UC Davis ranks among the country's top 10 public universities for the fourth year in a row

In the rankings released today (September 23) by US News & World Report, the University of California, Davis, ranks 9th among the best public universities in the country.

The campus has been ranked among the top 10 public universities by the media company for the fourth year in a row; it has been ranked among the top 12 each of the past 10 years.

UC Davis continues to rank highly in the world's most prestigious universities due to the quality of its education, the impact of its research, and the social mobility it offers its students.

“This ranking by U.S. News and World Report reflects our fundamental commitment to student success,” said Chancellor Gary S. May. “UC Davis provides world-class educational opportunities for students from all walks of life, preparing them for their careers and community service.”

In the U.S. News 2025 Best Colleges rankings, UC Davis ranked 33rd among more than 430 national universities that offer a broad range of bachelor's, master's and doctoral programs and place a strong emphasis on research.

In the ranking of American universities, the campus ranked 26th in terms of social mobility – that is, the quality of the graduation of economically disadvantaged students.

Among other things, UC Davis ranked 16th on the list of best U.S. universities for veterans.

In the academic program rankings, UC Davis ranked first in biological/agricultural engineering and had seven other programs in the top 30 in their field.

Academic subjects

The academic program rankings were based on peer assessment surveys conducted in the spring and summer. The rankings took several academic programs into account. In addition to the top position for Bio/Agricultural Engineering, the following programs were represented in the top group:

• Civil Engineering, 13.
• Bachelor's degree in Psychology, 14th place among 681 degree programs
• Environment/Environmental Health, 16th place
• Bachelor's degree in Economics, 22nd place among 318 degree programs
• Biomedical engineering, ranks 28th
• Computer science degree program, 29th place among 584 degree programs
• Bachelor of Engineering, ranks 30th among 209 courses at universities with doctoral degrees in this subject

Not all academic subjects have rankings compiled every year, and not all rankings are published online or available without a special subscription.

Criteria and weighting

Among the 17 factors, four measures related to graduation rates for freshmen students carried the greatest weight in the overall national university rankings. A total of 37% of the rankings related to graduation rates overall and for Pell Grant recipients, as well as their performance compared to what U.S. News projected for the fall 2014 to 2017 incoming classes based on school characteristics.

Peer ratings of academic quality accounted for 20%, which is a two-year rolling average of academic quality ratings by institutions' presidents, provosts, and deans of admissions. The survey response rate among national universities was 41%.

Rankings related to faculty accounted for 15% in total and included salaries (6%), four measures of research publications and citations per publication from 2019 to 2023 (4%), student-to-faculty ratio (3%), and the proportion of full-time faculty (2%).

Other factors included financial resources per student (8%), standardized test scores (5%), first-year college graduation rate (5%), borrower debt (5%), and the share of government loan recipients who earned more than the median salary of high school graduates ages 25-34 in 2019-20 and five years after graduation (5%).

Other rankings

In other important rankings published since the end of August:

UC Davis and Rankings

UC Davis is a world-class university and is highly rated for its impact on students' lives, the impact of its research, the excellence of its academic programs, sustainability, and more. The university conducts self-evaluations and also appreciates the value of third-party evaluations. However, evaluation methods vary, change over time, and can be subjective. UC Davis focuses on the rankings that most align with its mission and values—including the common good, inclusivity and equity, and social mobility—and most closely looks at its standing among public universities in national rankings. UC Davis encourages prospective students and their families to weigh rankings, among other factors, in their college decision, to speak with UC Davis advisors and admissions counselors, and to visit campus when possible.