
4. Amazon
5. Illumina
Where Alumni Work
1. San Diego
2. San Francisco
3. Los Angeles
4. Orange County, CA
5. New York City
Median Earnings
College Scorecard (Early Career): $59,900
EOP (Early Career): $65,300
PayScale (Mid-Career): $123,700
RANKINGS
Forbes: 79
Money: 9
U.S. News: 37, National Universities
Wall Street Journal/THE: 37
Washington Monthly: 7, National Universities
Inside the Classroom
Becoming a Triton used to be a disappointing consolation prize for applicants hoping to become a Bruin or a Golden Bear. While UCLA and Berkeley remain the crème de la crème of the UC system, the gap between those uber-elite jewels and UC-San Diego has closed significantly in recent years as applications have skyrocketed to the cusp of six-figures, and the profile of the average freshman has risen commensurately. In 2003, there were fewer than 20,000 undergraduates at the university; there are now in excess of 30,000. An extremely strong academic school, UCSD offers forty-two bachelor’s degrees with many concentrations as well as fifty-five minors, all available for less than $15,000 per year in tuition.
There are six undergraduate colleges at UCSD that are meant, in the Oxford and Cambridge model, not to separate by discipline but, instead, to forge flourishing small liberal arts college communities within the larger university. Core curriculum at all of the colleges includes first- year writing, advanced writing, oral communication, mathematical reasoning, quantitative reasoning, and second language. Additionally, undergrads must complete coursework in science and technological inquiry, historical inquiry, literary inquiry, social and behavioral inquiry, artistic inquiry, theological and religious inquiry, philosophical inquiry, ethical inquiry, and diversity and social justice. Two “integration” experiences in which students make connections across disciplines also must be tackled, including one during freshman year.
Over 7,600 graduate students and a 19:1 student-to-faculty ratio are two numbers that don’t bode well for those hoping for an intimate classroom experience. Yet, reality is a mixed bag. While 32 percent of course sections are held in larger lecture halls and contain fifty+ students, 43 percent of undergraduate courses sport an enrollment under twenty. Sixty percent of undergrads complete at least one research project as part of their coursework, and roughly one-quarter assist a faculty member with research outside the classroom. Study abroad numbers are approaching 1,000 undergraduates per year, which is only a sliver of the total undergraduate population. Still, opportunities in forty-two countries are available for those who desire a semester of study outside of the United States.
Altogether, the social sciences have the highest representation of all majors (29 percent) followed by biology (19 percent) and mathematics (7 percent). UCSD’s computer science and engineering programs have stellar reputations in the corporate and tech communities, and programs in biology, economics, and political science are among the best anywhere. In recent years nationally competitive postgraduate fellowship programs have selected a number of Tritons, and the school has produced as many as a dozen Fulbrights per year while the Biology Department alone saw five graduates capture National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships last academic year.
Outside the Classroom
Just shy of 95 percent of freshmen live on the UCSD campus, but only 44 percent of the undergraduate population live in dormitories or college-owned apartments. Fraternities and sororities have a solid but not overwhelming presence on campus, drawing 14 percent of men and women. Unlike UCLA and Berkeley, San Diego doesn’t offer prime-time football or basketball teams; in fact, it hasn’t fielded a football team since 1968. Rather, the twenty-three Triton squads participate in NCAA Division II and fare quite well within that less competitive environment. However, plans do exist to join Division I’s Big West Conference within the next few years. A diverse student body (37 percent minority and 9 percent international) enjoy an equally diverse array of clubs. There are over 500 to choose from with many options in the areas of student government, media, and a popular intramural sports program that has a 60 percent participation rate. The 180-acre campus is situated within the wealthy beachfront town of La Jolla, a thirteen-mile highway ride from downtown San Diego. While La Jolla is not a typical college town, many students live in beachfront apartments overlooking the Pacific Ocean or Mission Bay, and few complain about the heavenly weather.
Career Services
The UC-San Diego Career Center has eighteen full-time employees who work with or on behalf of undergraduate students, many of whom specialize in a particular discipline such as pre-law, pre-health, the social sciences, the humanities, business, or engineering. UCSD’s 1,683:1 student-to-counselor ratio is toward the highest of any school featured in this guide. To compensate, it puts on a multitude of annual career fairs, many of which attract 1,000+ students. Those include large-scale fairs in the fall, winter, and spring, a Graduate School Fair, an Engineering and Computing Career Fair, and an event called Impact Career Fair: Companies for a Brighter Future. Each quarter, hundreds of companies are on campus to recruit undergraduate students.
