University of California-San Diego's admit rate has fallen 15.6 percentage points across the 19 reported years on file.
The headline numbers, drawn from CDS sections A–H.
Per-cycle Common Data Set values. Enrolled is first-year matriculants (CDS B1), not total undergraduate population. Blank cells mean the field was not published in that year's source CDS.
| Year | Admit rate | Enrolled | 6-yr grad | Retention | SAT (50th) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-2026 | 28.6% | 7,801 | 86.0% | 94.7% | — |
| 2024-2025 | 26.8% | 7,330 | 86.0% | 94.0% | — |
| 2023-2024 | 24.8% | 7,007 | 88.0% | 94.0% | — |
| 2022-2023 | 23.8% | 6,358 | 88.0% | 93.3% | — |
| 2021-2022 | 34.3% | 7,344 | 89.3% | 94.9% | — |
Cross-admits and statistical look-alikes, surfaced from the CollegeNumbers peer model.
Comparative observations derived from this school's reported CDS values and from IPEDS / College Scorecard reference data. Every claim is grounded in a number — no editorial overlay.
Six-year graduation rate exceeds the national median by 30 percentage points.
University of California-San Diego's 86.0% six-year graduation rate exceeds the national 4-year-institution median of 56.3% (per IPEDS, n=1555) by 29.7 pp.
Admit rate has tightened 5.8 percentage points over 5 reporting cycles.
University of California-San Diego's admit rate fell from 34.3% (2021-2022) to 28.6% (2025-2026) — a 5.8 pp drop. Year-over-year: 34.3 → 23.8 → 24.8 → 26.8 → 28.6. A snapshot of the current year alone would hide this structural shift.
Cross-admit cohort spans an unusually wide selectivity range.
The schools University of California-San Diego applicants most commonly also apply to range from 9.4% admit to 44.4% admit — a 34.9 pp band. A reasonable read: applicants choose by region or program fit rather than selectivity tier alone.
Cross-admits concentrated in the home region.
5 of 7 cross-admit schools are in CA — University of California-San Diego draws applicants weighing it against in-state and adjacent-state alternatives, not coastal or selective national peers.
Sources: each school's officially-published Common Data Set; IPEDS / College Scorecard for federal comparisons. Methodology →
Compare every CDS field — admissions, aid, outcomes — side by side.
Open in CollegeNumbers compareThe Common Data Set is a standardized reporting form U.S. colleges file annually — sections A through J covering admissions selectivity, enrollment, aid, faculty resources, and outcomes. CollegeNumbers extracts every value directly from each school's officially published CDS PDF, xlsx, docx, or HTML, then normalizes into a unified schema.
Federal data layers — College Scorecard, EADA athletics, Clery campus safety, FSA financial responsibility — are joined on top. Every value traces back to its primary source. All covered schools →