The Best UC Schools: UC Rankings 2024
/Discover the most highly-ranked UC campuses and learn how to determine the best UC schools for your child
----
Part 1: Introduction
Whether or not you’re a native Californian, you likely have some familiarity with the University of California system. Maybe you’ve cheered for UCLA football or listened to a UC Berkeley professor share their expertise on the news. Or perhaps you’ve met a few of the two million members belonging to the UC alumni network.
However much you know about the UC system, you have one important question when it comes to your child who’s approaching the college admissions process: “What are the best UC schools?” You want to understand the UC rankings and what they mean for your high-achieving student.
The University of California system, which was founded in 1869 with the mission of educating the brightest Californian students, has become world-renowned for its excellence in education, research, and service. Widely considered to be the best public university system in the nation, the UC system attracts around 250,000 applications every year.
And why do so many students dream of attending one of the nine UC schools? Perhaps because of the esteemed UC faculty, many of whom are Nobel laureates, Turing Award winners, MacArthur Fellows, and Academy Award winners. Or maybe these applicants are drawn to the breakthrough research occurring on UC campuses—producing nearly 2,000 inventions every year. Or perhaps they want to join the prolific alumni network which includes the co-founder of Apple, Olympic medalists, and Fortune 500 CEOs.
The UC system has more than earned its prestige and reputation over the years. But you still need an answer—what are the best UC schools? In this guide, we’ll share and discuss the UC rankings to help you determine the best UC schools for your child.
List of UC schools
Before we compare rankings and discuss the best UC schools in further detail, let’s review an alphabetized list of the UC campuses.
UC Berkeley
UC Davis
UC Irvine
UCLA
UC Merced
UC Riverside
UC San Diego
UC Santa Barbara
UC Santa Cruz
(Note: We intentionally left UC San Francisco off this list because it offers graduate and professional degrees only. While many of its graduate programs, including UCSF Medical School, are highly ranked, this guide is focusing solely on UC campuses that offer undergraduate degrees.)
How UC schools are ranked
Unfortunately for this discussion, the UC system itself doesn’t offer a definitive UC rankings list of its different campuses. However, all of the UC schools appear on the U.S. News & World Report list of the best national universities, allowing us to determine the best order for UC rankings.
To properly understand what the list of best UC schools signifies, we must consider the U.S. News & World Report ranking methodology—which weighs multiple factors to assess each university’s ranking. Here are the ranking factors, listed in order of importance:
Peer assessment
Graduation rate
Social mobility
Faculty resources
Graduation rate performance
Borrower debt
College grads earning more than a high school graduate
First-year retention rate
As you can see, this ranking method takes into account multiple indicators of student outcomes, as well as measures of faculty well-being, alumni involvement, and university standing in the academic community. While no university ranking system can be deemed perfect, the U.S. News & World Report methodology is certainly thorough and provides an excellent source for this UC rankings list.
----
----
Part 2: UC rankings 2023-2024
The following table orders the best UC schools according to their ranking given by U.S. News & World Report. The numbers in parentheses represent each school’s place among all other ranked U.S. colleges, whereas the number outside parentheses indicates a school’s relative rank among its UC peers. As you can see, all nine UC schools place among the nation’s top 100 universities.
It’s worth noting that the GPA ranges given below are calculated according to the University of California’s unique “weighted, capped” GPA formula, which differs from standard weighted and unweighted GPA calculations. The UC formula adds a limited number of extra points for honors-level courses; however, it only takes into account “A-G” courses taken between the summer after freshman year and the summer after junior year (i.e., freshman and senior year don’t count for GPA purposes).
(Related reading: Weighted vs. Unweighted GPA: What's the Difference?)
| UC Rankings | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UCLA | |||||
| UC Berkeley | |||||
| UC San Diego | |||||
| UC Davis | |||||
| UC Irvine | |||||
| UC Santa Barbara | |||||
| UC Merced | |||||
| UC Riverside | |||||
| UC Santa Cruz |
UC rankings discussion
While the UC rankings provide you a useful order to consider the best UC schools, they don’t paint the whole picture. And when helping your child choose which UC school to attend, you want to base your decision on more than the UC rankings.
