At a Glance
UC San Diego admits 28.6% of applicants.
What You'll Actually Pay
See what families at different income levels actually pay after aid.
What families actually pay, by income level
After grants and scholarships. Before loans. Public school prices shown at in-state rates.
Source: College Scorecard / IPEDS, 2024-25
Where the Sticker Price Goes
Based on average need-based grant. Actual cost varies by family income — see chart above.
Shown at in-state rates.
Debt at Graduation
50.1%
receive need-based grant aid
$19,032
average debt at graduation
UC San Diego graduates carry an average of $19,032 in debt.
Merit Aid
1,442
students received merit aid
$14,656
average merit award
Getting In
UC San Diego admits 28.6% of applicants.
This school reports SAT section scores but leaves the composite range blank, so there is no mid-50% band to chart.
ACT composite range not reported by this school.
100% were in the top 10% of their high school class.
What They Value
Academic
Nonacademic
University of California, San Diego rates your personal essay as Very Important — equal weight to your GPA. Don't underestimate it. Demonstrated interest is Not Considered here — campus visits and emails to admissions won't affect your odds.
Student Life
35% of UC San Diego classes have fewer than 20 students.
Share of undergraduate class sections at each size, from CDS Section I-3. More red = more large lectures.
At UC San Diego, 35% of your classes will have fewer than 20 students.
Class size data reflects all undergraduate sections including labs, seminars, and lectures. Large research universities often have smaller upper-division and graduate-level sections that improve the overall distribution. First and second-year students typically experience larger classes than these averages suggest.
Source: Common Data Set 2025–26, Section I-3 (class sizes)
20:1
student:faculty ratio
Campus Life
From out of state (freshman class)
12.3%
Live on campus
54%
Men in fraternities
8%
Women in sororities
7%
Who Attends
Racial and ethnic breakdown of enrolled undergraduates, as reported in each school's Common Data Set. "Unknown / Other" includes students who did not report or selected "other."
UC San Diego's student body is 16% white.
Popular Majors
Will They Graduate?
UC San Diego graduates 74.2% of students in 4 years.
Graduating late means paying for extra semesters. The 6-year rate tells you who eventually finishes — the 4-year rate tells you what it actually costs.
UC San Diego graduates 74.2% of students in 4 years.
What finishing late actually costs
Based on each school's published cost of attendance. Public school costs shown at in-state rates.
UC San Diego
74.2%
4-yr grad rate
Extra year cost: $38,701*
* In-state cost of attendance. Out-of-state students pay significantly more.
Graduation rate data from Common Data Set 2025–26, Fall 2018 cohort (most recent available). 4-year rate = students completing in 4 years or less. 6-year rate = students completing within 6 years.
86%
Overall 6-yr rate
81%
Pell recipient rate
There's a 5 point gap between overall and Pell Grant graduation rates. Worth asking the school about support resources.
Freshman Retention
94.7%
94.7% of first-year students return for sophomore year.
City & Culture
Beyond the data — what it's actually like to spend four years in La Jolla.
La Jolla is a coastal, expensive, low-rise corner of San Diego, and the campus sits on the bluffs above the Pacific with Torrey Pines and Black's Beach at its western edge. It is quieter than the city it belongs to: downtown San Diego is about twenty minutes south, and the Blue Line trolley now runs to the campus, which is what makes a car optional rather than assumed. The trade-off is that La Jolla is one of the most expensive places to rent in the state, and a campus of 35,442 undergraduates spread across eight residential colleges takes a while to feel small.
Notable Alumni
Susumu Tonegawa
Won the 1987 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering V(D)J recombination, the genetic mechanism that produces antibody diversity. He earned his PhD here in 1968.
Class of 1968
Craig Venter
Led the private effort to sequence the human genome and later built the first cell with a synthetic genome. He took a bachelor's degree in biochemistry here in 1972 and a PhD in physiology and pharmacology in 1975.
Class of 1975
Mike Judge
Created Beavis and Butt-Head, King of the Hill, Office Space and Silicon Valley. He studied physics here, and worked as an engineer before animating.
Class of 1985
Kim Stanley Robinson
Science fiction novelist best known for the Mars trilogy and The Ministry for the Future. He took a BA in literature here in 1974 and returned for a PhD in English in 1982.
Class of 1974
Alumni selected for name recognition and range of fields. Not from the Common Data Set.
The City
Major city
La Jolla, CA
Best For
Traditions
The residential college system
Every undergraduate belongs to one of eight residential colleges, each with its own general-education requirements, dining hall and traditions — a structural choice that shapes daily life more than almost anything else on campus.
The Sun God Festival
A spring music festival held on campus since 1983, named for the Niki de Saint Phalle sculpture that anchors the Stuart Collection.
The Stuart Collection
Site-specific art installed permanently across campus since 1982, including the Fallen Star house perched on an engineering building's roof and the talking trees of the Eucalyptus Grove.
The Watermelon Drop
A June tradition dating to 1965 in which a watermelon is dropped from the top of Urey Hall, an origin story tied to a physics final exam question.
Weekend Escapes
Within driving distance from La Jolla
Torrey Pines State Reserve
About 10 minutesCliff trails and beach directly north of campus — close enough to be a study break rather than a trip.
Downtown San Diego and Balboa Park
About 20 minutes, or the Blue Line trolleyMuseums, the zoo, live music and the harbour, reachable without a car.
Anza-Borrego Desert
About 2 hoursDesert hiking and spring wildflowers, the standard long-weekend escape inland.
Los Angeles
About 2 hours, or 3 by AmtrakThe nearest bigger city, close enough for a weekend and connected by a coastal rail line.
Getting There & Game Days
Nearest airport
San Diego International (SAN)
About 25 minutes from campus
For international flights: Los Angeles International (LAX) — about 2 hours.
Pro sports nearby
- San Diego Padres MLB
- San Diego FC MLS
- San Diego Wave FC NWSL
Career Proximity
San Diego is a genuine biotech and defence cluster rather than a satellite of Los Angeles, and most of it sits within a few miles of campus in the Torrey Pines and Sorrento Valley corridors.
Top Industries Nearby
Major Employers
- Qualcomm
- Illumina
- Scripps Research
- General Atomics
- UC San Diego Health
San Diego — the Torrey Pines biotech corridor is adjacent to campus
Who Thrives Here
San Diego admits 28.6% and, like every University of California campus, does not read SAT or ACT scores. What it is not is easy once you arrive: 74.2% finish in four years and 86% within six, while 94.7% return for a second year. The academic centre of gravity is unmistakable — biological sciences alone are 19.6% of degrees conferred, with interdisciplinary studies at 16.6% and engineering at 11.5% — so a student who wants a humanities-first campus has landed in the wrong place. Cost is the clearest argument for it: $17,991 in state against $57,261 out of state. Aid covers 83.5% of need rather than all of it and graduates who borrow leave owing $19,032, which is the arithmetic to check against your own numbers before committing. The campus is split into residential colleges, which is how a place with 35,442 undergraduates keeps a smaller unit around each student; 54% live in university housing and 8% of men and 7% of women join Greek life, so the social life is neither commuter-flat nor Greek-driven. Classes are large — 35% of sections under 20 students and 20 per faculty member — and the Pacific is a walk from the western edge of campus.