La Jolla, CA 92093, Top 100 Universities in USA 2014 – Rank – 27 , University of California, San Diego In California

University of California, San Diego    

9500 Gilman Dr, La Jolla, CA 92093, United States

The University of California, San Diego (also referred to as UC San Diego or UCSD), is a public research university located in La Jolla, California, in the United States.^[12] The university occupies 2,141 acres (866 ha) near the coast of the Pacific Ocean with the main campus resting on approximately 1,152 acres (466 ha).^[13] Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD is the seventh oldest of the 10 University of California campuses and offers over 200 undergraduate and graduate degree programs, enrolling about 22,700 undergraduate and 6,300 graduate students. UCSD is one of America’s Public Ivyuniversities, which recognizes top public research universities in the United States. UC San Diego was ranked 39th among the top universities in the United States, tied for 3rd with UC Davis of the University of California schools, and 9th among public universities byU.S. News & World Report ‘s 2014 rankings.^[14]

UC San Diego is organized into six undergraduate residential colleges, five graduate schools, and two professional medical schools. The university operates four research institutes, including the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, San Diego Supercomputer Center, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and UC San Diego Health System, and is also affiliated with several regional research centers, such as the Salk Institute, the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine, and the Scripps Research Institute. The university also houses two think tanks, theInstitute on Global Conflict and Cooperation and Center for Comparative Immigration Studies. UC San Diego faculty, researchers, and alumni have won twenty Nobel Prizes,^[10] eight National Medals of Science, eight MacArthur Fellowships, two Pulitzer Prizes, and twoFields Medals.^[15][16] Additionally, of the current faculty, 29 have been elected to the National Academy of Engineering,^[16] 95 to theNational Academy of Sciences, and 106 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.^[15]

UC San Diego student-athletes compete in 23 intercollegiate sports as the Tritons in Division II of the NCAA. As a member of theCalifornia Collegiate Athletic Association, the Tritons have won 24 championships in sports including soccer, volleyball, golf, tennis, water polo, softball, swimming, and diving. The official colors of the university and its athletic teams are navy blue and California gold.

Rankings and admissions

Institutional rankings of UC San Diego have generally ranked the university highly, depending on the criteria of the publication.^[70] For instance, the Washington Monthly has ranked the university first in the nation since 2010 based on its contribution to the public good in three broad categories: social mobility (recruiting and graduating low-income students), research (producing cutting-edge scholarship and PhDs), and service (encouraging students to give something back to their country).^[71][72][73] The university is ranked at 12th and 15th in the Nation by ARWU^[74] and CWUR^[75] respectively. In 2013, UC San Diego was ranked 39th among the top universities in the United States, tied for 3rd of the University of California schools, and 9th among public universities by U.S. News & World Report.^[14] Kiplinger in 2014 ranked UCSD 14th out of the top 100 best-value public colleges and universities in the nation, and 3rd in California.^[76] ScienceWatch ranks UCSD 7th of federally funded U.S. universities, based on the citation impact of their published research in major fields of science and the social sciences and 12th globally by volume of citations.^[77][78]

Internationally, the University of California, San Diego is ranked 14th by the Academic Ranking of World Universities,^[74] and is ranked 20th by the Center for World University Rankings.^[75] In 2013, UCSD was ranked 40th in the world by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings^[79] and 63rd overall in the world, and 11th in life sciences and biomedicine, by QS World University Rankings.^[80]

UC San Diego ranked fifth in the nation in terms of federal research expenditure.^[81] ScienceWatch placed UCSD 1st in social psychology,^[82] 2nd in oceanography,^[83] 3rd ininternational relations,^[84] 5th in molecular biology and genetics,^[85][86] 17th in engineering,^[87] and 18th in Neuroscience and Behavior^[88] using non-survey, quantitative based metrics to determine research impact. Research centers under university administration are: the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, San Diego Supercomputer Center, California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, and Center for US-Mexican Studies.^[45]

Admission to UC San Diego is highly selective;^[94] for undergraduate admission in Fall 2013, it received over 82,000 applications from both freshman and transfer applicants, the third highest among the University of California campuses, and offered admission to 36.8% of those who applied for freshman admission.^[95] 47% of admitted students receive federal Pell Grants.^[96]

Graduate admissions are largely centralized through the Office of Graduate Studies. However, the Rady School of Management, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IR/PS) handle their own admissions. For Fall 2012, the UC San Diego School of Medicine offered admission to 5% of its applicants.^[97]

In 2009, UCSD mistakenly sent Admit Day welcome emails to all its 47,000 freshmen applicants, instead of just the 17,000 who had been admitted.^[98] However, school officials quickly realized the mistake and sent an apology email within two hours.