🎓 College profile
University of California-Los Angeles
CA · Public · Large city · 145,903 applicants 2023
For Parents
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🎯 Parent/student verdict
ReachHighly selective reach for nearly every applicant. Affordable on average — net price runs around $12,548/yr.
✅ Best for
- Strong overall academic profile (avg admit unweighted GPA 4.00 per CDS — school is test-blind, so scores aren't part of the decision at all — the transcript carries the weight)
- Students drawn to Social Sciences or Biological & Biomedical Sciences (the two biggest majors)
- Research-oriented students (R1 — top tier of federal research funding)
- Students who thrive in a large, programmatic environment
🎯 The reality
- Bottom-quartile academic profile if: unweighted GPA below 3.80 (admitted-class quartiles per the school's own data)
- Test-blind — scores aren't considered at all, so transcript GPA, course rigor, and essays do all the work
- With selective universities, build a balanced college list of Reaches, Targets, and Safeties ⓘ
- Out-of-state tuition is 3.2× the in-state rate
Verdict is composed from this college's structured data (admit rate, SAT bands, net price by income, Carnegie classification, scholarship grids) using transparent rule thresholds — not a chat-bot's opinion.
🏛️ Institutional snapshot
What kind of college is this?
Source: federal IPEDS Admissions 2023 for scores + admit rate; federal College Scorecard (20260606 vintage) for earnings + outcomes. SAT/ACT bands are the 25th–75th percentile of enrolled submitters.
🎓 High-school GPA
4.00 · 3.95–4.00 middle 50% avg unweighted GPA, admitted students
| Admitted | 4.00 unwtd · 4.60 wtd (3.95–4.00) |
unweighted 4.0 scale + weighted (school-reported). UCLA Undergraduate Admission — First-Year Profile, Fall 2024 ("GPA statistics for admitted first-year students") ↗
As published by the college in its Common Data Set / admissions data (2024-25) (source linked above). GPA basis (weighted vs. unweighted vs. 4.0-scale) varies by college and is labeled above.
📊 Outcomes & cost
What graduates actually earn, finish, and owe.
Federal College Scorecard data. Earnings are median annual income measured years after entering. Debt is for federal-aid borrowers only (cash-pay students aren't counted).
💰 True ROI
16.4× returnWhat families actually pay (after aid) vs. the sticker — and how 10-yr earnings stack against the real cost. Most sites quote sticker; we quote what families really pay.
"True ROI" = (10-yr median earnings × 10) ÷ (actual 4-yr net price). The actual net is from Scorecard (average across all families); your family's net price will vary by income — see the breakdown above. Earnings are 10 years after enrollment (Scorecard PP-FOS, all majors combined).
💰 What families actually pay
Net price by family income
Net price = sticker price minus grant aid. This is what families actually pay out-of-pocket after scholarships and need-based aid — the most honest affordability signal there is. At University of California-Los Angeles, the average net price is $12,548/yr across all families.
🔎 Earning over $110K? The federal brackets above lump every family from $110K to $1M+ into one row.
Need-based aid usually phases out somewhere between $200K and $300K at private colleges — but the exact threshold varies a lot. For a precise estimate based on your family's actual income, assets, and your student's academic profile, use University of California-Los Angeles's official Net Price Calculator:
Get your family's estimate from University of California-Los Angeles →Opens on University of California-Los Angeles's site. Takes about 10–15 minutes; have your most recent tax return handy.
Source: College Scorecard (NPT41-NPT45). Net price = total cost of attendance minus federal, state, institutional, and other grants. Some brackets may be suppressed for student-privacy reasons (small cohorts). Title IV first-time, full-time undergraduates only. The $110K+ ceiling is a federal data limitation — Department of Education hasn't refreshed these brackets since the early 2010s.
📚 What students study here
Most popular majors at University of California-Los Angeles
Top 5 fields of study by bachelor's degrees awarded (most recent IPEDS Completions). Use this to see what University of California-Los Angeles actually graduates — not just what it markets.
Source: IPEDS Completions (C2023_a), bachelor's-level first majors aggregated to 2-digit CIP family. Share is of these top 5 only — not all majors.
💼 Top programs by earnings
Highest-earning majors at University of California-Los Angeles
Median earnings 4 years after entry, by major (CIP code). From the federal College Scorecard program-level outcomes.
| Major (CIP) | Credential | Cohort | 1-yr earnings | 4-yr earnings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Computer Engineering. | Bachelor's Degree | 96 | — | $228,705 |
| Computer and Information Sciences, General. | Bachelor's Degree | — | $136,099 | $216,722 |
| Business/Managerial Economics. | Bachelor's Degree | — | $83,604 | $129,425 |
| Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering. | Bachelor's Degree | 142 | $85,369 | $126,209 |
| Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing. | Bachelor's Degree | 54 | $94,611 | $118,566 |
| Biomedical/Medical Engineering. | Bachelor's Degree | 64 | $57,874 | $116,525 |
| Aerospace, Aeronautical, and Astronautical/Space Engineering. | Bachelor's Degree | 63 | $71,068 | $115,706 |
| Statistics. | Bachelor's Degree | 228 | $59,718 | $109,017 |
| Mechanical Engineering. | Bachelor's Degree | 162 | $79,016 | $108,875 |
| Chemical Engineering. | Bachelor's Degree | 79 | $76,680 | $108,066 |
For full college-vs-major comparison + ROI leaderboards, see /college-outcomes →
🤖 AI program signal
AI + computing education at University of California-Los Angeles
Full multi-lens comparison: /ai-colleges →
⚖️ Compare side-by-side
University of California-Los Angeles vs. another college
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