Admissions & selectivity
University of California-Davis Acceptance Rate & Admissions
What is the acceptance rate at UC Davis?
UC Davis’s reported acceptance rate is 41.8%.
- Acceptance rate · Fall 2024
- 41.8%
Source: College Scorecard · Fall 2024 admissions. Acceptance rates can change from year to year; this figure does not predict the current or next admission cycle.
Source: University of California-Davis Common Data Set 2025-26, C1 · first-time, first-year students.
How to interpret the acceptance rate
University of California-Davis admitted 41.8% of applicants, a rate that sits well below the median of 78.1% for comparable institutions (same type and size). In its 2025-26 Common Data Set, the university reported 102,988 applicants, 45,674 admitted students, and 6,810 enrolled first-year students.
What SAT and ACT scores do UC Davis students report?
SAT and ACT ranges are not available for UC Davis in the data shown here. Missing scores do not establish whether tests are required, optional or excluded from review.
Figures cover fall 2024.
Who enrolls at UC Davis?
- Pell Grant recipients
- 31.4%
- Entering students outside the first-time, full-time group
- 29.8%
- First-year retention
- 92.8%
Retention source: College Scorecard; full-time first-year retention.
About these student measures
The entering-student group includes part-time entrants as well as other attendance patterns.
University of California-Davis is a public university enrolling 32,253 undergraduates, with a student body that draws from multiple entry points. 31.4% of undergraduates receive Pell Grants, and an estimated 29.8% arrive as transfers or part-time students, so the campus is not defined by a single path in.
In its 2025-26 Common Data Set, the university reported 102,988 first-year applicants, 45,674 admitted, and 6,810 enrolled. For transfer students, it reported 17,211 applicants, 9,684 admitted, and 2,614 enrolled.
The figures describe who attends, not how the university evaluates files or what any one applicant's outcome will be.
The six-year graduation rate at the University of California-Davis reaches 85.7%, well above the peer median of 65.0% for comparable institutions. Pell Grant recipients complete at a rate of 81.1%, which is below the overall six-year rate by 4.6 percentage points.
In its 2025-26 Common Data Set, the university reported a retention rate of 93% for the first-time, full-time fall 2024 entering class. Among first-time, full-time students, 92.8% return for a second year, also exceeding the peer median of 83.1%.
Enrolled students can expect a university where persistence and completion run ahead of comparable institutions.
Data & methodology
Sources and reporting periods: methodology.
Analysis and methodology by Daniel Rogers, founder of College Azimuth.
Explanatory text is AI-assisted drafting checked against those figures; it is not an additional data source.
Admission rates describe past applicants, not an individual’s chance of admission; confirm requirements and deadlines with the institution.
Figure notes link to sources and limitations. About College Azimuth.