UC San Diego Campus Profile

The University

Innovation is central to who we are and what we do at the University of California, San Diego. Here, students learn that knowledge isn't just acquired in the classroom—life is their laboratory.

UC San Diego is an academic powerhouse and economic engine, recognized as one of the top 10 public universities by U.S. News & World Report and ranked number one in the nation for public service by the Washington Monthly. Our location is unparalleled, our impact unmistakable. UC San Diego shapes minds, changes lives, launches industries and builds the future...one student, one discovery and one achievement at a time. Visit www.ucsd.edu for more information.

Students

Total campus enrollment is 29,052 students (as of fall 2012).
UC San Diego received 60,799 Freshman applicants for fall 2012.The admitted freshman's average high school GPA was 4.06.

Budget

UC San Diego's FY 2012 revenues were $3.4 billion; 29 percent of this total is revenue from contracts and grants, most of which is from the federal government for research.
Only 6.6 percent of UC San Diego’s total revenues come from the State of California funds for education. Yet that small investment in UC San Diego results in significant impact to the region in terms of the economy, healthcare, skilled workforce, businesses, jobs and so much more.
Total research funding for the fiscal year ending June 30 is more than $1,010,000,000, an increase of about $50 million over the funding for 2011. The funding supports research in medicine, the sciences, the arts, oceanography, engineering and other fields.

Economic Impact

In 2012, the campus conferred 8,182 degrees; 40 percent of our over 141,000 alumni live in San Diego County, contributing income, payroll, property and sales taxes to the region.
UC San Diego faculty, staff and alumni have started 646 companies, including many of our local biotech and technology firms:

Number of active local UC San Diego-related companies: 156
Total estimated annual sales of active companies: $15.3 billion
Direct jobs attributable to active companies: 18,400
Total economic impact in San Diego County of active UC San Diego-related companies: Over $20 billion

Our campus is the #1 largest employer based in San Diego County.

Specialized Resources

Alumni

Where They Live

More than 141,000 UC San Diego alumni live across the globe.
73% live in California, with the highest percentage living in San Diego (40%)
21% live in the U.S. (non-CA)
1% live abroad
6% address data unavailable

Gender

52% men
48% women

Degrees Awarded

51% received a B.A.
28% received a B.S.
20% received a graduate degree
1% degree data unavailable

Private Support

The UC San Diego Foundation, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation (Tax ID #95-2872494), was established in 1972 in response to the university's recognition that private support is essential to maintaining and enhancing the margin of excellence on campus.
The Foundation helps UC San Diego obtain private gifts in support of research, teaching, and public service. The 43-member Foundation Board manages and invests charitable gifts donated to UC San Diego, including a $374 million endowment. This endowment, along with UC San Diego funds managed by the University of California, results in a more than $554 million total endowment for the campus.
In FY 2012, UC San Diego raised $131.1 million in private support, with $13.3 million committed to the Invent the Future: The UC San Diego Student Support Campaign to fund scholarships and fellowships. A sampling of leadership and legacy gifts, as well as grants, includes $5.6 million in corporate in-kind gifts of equipment to support innovation at the Center for the Future of Surgery, $4.5 million in unrestricted funds from the estate of the late David DeLaCourt to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography ad Birch Aquarium, a total of $2.7 million given by the Qualcomm Foundation and Qualcomm Incorporated primarily to the Jacobs School of Engineering and from the estate of alumna Alice Goldfarb Marquis, $1.1 million to support the UC San Diego Libraries.

National and Global Rankings

The U.S. News & World Report 2013 Best Colleges guidebook ranks UC San Diego as the 8^th best public university in the nation—for more than a decade, the campus has been listed among the nation’s top 10 public universities. The university is 38^th among the nation’s top 281 universities.

The UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering’s undergraduate program is ranked 23rd in the category for engineering schools that award doctorates. The Jacobs School garnered a 5^th place spot in the Biomedical/Biomedical Engineering category.

Graduate programs at UC San Diego continue to rank highly as noted in the America’s Best Graduate Schools guidebook, 2013 Edition, released by U.S. News Media Group, publishers of U.S. News & World Report.

The university’s School of Medicine is ranked 15^th in research-intensive programs among 126 medical schools; its AIDS program in the primary care category is ranked 8^th. UC San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering is ranked 14^th out of 198 engineering schools; the biomedical/bioengineering program within the engineering school is ranked 2nd in the nation; computer engineering is 15^th; electrical engineering is 17^th; and civil engineering is 18^th.
Although not newly ranked this year, UC San Diego’s other graduate programs ranked in the top 20 in the 2012 edition of America’s Best Graduate Schools include:

The Sciences: physics specialties/plasma (5), discrete mathematics and combinations (6), neuroscience/neurobiology (7), biochemistry (10), physics (14), computer science (14), biological sciences (15), earth sciences (17), mathematics (20), chemistry (21)
Social Sciences and Humanities: political science (7), behavioral neuroscience (3), cognitive psychology (3), econometrics (6), American politics (6), comparative politics (6), international politics (6), sociology of culture (6), experimental psychology (7), political methodology (8), economics (14), psychology (17)
Arts and Sciences: master of fine arts in art and design (15)

