College Azimuth

Research brief & institution hub

University of California-Los Angeles

CALarge public institution · Overall rank #22 nationally

Data snapshot Updated

Azimuth ranks University of California-Los Angeles #22 nationally.

Who it’s a good fit for

University of California-Los Angeles is a public university in Los Angeles, California, where the largest shares of degrees are in Social Sciences and Biological Sciences. Mobility is among the highest we track.

Graduates earn less than predicts for students like them. The model attributes an addition to the factors it measures — field of study, enrollment and the local labor market — and a subtraction to the remainder it cannot explain.

Return is above average. Students who arrive with Pell Grants finish below the rate for the entering cohort as a whole.

Mobility is among the highest we track and access is among the highest we track. The university serves a broad income range and graduates its Pell students at a rate that holds up.

The admission rate is well below the median for comparable institutions. A student drawn to the social sciences, which award the largest share of degrees, should know that the highest-earning programs are in engineering.

UCLA at a glance

Admissions and outcomes

Admission rate[1]
9.0%
Six-year completion[2]
92.6%
Four-year earnings[3]
$77,677

Cost and family borrowing

Average annual net price · $48–75K family income[6]
$9,811
Median student debt[4]
$14,000
Median Parent PLUS debt[7]
$26,176

UCLA rankings: how Azimuth assesses value[5]

University of California-Los Angeles enrolls 33,475 undergraduates as a public university in Los Angeles, California. Among nonprofit four-year institutions, its overall standing is near the top (99th percentile).

Applicants to University of California-Los Angeles face steep odds: the university admits only 9.0%, against a peer median of 78.1% for comparable institutions (same type and size). Full-time entrants return for a second year at a rate of 97.3%, well above the 83.1% peer median.

The six-year graduation rate for the first-time full-time cohort is 92.6%, while comparable institutions post a median of 65.0%. An estimated 36.8% of students arrive as transfers or part-time students, so that graduation figure describes a minority of the undergraduate body.

Mobility is the strongest of the four (99th percentile). Access (97th percentile) and affordability (92nd percentile) sit close behind.

Return is the weakest (65th percentile), well apart from the other three. Three pillars cluster near the top of the nonprofit four-year field, while return lands closer to the middle.

Azimuth ranks University of California-Los Angeles #22 among 1,467 nonprofit four-year institutions. The university's strongest pillar is mobility, in the 99th percentile.

Access follows closely at the 97th percentile, and affordability lands in the 92nd percentile. The return pillar is the weakest, in the 65th percentile.

Graduates earn about $9,959 less than the model expects for similar students, while median earnings sit above the median for comparable institutions.

28.2% of undergraduates receive Pell Grants, the federal aid program that measures financial access. That share is not a first-generation rate, a poverty measure, or a low-income census count.

Azimuth ranks University of California-Los Angeles #39 for access among nonprofit four-year institutions. Pell recipients in the first-time full-time cohort complete at 81.7%, a rate that sits 10.9 percentage points below the rate for the entering cohort as a whole.

Azimuth ranks the university #22 for mobility among nonprofit four-year institutions. Graduates earn about $9,959 less than the model expects for similar students.

That mobility ranking coincides with graduate earnings that fall short of the model's expectation.

How value-added outcomes are assessed · How to interpret program rankings

UCLA rankings in context
GeographyRank
National#22
California#11
West#12

Azimuth overall value rankings within each geographic comparison group.

National pillar percentiles

Economic mobility
National percentile: 99
Access & reach
National percentile: 97
Affordability
National percentile: 92
Return on investment
National percentile: 65

Top-ranked majors

  1. Computer Engineering#1
  2. International/Globalization Studies#3
  3. Cell/Cellular Biology and Anatomical Sciences#4

This school’s three highest-ranked programs nationally. Each rank compares bachelor’s programs in the same field; field sizes differ.

Explore major rankings

01 / UCLA briefing

UCLA cost & financial aid[6][7]

At University of California-Los Angeles, tuition and fees total $15,203 for California residents and $49,403 for nonresident undergraduates. Room and board are published at $18,369, bringing the full cost of attendance to $38,614.

The typical aid recipient faces an average net price of $12,548, down $26,066 from the sticker total. Aid covers about 68% of the published cost for that group.

That figure is below the peer median of $15,634 for comparable institutions (same type and size) by $3,086. Azimuth ranks the university #119 for affordability among nonprofit four-year institutions.

That outcome places the university's affordability pillar in the 92nd percentile.

The published cost of attendance at University of California-Los Angeles is $38,614, with in-state tuition of $15,203 and room and board of $18,369. For families earning under $30,000, the average net price is $5,579.

