by our College Data Analytics Team
In its yearly rankings, College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities to determine which ones are the best in a variety of categories, such as overall value, quality, diversity, which schools are the best for each major, and much more.
University of California - Santa Barbara was awarded 137 badges in the 2025 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is chemistry.
Explore the best ranked schools for the programs you are most interested in.
UCSB landed the #47 spot in College Factual's 2025 ranking of best overall colleges in the United States. The higher ed experts analyzed 2,152 colleges and universities across the nation to determine this ranking. This puts it in the top 5% of all schools in the nation.
UCSB is also ranked #7 out of 161 schools in California.
See all of the rankings for University of California - Santa Barbara.
Even if you have the best grades and high test scores, that may not be enough to get into UCSB since the school has one of the most selective in the country. Its acceptance rate is a mere 26%, so there's no shame if you don't get in. Be sure to apply to other schools just in case.
The student to faculty ratio at University of California - Santa Barbara is about average at 17 to 1. This ratio is often used to gauge how many students might be in an average class and how much time professors will have to spend with their students on an individual level. The national average for this metric is 15 to 1.
When estimating how much access students will have to their teachers, some people like to look at what percentage of faculty members are full time. This is because part-time teachers may not have as much time to spend on campus as their full-time counterparts.
The full-time faculty percentage at University of California - Santa Barbara is 88%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.
University of California - Santa Barbara has a freshmen retention rate of 92%. That's a good sign that full-time students like the school and their professors enough to want to stick around for another year. It's also a sign that the admissions team did a good job in choosing applicants who were a good fit for the school.
The on-time graduation rate for someone pursuing a bachelor's degree is typically four years. This rate at UCSB for first-time, full-time students is 69%, which is better than the national average of 33.3%.
Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at University of California - Santa Barbara.
During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 23,196 undergraduates at UCSB with 22,480 being full-time and 716 being part-time.
| $0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $8,839 | $10,859 | $13,464 | $18,987 | $31,659 |
The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.Note that the net price is typically less than the published for a school. For more information on the sticker price of UCSB, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.
While almost two-thirds of students nationwide take out loans to pay for college, the percentage may be quite different for the school you plan on attending. At UCSB, approximately 23% of students took out student loans averaging $7,453 a year. That adds up to $29,812 over four years for those students.
The student loan default rate at UCSB is 1.0%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.
Get more details about paying for University of California - Santa Barbara.
See which majors at University of California - Santa Barbara make the most money.
Get more details about the location of University of California - Santa Barbara.
Contact details for UCSB are given below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Address: | 5221 Cheadle Hall, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 |
| Phone: | 805-893-8000 |
| Website: | www.ucsb.edu/ |
| Most Popular Majors | Bachelor’s Degrees | Average Salary of Graduates |
|---|---|---|
| Sociology | 684 | $34,372 |
| Economics | 679 | $66,334 |
| Child Development & Psychology | 634 | $34,431 |
| Communication & Media Studies | 592 | $46,598 |
| Natural Resources Conservation | 406 | $33,759 |
| General Biology | 384 | $33,486 |
| Statistics | 321 | $55,110 |
| Political Science & Government | 268 | $39,404 |
| Computer Science | 220 | $107,776 |
| Applied Mathematics | 215 | $59,638 |
Online courses area a great option for busy, working students as well as for those who have scheduling conflicts and want to study on their own time. As time goes by, expect to see more and more online learning options become available.
In 2022-2023, 2,757 students took at least one online class at University of California - Santa Barbara. This is a decrease from the 3,665 students who took online classes the previous year.
| Year | Took at Least One Online Class | Took All Classes Online |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-2023 | 2,757 | 10 |
| 2021-2022 | 3,665 | 69 |
| 2020-2021 | 26,149 | 25,164 |
| 2018-2019 | 365 | 0 |
Learn more about online learning at University of California - Santa Barbara.
If you’re considering University of California - Santa Barbara, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.
Curious on how these schools stack up against UCSB? Pit them head to head with College Combat, our free interactive tool that lets you compare college on the features that matter most to you!
Footnotes
*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.