Each UC campus has its own personality and offers a unique experience to its students. Even if one UC has a higher ranking and is viewed as more prestigious than another, it might not necessarily be the right fit for your child. In order to determine the best UC schools for your child, you must consider the distinctive location, community, academics, and research opportunities each UC campus provides.
Consider the location of each UC campus
If you live in or have traveled extensively in California, you know how significantly the culture and people can vary from place to place. The nine undergraduate UC campuses are spread throughout California and each offers a unique location and setting that suits certain students perfectly while being completely wrong for others.
A college’s location is important for a number of factors. Certain areas of California are hotspots for specific career industries. For example, Los Angeles leads the nation in movie, music, and art production. If your child dreams of making it big in the film industry, they’d be wiser to attend UCLA than UC Berkeley, since UCLA will offer them unique opportunities to secure industry internships and start building their career network.
Other UC campuses offer locational advantages for specific careers, too. UC Berkeley lies near Silicon Valley, the global center for technology and innovation. UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, and UC Santa Cruz are all located near the ocean, making them ideal choices for students interested in marine or oceanic studies.
Beyond the career and industry factor, certain UC locations will appeal to specific student personalities better than others. For example, UC Davis is set in a small, peaceful town surrounded by nature. Some students would love the college-town vibe and enjoy exploring the outdoors on weekends.
On the other hand, UC Irvine lies in the heart of Orange County, appealing to the type of student who would enjoy spending their weekends roaming Disneyland or sunbathing at Newport Beach. The type of weekend activities available shouldn’t be the most important factor in a college decision, but choosing the right location match can help a student transition to college successfully and enjoy their overall college experience to a greater degree.
Evaluate the fit of the different UC school communities
Each UC campus has a distinctive vibe created not only by its location, but also by its history and student community. UC Berkeley, the oldest member of the UC system, has a strong history of political activism. Not surprisingly, it attracts students who want to carry on this legacy by getting involved in political movements and making a social impact.
On the other hand, UC Merced is the newest UC campus—it was founded in 2005. It doesn’t yet possess a rich and complex history like some of the other UC’s, which is a distinctive aspect of its identity. Many students are attracted to UC Merced specifically because they can be a part of shaping its history and defining its place within the UC system.
You’ll also find significant differences in student body size between the different UC campuses. UC Merced is the smallest, with about 8,000 undergraduate students. UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara, and UC Santa Cruz have undergrad enrollments hovering around 20,000, while the remaining UC schools have around 30,000 undergraduates each.
If your child is better suited for a small college feel, they might be most at home at UC Merced or perhaps at UC San Diego, which is organized into six residential colleges to create intentional student communities despite its large enrollment size. On the other hand, if your child is looking for a large college feel, UCLA might land at the top of their list as the largest UC campus—also the one with the most enthusiastic sports culture.
Find the right UC major
In total, the UC system offers over 800 degree programs. While several majors are available at all nine campuses, most UC schools have a handful of unique majors only they offer. This might narrow down your options for best UC schools if your child is looking to major in an area only offered by one or two campuses.
Here are a few examples of special majors or programs offered by the different campuses.
UC Berkeley: The Management, Entrepreneurship, and Technology (MET) program which pairs a B.S. in Business Administration with a second B.S. in a specific engineering discipline
UC Davis: B.S. in Entomology
UC Irvine: B.A. in Literary Journalism
UCLA: B.A. in Arabic
UC Riverside: B.S. in Mathematics for Secondary School Teachers
UC San Diego: B.S. in Nanoengineering
UC Santa Barbara: B.S. in Zoology
UC Santa Cruz: B.S. in Robotics Engineering
It’s also worth noting that UCLA and UC Irvine are the only two UC schools to offer undergraduate nursing degrees. And while several of the UC campuses have majors related to marine life and ocean science, UC San Diego boasts an advantage in this area as the home to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography—one of the oldest and largest centers for ocean science research in the world.
As you can see, there are advantages in studying certain disciplines at specific UC campuses. It’s important to research the different UC campus majors when determining the best UC schools for your child.
Discover specific UC faculty and research
Over 75 percent of UC students participate in undergraduate research. And this research doesn’t solely occur in the STEM fields—UC faculty and students conduct research across all majors and disciplines.