For families in the $48,001–$75,000 band, it is $9,811, and for families earning over $110,000, it is $29,682. Azimuth ranks the university #119 for affordability among nonprofit four-year institutions.

Financial aid reduces the sticker price by an average of $26,066, bringing the across all aid recipients to $12,548. That figure is below the peer median of $15,634 for comparable institutions (same type and size) by $3,086.

In-state tuition is $15,203, while out-of-state students face a published tuition of $49,403. Median federal student debt at completion is $14,000, with 71.6% of federal aid recipients borrowing.

That median is below the peer median of $20,076 for comparable institutions by $6,076. Median Parent PLUS borrowing stands at $26,176.

The median federal student debt corresponds to an estimated payment of $159 a month if repaid over ten years.

Your family income

Choose a household income range to see estimated net price.

Reported average annual net price · $48–75K$9,811

After grants and scholarships. Your aid offer may differ.

Averages within each income band; individual aid packages vary.

Borrowing and repayment at UCLA

Federal student borrowing at University of California-Los Angeles is fairly widespread: 71.6% of federal aid recipients use federal loans. For borrowers who finish, the median federal debt at completion is $14,000.

That amount sits below the $20,076 median recorded for comparable institutions (same type and size), a difference of $6,076. The median Parent PLUS loan, for the separate population of parent borrowers, is $26,176.

The earnings scenarios tied to the program mix at University of California-Los Angeles center on $77,677, with a downside boundary of $54,965 and an upside boundary of $110,784. Among working, non-enrolled completers four years after graduation, median earnings are $77,677, a level in the 86th percentile among nonprofit four-year institutions.

Against the model's benchmark for comparable students, graduates earn about $9,959 less than the model expects for similar students, placing the result in the 19th percentile. Borrowers who complete leave with a median federal debt of $14,000, a balance that runs below the $20,076 median for comparable institutions (same type and size) by $6,076.

If repaid over ten years, that balance implies an estimated monthly payment of $159.

Median Parent PLUS borrowing, a separate parent-borrower population, is $26,176. The estimated monthly student payment if repaid over ten years is $159.

How Financial GPS measures payment burden · The four risk-and-reward zones

Financial GPS

What does repayment look like?

Institution median student debt
$14,000
Institution Parent PLUS debt
$26,176

Federal loans only; private or institutional loans aren’t included.

Estimated student payment · monthly
$159/mo
Estimated Parent PLUS payment · monthly
$333/mo

Payments use school-wide median balances, not a specific major’s.

Payment assumptions

Payments are 10-year standard payments on the median balance, before loan fees, used as a yardstick. Rates for newly issued loans may differ, and loans made after July 1, 2026 can repay over a longer term; existing loans keep their original fixed rates.

Explore your own numbers in Financial GPS
Read the full cost & aid brief

02 / UCLA briefing

UCLA career outcomes & earnings[3][8][9]

University of California-Los Angeles reports median earnings of $77,677 four years after completion. That institution-wide figure is a starting point; results for particular fields can differ.

Read earnings alongside retention and completion. Earnings among completers do not include every student who entered the institution, while the lower and higher planning estimates describe modeled mixes of program outcomes rather than observed salary percentiles.

What explains value-added earnings?
Program & institutional factors The part attributed to observed institutional characteristics.
+$8,378
Unexplained remainder What remains after the model’s observed factors.
-$18,337
Total modeled value added The modeled difference from expected earnings.
-$9,959

These are statistical model components, not proven causal effects; the remainder is not a direct measure of teaching quality.

Read the full outcomes brief

03 / UCLA briefing

UCLA acceptance rate & admissions[1][10][11]

The University of California-Los Angeles admits 9.0% of applicants, far below the median of 78.1% for comparable institutions (same type and size).

Admissions
Admission rate
9.0%
Read the full admissions brief

04 / UCLA briefing

What are the largest majors at UCLA?[12]

The largest program records at University of California-Los Angeles, by reported degrees awarded, are: Economics (861 awards); Sociology (696 awards); Political Science and Government (675 awards); Psychology, General (648 awards); Biology, General (413 awards). These counts describe degree output in the source reporting period, not current enrollment or unique people.

Among those larger programs, reported median earnings four years after completion include Economics at $95,440; Sociology at $64,692; Political Science and Government at $74,202. Program size and earnings answer different questions; the largest program need not have the highest earnings.

Keep individual program records separate from broader degree categories and from records for other reporting periods. Those views can describe different parts of the university’s academic mix.

