University of California San Diego

The University of California San Diego is a public research university in La Jolla, part of the University of California system. It was established in 1960 around the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, which dates to 1903 and joined the UC system in 1912. The campus of about 1,200 acres overlooks the Pacific on the Torrey Pines Mesa. Undergraduates belong to one of eight residential colleges, a structure modeled on the Oxbridge college system.

Its academic units include the Jacobs School of Engineering, the School of Biological Sciences, the School of Physical Sciences, the School of Social Sciences, the School of Arts and Humanities, the Rady School of Management, the School of Global Policy and Strategy, the School of Medicine, the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Graduate researchers also work in the San Diego Supercomputer Center and the Qualcomm Institute. Neighbors include the Salk Institute, Scripps Research and a dense biotechnology cluster.

UC San Diego enrolls more than 40,000 students, about 8,000 of them in graduate programs. International students make up a large share of engineering, computing and data science master's cohorts. More than 20 Nobel laureates have served on the faculty, including Harold Urey, Maria Goeppert Mayer and Roger Tsien. Alumni include genomics pioneer J. Craig Venter and animator Mike Judge.

Doctoral programs in the biological sciences, oceanography, engineering, cognitive science and economics make up a large part of graduate enrollment. They are funded mainly through research and teaching assistantships and fellowships. Professional options include Rady's MBA and MFin, the MIA and MPIA at the School of Global Policy and Strategy, the MD and PharmD, and Master of Advanced Studies degrees for working professionals. The calendar runs on quarters. Graduate students commonly live in La Jolla, University City and neighborhoods along the UC San Diego Blue Line trolley.

In the Grad School Navigator directory, University of California San Diego lists 113 graduate programs across 40 subjects: 51 master's programs and 59 doctoral programs, with the widest choice in earth & environmental sciences, biology and civil engineering. University of California San Diego holds rank 26 in the GSN Overall University Ranking.