If your child is looking for the best UC schools for them, they should take a thorough look at what type of research is being conducted on different UC campuses. What areas of study excite them? What labs would they love to join? What esteemed faculty members would they hope to research under and learn from?
In 2020, a UC Irvine lab developed an accurate, low-cost antibody test for COVID-19. UC Merced faculty and alumni are working with NASA to test out rovers before sending them to Mars. A UC Santa Cruz faculty member achieved the first complete assembly of a human X chromosome. A pair of UC Santa Barbara faculty are examining how wildfires impact weather patterns.
These research examples are just the tip of the iceberg for all the research conducted across the UC system. With enough digging, your child is bound to find a study, faculty member, or research lab that sparks their interest.
----
----
Part 3: How to determine the best UC schools for your child
As we’ve discussed, the UC rankings offer you information to use in your child’s college search, but there are many additional factors you should consider before deciding on the best UC schools. If your child is evaluating their UC options, they can use the following guidelines to find the right campuses for them.
Research each UC school extensively
If it’s possible to visit each UC campus, or at least the ones your child is strongly considering, that’s the best possible scenario. But if visiting isn’t an option, take advantage of the next best thing—UC virtual tours, available on YouVisit. You can also speak to UC admissions representatives to get more information about the unique features of each campus. Or you might seek out UC alumni or current students on LinkedIn or social media with your questions.
After thoroughly researching the different UC’s, your child is bound to find something to either attract or dissuade them from each campus—helping them narrow down their list of best UC schools.
Assess UC campus and community fit
Your child should reflect on what matters to them in a college experience. Would they prefer a small or a large campus? Are they better suited to an urban location or a suburban one? What type of activities and extracurriculars are they looking for? What would they enjoy doing on the weekends?
Students will transfer out from even the most prestigious colleges if it is a poor fit for them. Feeling at ease both inside and outside the classroom will help your child persist through graduation and have a meaningful college experience.
Focus on UC major and career opportunities
There are many different major options leading to the same career. So when your child is exploring the majors offered by each UC school, they should pinpoint the specific aspects of the major that excites them. Does a specific class sound fascinating? Are they enthralled by a certain faculty member? Does the academic department offer unique experiences, opportunities, or resources that would be beneficial? What big industries and potential internship sites have strong connections to the campus?
Determine top choices, but apply to several UC schools
Here’s one of the greatest things about the UC system—your child can apply to all nine UC schools with a single application. So why not apply to all of them, you ask? It’s an option, albeit an expensive one. The application fee is $70 per UC campus, or $630 if your child were to apply to all nine.
Choosing three to four UC campuses to apply to is typically a better game plan. After accounting for personality and academic fit, your child will also want to assess their admissions chances at the different UC schools—which have varying degrees of selectivity.
To help your child evaluate their admissions odds, we’ve listed each UC school’s acceptance rate, as well as its 25th to 75th percentile range for GPA.
If attending a UC school is one of your child’s main college goals, they should determine which campuses are reach, target, and safety matches for their academic profile.
Consider life beyond graduation
Thinking beyond your child’s undergraduate years may seem unusual when selecting a college, but many of the connections they make while in school will last a lifetime. It’s worth considering what they might do after graduation to get the most out of these four years.
Do you think your child is likely to stay in the city where they studied after graduation or return home before considering next steps? This can have an impact on their career progression. We mentioned earlier that UCLA is a great place to study film given its location, but perhaps your child is hoping to enroll in a professional program directly after undergrad such as medicine or law. If that’s the case, you may want to look at the ranking for these types of programs as well including a school’s connections to area hospitals, research facilities, or even avenues to gain experience practicing law.
About the Author
Dr. Shirag Shemmassian is the Founder of Shemmassian Academic Consulting and one of the world's foremost experts on college admissions. For nearly 20 years, he and his team have helped thousands of students get into top programs like Harvard, Stanford, and MIT using his exclusive approach.
Ready to discover what it takes to get into the most selective UC schools?
Check out the guides below to help your child get accepted to the top-ranked UC schools. Plus, we’ve created in-depth guides on how to write the UC application essays (otherwise known as “personal insight questions”) and how to fill out the UC activities list.
