Sep 23, 2025 - News
How San Diego universities compare in 2026 U.S. News rankings
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UC San Diego remains one of the top public universities in the country, according to U.S. News & World Report.
Why it matters: Many prospective students, parents and school counselors use the annual rankings as a guide when choosing colleges and universities.
- The majority of a school's overall score is based on student outcomes like graduation rates, student debt and earnings.
Driving the news: UCSD ranked 29th among national universities and sixth among public schools in the 2026 Best Colleges list released Tuesday.
- The university earned a top 25 spot for "most innovative," top 20 for its undergraduate economics program and 12th overall for its undergraduate computer science program.
- San Diego State University dropped a few places to 117th overall and tied for 57th among public schools.
- The University of San Diego, which is private, ranked 110th nationally, and is the "best value" among local schools.
The big picture: California boasts several of the highest-ranked public schools in the U.S. — UC Berkeley is No. 1, UCLA is second, UCSD is sixth, and UC Davis and UC Irvine tied for ninth.
- Stanford is the state's top-ranked school overall, but the California Institute of Technology overtook Stanford as the state's best-value university this year. Both were among the top 10 "most innovative" nationwide.
- UC Riverside and Cal State Long Beach were top-ranked universities for social mobility, which assesses how well schools graduate economically disadvantaged students.