Four-year earnings · six largest reported fields
Economics 861 degrees awarded
$95,440
Sociology 696 degrees awarded
$64,692
Political Science and Government 675 degrees awarded
$74,202
Psychology, General 648 degrees awarded
$61,050
Biology, General 413 degrees awarded
$61,804
Research and Experimental Psychology 383 degrees awarded
$61,134

Fields selected by reported completions. Counts describe credentials awarded, not unique students or the earnings sample. Bars show median four-year earnings.

Read the full majors brief

05 / UCLA briefing

How does UCLA serve students from different backgrounds?

The mobility pillar at University of California-Los Angeles sits in the 99th percentile nationally. The six-year graduation rate for the first-time full-time cohort is 92.6%, while Pell recipients complete at 81.7% — a figure that sits below the overall rate by 10.9 percentage points.

Graduates earn about $9,959 less than the model expects for similar students, a result that lands in the 19th percentile.

Azimuth places the access pillar of University of California-Los Angeles in the 97th percentile among nonprofit four-year institutions. The public university admits 9.0% of applicants and enrolls 33,475 undergraduates.

Pell Grant recipients make up 28.2% of the undergraduate body, and an estimated 36.8% arrive as transfers or part-time students.

06 / UCLA briefing

What colleges are similar to UCLA?[15]

The comparisons for University of California-Los Angeles cover higher reported admission rates, similar admissions profiles, higher reported earnings at similar cost, lower reported cost with similar earnings and options in the same state or region. The similar-schools brief keeps these questions in separate groups, with related institutional profiles shown as another comparison.

Each group has its own candidate list and ordering. A high position within one group is not a rank against all the schools in the other groups, and a school can appear more than once for different reasons. Check the source definition and earnings period for the comparison you choose.

A shortlist for different decisions

Choose a row to compare the figures with UCLA.

Admissions peerCalifornia Institute of Technology2.6% admitted
Comparison with UCLA
MeasureUCLACalifornia Institute of Technology
Peer earnings · 4 years$77,677$152,843+$75,166 vs UCLA
Average annual net price$12,548$16,075+$3,527 vs UCLA · higher cost
Admission rate9.0%2.6%
Explore California Institute of Technology →
Higher-admission alternativeScripps College38.3% admitted
Comparison with UCLA
MeasureUCLAScripps College
Peer earnings · 4 years$77,677$75,301-$2,376 vs UCLA
Average annual net price$12,548$36,294+$23,746 vs UCLA · higher cost
Admission rate9.0%38.3%
Nearby alternativeUniversity of California-IrvineNearby option · CA
Comparison with UCLA
MeasureUCLAUniversity of California-Irvine
Peer earnings · 4 years$77,677$74,438-$3,239 vs UCLA
Average annual net price$12,548$14,251+$1,703 vs UCLA · higher cost
Admission rate9.0%28.6%
Explore University of California-Irvine →
Higher-earnings alternativeStanford University$136,959 earnings
Comparison with UCLA
MeasureUCLAStanford University
Peer earnings · 4 years$77,677$136,959+$59,282 vs UCLA
Average annual net price$12,548$13,807+$1,259 vs UCLA · higher cost
Admission rate9.0%3.6%
Explore Stanford University →
Lower-cost alternativeCalifornia State University-San Marcos$10,229 average net price
Comparison with UCLA
MeasureUCLACalifornia State University-San Marcos
Peer earnings · 4 years$77,677$67,891-$9,786 vs UCLA
Average annual net price$12,548$10,229-$2,319 vs UCLA · lower cost
Admission rate9.0%95.1%
Explore California State University-San Marcos →
Similar profileUniversity of California-DavisMatched across several measures
Comparison with UCLA
MeasureUCLAUniversity of California-Davis
Peer earnings · 4 years$77,677$73,086-$4,591 vs UCLA
Average annual net price$12,548$14,741+$2,193 vs UCLA · higher cost
Admission rate9.0%41.8%
Explore University of California-Davis →

Each school is the first-ranked match in its category, not a recommendation across every measure. The same college may lead more than one category. Figures use the matching snapshot; earnings reflect the matched four-year cohort. — means unavailable.

Read the full similar schools brief

Data scope & methodology

Structured payloads generated Governed hub narrative Governed spoke corpus

Four-year earnings describe cohorts of completers. Figures for other horizons describe different cohorts and are not joined into a career-growth projection.

Azimuth's overall rank and pillar percentiles come from the school profile. Absolute pillar ranks, city, enrollment and official-site links are shown only when structured data supplies them.

