UCLA is currently rated No. 2 among U.S. public universities and No. 8 among top-tier universities worldwide. Nationally, it is also rated No. 5 in economic diversity and No. 6 in public service.
UCLA International Institute, updated October 7, 2015 — Students and alumni of UCLA have always known that their university was a superior educational institution. It's nice to see that much of the world now seems to emphatically agree.
A leading global university
Four recent well-respected university rankings have found UCLA to be among the top universities in both the world and the United States. U.S. News & World Report's Best Global Universities Rankings for 2016 ranked UCLA No. 8 in the world — ahead of such Ivy League institutions as Yale, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania and Columbia. The ranking is based on a survey of 750 universities from 57 nations using 12 weighted indicators to measure each university’s research performance.
The same survey found UCLA to be No. 6 in terms of regional research reputation and No. 8 in both global research reputation and total number of citations. In addition, several UCLA subject departments placed among the very best worldwide, among them, psychiatry/psychology (No. 3), chemistry (No. 6), arts and humanities (No. 7), nanoscience (No. 7) and behavior and mathematics (No. 7).
The previously released, well-known "Best Colleges Rankings" of U.S. News & World Report for 2016 designated UCLA the No. 2 public university in the United States, just behind UC Berkeley, and No. 23 overall. That survey also gave UCLA the highest score for economic diversity among all national universities.
And earlier this year, the 2015 Academic Ranking of World Universities of Shanghai Jiao Tong University rated UCLA No. 12 among top universities worldwide. The London Times 2015 World Reputation Rankings were similar, rating UCLA No. 2 among all public universities in the United States and No.13 among all universities, public and private.
Finally, the 2015 College Guide and Rankings of The Washington Monthly rated UCLA No. 6 in public service among colleges and universities in the United States. And in a related ranking, the same magazine rated UCLA No. 5 among its “Best Bang for the Buck Western Colleges,” a survey that ranked schools in 13 western states.
UCLA highly rated in terms of economic diversity
Recent rankings also show that UCLA excels in fulfilling its mandate as a public university by offering educational opportunity to low-income students.
The College Access Index of The New York Times for 2015, for example, ranked UCLA No. 5 among the nation's top 179 colleges in terms of its support for low-income students. In fact, the Index found the University of California system to be an "upward-mobility machine," with UC schools receiving 6 of the top 7 ratings. Those ratings are based on the percentage of students who receive Pell grants, the graduation rate of those students and the total education cost of low- and middle-income students.
Additionally, a major White House initiative reported that UCLA performs very highly in terms of graduation rates, graduate salaries and the capacity of graduates to repay their debt. In fact, the College Scorecard, an interactive website launched by the U.S. Department of Education on September 12, 2015, shows that UCLA and other UC campuses are a good investment for students and their families, on the one hand, and the federal government and the state, on the other. The Scorecard database is based on an analysis of data from students who received federal financial aid.
According to that database, 91 percent of students at UCLA graduate within six years, well above the national average of 44 percent; the median salary of graduates 10 years after enrolling was $59,200, or roughly $15,000 above the national average; and 92 percent of graduates are paying down their student debt — well above the national average of 67 percent.
Bruins have a great deal to be proud of.
See these related UCLA Newsroom articles:
UCLA ranks no. 5 in national survey of universities' economic diversity
Academic ranking puts UCLA second among U.S. publics
College scorecard highlights all-around value of UCLA
UCLA scores highly in U.S. News & World Report rankings
UCLA named among world's top public universities
UCLA ranked No. 8 in the world by U.S. News and World Report
This article was first posted on September 1, 2015. It was subsequently updated September 9, 15 and 17, and again on October 7.
Published: Wednesday, October 7, 2015
