🎓 College profile
University of California-San Diego
CA · Public · Large city · 130,771 applicants 2023
For Parents
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🎯 Parent/student verdict
Strong targetSelective but achievable for strong students. Affordable on average — net price runs around $12,470/yr.
✅ Best for
- Strong overall academic profile (avg admit unweighted GPA 3.90 per CDS — school is test-blind, so scores aren't part of the decision at all — the transcript carries the weight)
- Students drawn to Biological & Biomedical Sciences or Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies (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 3.70 (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 3.0× 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
3.90 avg unweighted GPA, enrolled first-years
| Enrolled first-years | 3.90 unwtd |
Distribution of enrolled first-years by GPA band (green = highest). Hover a segment for its share.
unweighted 4.0 scale. Fall 2024 entering class. 134k apps — among largest applicant pools in country. 26.8% admit rate, modest yield (UC system competition). Common Data Set 2024-25 ↗
As published by the college in its Common Data Set / admissions data (2024-25) — independently verified 2026-06-16 (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
17.0× 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-San Diego, the average net price is $12,470/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-San Diego's official Net Price Calculator:
Get your family's estimate from University of California-San Diego →Opens on University of California-San Diego'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-San Diego
Top 5 fields of study by bachelor's degrees awarded (most recent IPEDS Completions). Use this to see what University of California-San Diego 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-San Diego
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 Science. | Bachelor's Degree | 591 | $112,006 | $159,487 |
| Computer Engineering. | Bachelor's Degree | 167 | $96,256 | $149,139 |
| Mathematics and Computer Science. | Bachelor's Degree | 269 | $89,651 | $137,218 |
| Biomathematics, Bioinformatics, and Computational Biology. | Bachelor's Degree | 71 | $76,592 | $123,320 |
| Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering. | Bachelor's Degree | 218 | $80,687 | $118,150 |
| Biological/Biosystems Engineering. | Bachelor's Degree | 20 | $67,016 | $111,677 |
| Mechanical Engineering. | Bachelor's Degree | 146 | $69,555 | $104,229 |
| Aerospace, Aeronautical, and Astronautical/Space Engineering. | Bachelor's Degree | 83 | $65,401 | $100,173 |
| Biomedical/Medical Engineering. | Bachelor's Degree | 92 | $65,045 | $98,687 |
| Chemical Engineering. | Bachelor's Degree | 129 | $59,508 | $96,798 |
For full college-vs-major comparison + ROI leaderboards, see /college-outcomes →
🤖 AI program signal
AI + computing education at University of California-San Diego
Full multi-lens comparison: /ai-colleges →
⚖️ Compare side-by-side
University of California-San Diego vs. another college
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