UC San Diego is ranked the 15^th best university in world, and its life sciences program is ranked 9th, according to the prestigious 2012 Academic Ranking of World Universities released by the Center for World-Class Universities at Shanghai Jiao Tong. The campus is the 36^th best university in the world according to Times Higher Education in its 2012-13 “World Universities Rankings.”
The UC San Diego Health System is recognized as #1 among San Diego’s adult hospitals by the 2012-2013 U.S. News & World Report “America’s Best Hospitals” issue, and ranked among the best in the nation in four specialty areas (geriatrics, nephrology, pulmonology and urology).
- UC San Diego Medical Center-Hillcrest is one of five facilities in the country—and the only center in San Diego County—to be recognized as one of the first Comprehensive Stroke Centers, the newest level of certification for advanced stroke care awarded by The Joint Commission.
- San Diego Magazine named 122 UC San Diego Health System physicians as “Top Docs” in 2012.
In 2012, for the third consecutive year, UC San Diego is ranked 1st in the nation by the Washington Monthly’s College Guide based on the positive impact the university has had on the country. The campus was named to the 2012 President’s Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction, also for the third consecutive year.
The Teaching, Research, and International Policy (TRIP) project at the College of William and Mary ranked UC San Diego 7th in the Top 10 International Relations Ph.D. Rankings of 2012.
USA Today included UC San Diego in its 2012 list of “5 Colleges with Great Mobile Apps.”
UC San Diego ranks 11^th among all large universities in on the Peace Corps' 2012 list of "Top Colleges and Universities." There are currently 78 UC San Diego alumni currently serving as peace Corps volunteers.
UC San Diego was ranked by PayScale.com 2012 College Salary Report as the 4^th best public university for its return on investment for alumni who are California residents.
The Preuss School UCSD, a charter middle and high school located on the campus of UC San Diego, is ranked for the second consecutive year the top transformative high school in the nation and best high school in San Diego on the 2012 Newsweek magazine “America’s Best High Schools” list. In addition, The Preuss School is identified as the top charter school out of California's 912 charter schools by the USC Center on Educational Governance 2012 report.
Kiplinger's Personal Finance ranks UC San Diego the best value public university in California in its 2012 top 100 list. The university has again been ranked among the nation's top best value public colleges for 2012 by The Princeton Review.
The 2012 National Collegiate Scouting Association’s Power Rankings once again ranks UC San Diego 1^st among Division II colleges and 9^th place overall, based on student-athlete graduation rates, academic strength and athletic prowess.
The Rady School of Management at UC San Diego earned accreditation in 2011 from the prestigious AACSB International - Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business – one of the youngest in the nation to achieve this AACSB recognition.
UC San Diego is one of only 10 campuses in the United States and Canada to earn a “gold” sustainability-performance rating in the prestigious Sustainability Tracking Assessment and Rating System (STARS) 2011 survey.

In 2012, UC San Diego was ranked 1st in the nation as the most vegan-friendly university by peta2, a youth division of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. The new ranking emphasizes the campus-wide effort to integrate more sustainable culinary options, such as the new all-vegan restaurant named Roots.
UC San Diego was ranked 7^th in the nation among doctoral institutions for the number of students who study abroad for a full academic year, according to the Institute of International Education (IIE) Open Doors 2011 report.
UC San Diego ranks 6th among top U.S. universities in total research and development expenditures for fiscal year 2010 by the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Mary Beebe won the 2011 Americans for the Arts' Public Art Network Award for her work as director of the Stuart Collection, a unique program of site-specific works by leading artists on the campus of UC San Diego.
Results of the 2010 National Research Council (NRC) Data-Based Assessment of Research-Doctorate Programs, conducted every ten years, indicate that three doctoral programs offered at UC San Diego—Biological Sciences, Bioengineering and Scripps Institution of Oceanography—are ranked first in the country, two more are among the top four in their disciplines, and 60 percent of UC San Diego’s programs that were rated are among the top 20 programs in their fields nationwide. UC San Diego’s Ph.D. programs were ranked highly in every academic division.
The global Web site Surfline ranks UC San Diego as the #1 campus in the nation for surfing based on our proximity to the world-renowned Black’s Beach, nationally ranked surf team, lively student life, affordable educational costs and extensive offering of surf classes.

Current Faculty Honors

Nobel Prize: Harry Markowitz, economics (1990); Paul Crutzen, chemistry (1995); Mario J. Molina, chemistry (1995); Robert F. Engle, economics (2003); Roger Tsien, chemistry (2008). The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to former vice president Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, whose roster of researchers lists nearly two dozen Scripps Institution of Oceanography scientists including Mario Molina, Veerabhadran Ramanathan, Richard Somerville and Lynne Talley.
Fields Medal: Michael Freedman, mathematics (1986); Efim Zelmanov, mathematics (1994).
Balzan Prize: J. Freeman Gilbert, geophysics (1990); Wolfgang Berger, marine sciences (1993).
National Medal of Science: Margaret Burbidge, astrophysics (1983); Walter Munk, geophysics (1983); Michael Freedman, mathematics (1987); Yuan-Chen Fung, bioengineering (2000); Andrew Viterbi, electrical and computer engineering (2008); Craig Venter, Pharmacology (2009); Marye Anne Fox, chemistry (2010); Shu Chien, bioengineering (2011).
Pulitzer Prize: Roger Reynolds, music (1989); Rae Armantrout, poetry (2010).
Kyoto Prize: Walter Munk, geophysics (1999).
MacArthur Fellows: Michael Freedman, mathematics (1984); Edwin Hutchins, cognitive science (1985); Michael Schudson, communication (1990); Patricia Churchland, philosophy (1991); Nancy D. Cartwright, philosophy (1993); Kun-Liang Guan, pharmacology (1998); Guillermo Algaze, anthropology (2003); and Carol Padden, communication (2010).
Tony Award: Judith Dolan, theatre and dance (1997).
Academy Award: Henrik Wann Jensen, computer science and engineering (2004).