In 2017-18, the school listed 8,356 jobs/internships on Handshake, and those efforts led to 79 percent of graduates having participated in an experiential learning activity—internship, research, or community service. Thirty-minute one-on-one appointments can be scheduled, but scoring one of those appointments, particularly with a “good fit” counselor can be a challenge. Students, via op-eds in the school paper, have been clamoring for an increased number of advisors to accommodate the growing number of undergraduate students at the university. Thanks to the rising prestige of the school, UCSD students have enjoyed increasingly positive postgraduation outcomes, but there is still room to increase the level of support offered.
Professional Outcomes
A healthy 92 percent of UC-San Diego graduates are employed or in graduate school within six months of receiving their diplomas. Among the 73 percent who were employed, 95 percent had one or more job offers only three months after graduation. The most commonly entered industries were marketing/sales (14 percent), finance and banking (12 percent), accounting/auditing (11 percent), technology (9 percent) and health/medical (9 percent). Employers of 2018 graduates included the Walt Disney Company, Tesla, NBC Universal, PwC, Northrup Grumman, and EY. More than 1,000 current Google employees are UC-San Diego alumni, and Qualcomm, Amazon, and Apple all employ 500+ each. The median starting salary for San Diego grads was $55,000 in 2018. Those entering the engineering field averaged $65k, those in marketing/sales averaged $51k, and those majoring in education had a mean income of $40k. The bulk of grads remain in San Diego or relocate to Los Angeles or San Francisco.
Sixteen percent of 2018 graduates moved directly into a graduate or professional program. Remaining at UC-San Diego was the most popular choice followed by USC, San Diego State, UCLA, George Washington, NYU, the University of San Francisco, Pepperdine, and Columbia. Between 400 and 500 seniors apply to medical school each year and typically experience average to slightly below average levels of success; between 34 and 40 percent of applicants have been admitted in recent years. Pre-law students most frequently head to California-based institutions such as the University of San Diego School of Law, California Western School of Law, Thomas Jefferson School of Law, and Santa Clara University School of Law. However, Class of 2018 grads also found law school homes at the University of Chicago, Pepperdine, UCLA, Notre Dame, and Fordham.
Admission
A tsunami of 97,899 applications for a place in the Class of 2018-19 flooded the inboxes of the UC-San Diego Admissions Office, more than doubling the number of applications received a decade ago. The admit rate ten years ago was only 37 percent, not all that far from today’s 30 percent. Yet, the profile of the average freshman has changed drastically in that same period. Freshmen in the Class of 2022 possessed mid-50 percent standardized test scores of a 1250-1470 on the SAT, 26-32 on the ACT, and 93 percent had an unweighted GPA higher than 3.75. A decade prior, the SAT range was 1150-1380 and “only” 84 percent had GPAs in that same range. Any way you slice it, this school has become vastly more selective in the recent past.
When you are approaching 100,000 applicants, a microscopic exploration of every application is not a realistic expectation. Thus, it makes sense that three of the four “very important” factors considered by the admissions committee are cut-and-dried: level of rigor, GPA, and standardized test scores (the SAT is submitted more often than the ACT). Class rank, interestingly, is not considered. The application essay also was assigned “very important status,” and extracurricular activities, state residency, volunteer work, talent/ability, and character/personal qualities earned an “important” designation. There is no early action or early decision round at this school. If the person advising you on college admissions (counselor, parent, family friend) hasn’t been paying close attention to the spike in applications and selectivity, UC-San Diego can easily become an institution that should be a “reach” or “target” school, but it could be mistakenly assigned the title of “safety school.” In reality, a pristine academic transcript and test scores in the 90th percentile are prerequisites for most applicants.
Worth Your Money?
For the 24 percent of undergraduates who come from outside the state, the University of California-San Diego has an annual cost of attendance of $62,000. Residents, on the other hand, enjoy a COA of $33,000. Extremely little merit aid is distributed, making grants of the need-based variety your best bet for receiving a discount. Fortunately, 56 percent of current students receive some level of financial aid; the average award is $19,366. Staying within the UC system is always an excellent choice for residents, and while the school is getting expensive for outsiders, it may still prove to be a degree that returns your investment, particularly if you aim to work in the tech industry.