Detailed earnings, cost, admissions and program values come from the endpoint responsible for each measure. Missing values are not replaced with zero. Value-added estimates are model associations, not causal effects.

Figures are refreshed with each data release, at most a quarter apart. The underlying source dates can be earlier than the release.

Explanatory text is AI-assisted drafting checked against those figures; it is not an additional data source.

Analysis and methodology by Daniel Rogers, founder of College Azimuth.

Read the ranking methodology, data definitions and limitations · About College Azimuth

Read the analysis behind value-added earnings and the change to four-year graduate earnings. These articles are published on collegeazimuth.com.

Data notes & source fields

Scorecard field codes identify the underlying measure; Azimuth-derived values are labeled separately. Snapshot dates are not measurement years. Source populations and reporting periods differ across measures. Field definitions are in the U.S. Department of Education · College Scorecard documentation; notes with a different source link it below.

  1. Admission rate. Reported applicants admitted; not a transfer-specific or individual admission probability.

    Source fields: ADM_RATE

  2. Six-year completion. First-time, full-time students completing at the institution within 150% of normal time, typically six years for a bachelor’s degree.

    Source fields: C150_4

  3. Four-year institutional earnings. Median earnings of graduates in the reported cohort who are working and not enrolled, four years after completion.

    Source fields: MD_EARN_WNE_4YR

  4. Median federal student debt. Federal student-loan debt among completers in the reported borrowing cohort. Excludes Parent PLUS and is not total debt across all students.

    Source fields: GRAD_DEBT_MDN

  5. National, regional and state ranks; pillar percentiles; major ranks. Derived scores within the stated eligible comparison set, not raw Scorecard fields. Major ranks compare institutions within a field; their denominators differ.

    Source fields: Azimuth rankings

    College Azimuth · Ranking methodology

  6. Annual net price by family income. Average annual cost after grants and scholarships for the eligible first-time, full-time aid-recipient cohort. Public-school figures reflect in-state tuition. Includes living costs; these are averages, not medians or individual offers.

    Source fields: NPT4_PUB/PRIV; NPT41_PUB/PRIV through NPT45_PUB/PRIV

  7. Parent PLUS debt, payments and GPS illustration. Stored payments use Financial GPS loan and repayment assumptions. The adjustable spectrum applies the published framework to annual student payments divided by earnings minus an expense allowance; its initial allowance uses the frozen 2024 framework baseline. It is an illustration rather than a school rating. Parent PLUS uses the completer median where available, otherwise the all-borrower median; these describe different borrowing populations.

    Source fields: PLUS_DEBT_ALL_COMP_MD; fallback PLUS_DEBT_ALL_MD; Azimuth Financial GPS calculations

    College Azimuth · Financial GPS methodology

  8. Downside and upside earnings; yellow band. The band spans the modeled lower and higher scenarios. It is not the P25–P75 interval for individual graduates. The median marker is the separately reported institutional median.

    Source fields: Azimuth modeled program-mix scenarios

    College Azimuth · Earnings scenario methodology

  9. Value added and its components. Observed-factor attribution plus the unexplained remainder equals total modeled value added. These are associations, not proven causal effects; the remainder is not a direct measure of teaching quality.

    Source fields: Azimuth statistical model

    College Azimuth · Value-added methodology

  10. SAT score range and reported midpoint. Reported scores of enrolled score-submitters, not admission cutoffs. The midpoint field is not necessarily the middle of the displayed range.

    Source fields: SATVR25 + SATMT25; SATVR75 + SATMT75; SAT_AVG

  11. First-year retention. Retention of the reported full-time cohort at four-year institutions.

    Source fields: RET_FT4

  12. Program earnings, completion counts and major-mix dots. Included bachelor’s programs have at least five reported completions. Counts are aggregated credentials, not unique people or an earnings sample. Major-mix dots group those counts by field of study; excluded programs are not zero activity.

    Source fields: EARN_MDN_4YR; IPEDSCOUNT1; CIPCODE

    College Scorecard · Field-of-study technical documentation

  13. Pell recipients. Share of undergraduates receiving a Pell Grant in the reported academic year.

    Source fields: PCTPELL

  14. Entering students outside the first-time, full-time group. This is not an observed transfer-in rate. It includes part-time entrants and other entering-student attendance patterns.

    Source fields: 1 − PFTFTUG1_EF

  15. Peer earnings and signed differences. Differences are peer minus this school, from the same matching snapshot. A positive earnings difference does not mean the peer is better on every measure.

    Source fields: Azimuth peer model using MD_EARN_WNE_4YR

    College Azimuth · Comparison methodology

How to interpret program rankings