What You'll Actually Pay
Price after grants
$7,525 to $28,785 a year for in-state students, depending on income.
College Scorecard 2024 estimate · in-state rates
See the price at your income ↑Sticker price
Full cost before aid: $38,701 a year in-state. Average need-based aid package: $32,477.Aid and debt
50.1%
receive need-based grants
$19,032
average debt at graduation
1,442
students got merit aid
about 4% of undergraduates
$14,656
average merit award
Getting In
A note for out-of-state applicants
University of California, San Diego is bound by a California rule capping how much of its undergraduate class can come from outside the state. If you're applying from outside California, you're competing for a limited, separately-capped share of seats — a different picture than the admit rate above shows.
Key dates
Test scores
SAT composite range not reported by this school.
ACT composite range not reported by this school.
100% were in the top 10% of their high school class.
What they value
- Very important
- Course rigor (AP/IB)
- GPA
- Personal essay
- Important
- Extracurriculars
- Special talent
- Character
- In-state residency
- Volunteer work
- Considered
- Class rank
- First-gen status
- Where you're from
- Work experience
- Not considered
- SAT/ACT scores
- Recommendations
- Legacy status
- Demonstrated interest
What this means for you
UC San Diego rates course rigor and your essay as Very Important, and your activities as Important.
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Rigor means AP, IB, and dual enrollment carry real weight — make sure your mix of AP or IB courses is strong. The essay is weighted like your GPA. And depth and leadership in a few activities matter more than a long list.
UC San Diego doesn't consider demonstrated interest in admissions at all — visits and follow-up emails won't move the needle here.
Source: Common Data Set 2025–26, Section C7 (admissions factors)
UC San Diego just showed you what it values in an application. Use that to write a Why-UC San Diego essay that's actually about you — not a template.
Get sourced starting points for your essayStudent Life
35% of UC San Diego classes have fewer than 20 students.
35%
under 20 students
37.2%
20 to 49
27.8%
50 or more
Every class section counts, labs and seminars included; first-year courses tend to be larger. UC San Diego CDS 2025–26, I-3.
20:1
student:faculty ratio
Campus life
12.3%
first-years from out of state
54%
live on campus
8%
of men in fraternities
7%
of women in sororities
Who attends
- Asian34.6%
- Hispanic26.8%
- White16%
- Multiracial6.4%
- Unknown / other2.4%
- Black1.6%
Enrolled undergraduates; international students are counted separately and not included. UC San Diego CDS 2025–26, B2.
Popular majors
Will They Graduate?
74.2% of UC San Diego students graduate in 4 years.
74.2%
finish in 4 years
Entered fall 2019
86%
finish in 6 years
Entered fall 2019
94.7%
return after first year
Finishing late means paying for extra semesters, so the 4-year rate is the one that shows the cost.
Students with Pell Grants
81% finish in 6 years, against 86% of all students.
A 5-point gap: Pell Grant students finish less often than students overall.
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.
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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.
The City
Major city
La Jolla, CA
Best For
Notable alumni
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.
Traditions
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 from La Jolla
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 and game days
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
Internships and jobs nearby
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
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 82% 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.