University of California Santa Barbara

As per an unofficial source, the UCSB acceptance rate is 28%, which shows extremely tough selection chances. The official website states that the university considers various factors on which students must focus to improve their chances. Some of them are rigor of secondary school record, academic GPA, application essay, and more. This all can be achievable only if students excel in academics and score well throughout their studies. The 2024-2025 official statistics show over 1.1 L applications were received of which only 5,008 first-year students got enrolled.

No. The University of California, Santa Barbara does not select candidates based on the ACT or SAT scores, even if submitted. The university prioritizes several other things, such as rigor of secondary school record, academic GPA, application essay, and more. To improve their selection chances, students must focus on their academics and aim to score a high GPA along with fulfilling the basic eligibility.

The UC Santa Barbara courses comprise 200 majors, over 90 undergraduates, and more than 50 graduate programs. Some popular majors and programs are Environmental Science and Management, Economics, Chemistry, Materials, Statistics, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Marine Science, Applied Mathematics, Environmental Data Science, Technology Management, and more. Some of the competitive majors are:

• Economics
• Sociology
• Communications
• Psychology
• Biology
• Environmental Science

The University of California, Santa Barbara, evaluates applications based on the students' academic performance, involvement in relevant extracurricular activities, personal insight responses, and life experiences. Some of the factors considered by the university while selecting UG and PG candidates, along with the level of importance, are given below:

The 2025-26 housing cost for UCSB for on-campus housing are given below:

Graduate Housing cost 2025-26:

USD/INR = 85.59 

Some of the top ranking courses at UCSB, along with the percentage of degrees awarded as per an unofficial source is given below:

The University of California, Santa Barbara received over 93,400 applications for the admission cycle of 2024-25, of which over 27,600 students were offered by the university to enroll themseleves at the Santa Barbara campus.

However, only about 5,000 students decided to accept the admission offer. These figures suggest that the UC Santa Barbara acceptance rate stands at a low of 29.56%, meaning that the admission criteria of the university are rather selective.

Some of the factors according to which students can decide where to study are weather conditions, academic reputation, quality of faculties, tuition fees, etc. A comparison of UC Davis or UC Irvine Campus or University of California Santa Barbara is given below:

While the tier status of the university as a whole is unknown, the University of California Santa Barbara is among a select number of "R1 institutions" in the United States for research. 

R1 is used to refer those institutions that are known for conducting a very high volume of research work over the course of an academic year, with a large chunk of the budget, also invested to the institute's research work.

The "R1" tag is granted by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.

UC Santa Barbara ranks #178 as part of the World University Rankings 2025 given by a popular university ranking platform, placing it among some of the best higher educational institutes in the US & globally. 

The institute's rank declined from the previous year, when it secured a rank of #163, however, it still continues to maintain its status as a solid option for higher studies from abroad. 

On a national-level, the institute ranks #36 as part of Popularity Rankings given out by Shiksha.