UC Santa Barbara has once again found itself near the top of the academic totem pole in this year’s rankings from the U.S. News and World Report, with an overall score of 77/100 that places it in the top 8% of schools in the nation.

UCSB is the third-highest ranked UC, trailing closely behind UC Los Angeles and UC Berkeley. Max Abrams / Daily Nexus

UCSB shares a two-way tie for the sixth best public school in the nation with the University of Florida and a four-way tie for the 30th best school in the nation with Tufts University, New York University and the University of Florida. 

The university jumped one spot in the public university category and four spots in the national university category compared to last year’s rankings. U.S. News and World Report bases rankings on a number of factors, including graduation and retention rates, undergraduate academic reputation and financial resources per student.

UCSB was also ranked the 13th best for social mobility — a measure of the graduation rate of Pell Grant recipients for each school — 13th best for supporting veteran students and 37th best for undergraduate engineering programs, according to the rankings. 

UCSB is the third-highest ranked UC, trailing closely behind UC Los Angeles and UC Berkeley, which claimed first and second place for public schools, and 20th and 22nd for national universities, respectively.

UC Irvine and UC San Diego came just behind UCSB in the public university category in a tie for eighth, while UC Davis came in at 11th, UC Riverside at 34th and UC Merced and UC Santa Cruz tying at 40th, according to the rankings. 

“We are pleased that U.S. News & World Report’s annual rankings recognize UC as a world-class institution that offers access to hundreds of thousands of students across California and beyond,” UC President Michael V. Drake said in a press release on Monday.

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Max Abrams
Max Abrams served as the lead news editor for the 2020-2021 school year. He is from Buffalo. That's all you need to know.