Physical Address
115 W Rainey Ave
Weatherford, OK 73096
As in the past, UC campuses also excelled in important subcategories of rankings, including on a specific social mobility list, which includes a strong focus on first-generation and Pell Grant student performance.
The Best UC Schools: UC Rankings 2023
Discover the most highly-ranked UC campuses and learn how to determine the best UC schools for your child
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.
Do UC schools require standardized tests?
No, UC schools do not require applicants to take standardized tests.
In May 2020, the SAT and ACT were deemed optional for UC applicants through 2022, with the goals of completely eliminating the tests from their admissions process by 2024 and creating a new UC-specific standardized test by 2025. However, in November 2021, the University of California announced that it would go test-free for the foreseeable future. As such, an alternative test is no longer in the works.
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).
| UC Rankings | US News Ranking | Location | Year Est. | Acceptance Rate | GPA Range |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UCLA | 1 (15) (tie) | Los Angeles | 1919 | 8.8% | 4.20–4.31 |
| UC Berkeley | 1 (15) (tie) | Berkeley | 1868 | 11.6% | 4.15-4.29 |
| UC San Diego | 2 (28) (tie) | La Jolla | 1960 | 24.7% | 4.11-4.29 |
| UC Davis | 2 (28) (tie) | Davis | 1905 | 41.8% | 4.03-4.27 |
| UC Irvine | 3 (33) (tie) | Irvine | 1965 | 25.7% | 4.07-4.28 |
| UC Santa Barbara | 4 (35) | Santa Barbara | 1891 | 27.9% | 4.13 – 4.29 |
| UC Merced | 5 (60) | Merced | 2005 | 88.3% | 3.48-4.08 |
| UC Riverside | 6 (76) | Riverside | 1954 | 70.3% | 3.76-4.18 |
| UC Santa Cruz | 7 (82) | Santa Cruz | 1965 | 62.7% | 3.86-4.22 |
University of California earns top spots in 2023-24 U.S. News Best Colleges rankings
UCLA (shown here) and UC Berkeley tied for the best public university in the country, according to the new 2023-24 U.S. News Best Colleges rankings, released today (Sept 18).
UC Berkeley and UCLA tied for the best public university in the country, with six University of California undergraduate campuses among the top 20 and all nine in the top 40, according to the new 2023-24 Best Colleges rankings, published today (Sept. 18) by U.S. News & World Report.
All of UC’s nine undergraduate campuses also ranked in the top 100 of all national universities, public or private.
U.S. News Best Colleges rankings by campus
| Campus | Public | All universities |
|---|---|---|
| UC Berkeley | 1 | 15 |
| UCLA | 1 | 15 |
| UC Davis | 6 | 28 |
| UC San Diego | 6 | 28 |
| UC Irvine | 10 | 33 |
| UC Santa Barbara | 12 | 35 |
| UC Merced | 28 | 60 |
| UC Riverside | 36 | 76 |
| UC Santa Cruz | 40 | 82 |
It’s the fourth year in a row that all of UC’s undergraduate campuses have placed in the top 100 of all universities across the country. UC Merced continues to rise up the rankings, moving up 11 places as a public university this year to No. 28, and earning the No. 60 rank among all universities, public or private, in the country. It’s an impressive feat for the system’s youngest campus, which is still less than 20 years old.
“Student success is our north star, and it is rewarding that national organizations increasingly recognize this commitment,” said UC Merced Chancellor Juan Sánchez Muñoz. “What has been built here, in the heart of California, is a testament to the magnificent faculty and staff, both past and present, who have worked tirelessly in their shared pursuit of research excellence, service and student success.”
Like many other national rankings, U.S. News updated its rankings methodology this year to increase focus on student outcomes, and have begun giving more to weight to measurements such as social mobility, graduation rates, manageable debt and post-graduate success. More than half of a school’s rank is now comprised of varying outcome measures related to schools’ success at enrolling, retaining and graduating students from different backgrounds with manageable debt and post-graduate success. Learn more about their methodology here.
UC campuses typically do well in the Best Colleges list. The magazine’s updated methodology for ranking highlights the UC system’s signature strengths as an engine of social mobility. This year several campuses, not just UC Merced, increased their ranking over last year, including UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC Davis, UC San Diego and UC Riverside.
“We always say: We don’t do what we do to pursue rankings,” said Muñoz. “We pursue our mission of advancing students’ social and economic mobility, and the nation notices.”
Among the new criteria factored into the rankings was first-generation graduation rates and how they compared to graduation rates of non-first-generation students. According to U.S. News, the closer those two numbers approached each other, “the better the school has demonstrated its ability to attend to its students’ needs.”
U.S. News cited public surveys, including from the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics, as the impetus for changing its methodology. Nearly 1,500 U.S. four-year bachelor’s degree-granting institutions were evaluated for its 39th rankings edition.
As in the past, UC campuses also excelled in important subcategories of rankings, including on a specific social mobility list, which includes a strong focus on first-generation and Pell Grant student performance.
Five UCs made it into the top 20 of the Top Performing Schools for Social Mobility among all universities, public and private, with UC Riverside tied for second on the list, UC Merced tied for fourth. UC Irvine tied for No. 12, UC Santa Cruz tied for No. 16 and UC Davis tied for No. 19. Eight campuses were in the top 35.
The UC system also excelled on the Best Colleges for Veterans ranking, with eight campuses in the top 50. UC Berkeley and UCLA tied for No. 3; UC Davis and UC San Diego tied for No. 12; UC Irvine tied for No. 17; and UC Santa Barbara tied for No. 19.
Across many methodologies, the UC system retains its reputation for world-class excellence and student opportunity and affordability.
Most recently, UC topped Forbes and Washington Monthly rankings as America’s best university system, while the Princeton Review cited UC as among the nation’s best universities according to student surveys. UC Berkeley was also named the top university in number of companies founded by undergraduate alumni last week. For more information and to apply, please visit admission.universityofcalifornia.edu.
