Close-up of a person clapping who is wearing a commencement gown and motarboard.

Achievements, Facts, and Figures

National rankings

#1


in the nation for racial and gender diversity in leadership

2022 Women’s Power Gap Initiative

Top 15


among Public universities in the nation for “making an impact”

Princeton Review, 2024

#12


national public universities for excellence in undergraduate teaching

U.S. News and World Report, 2025

Honor Roll


Green College Honor Roll

Princeton Review, 2023

#18


national public universities with the greatest social mobility

U.S. News and World Report, 2025

#5


best game/simulation development programs in the nation

U.S. News and World Report, 2024

Associations and honors

UC Santa Cruz is just one of five members of the prestigious Association of American Universities also designated as a Hispanic-Serving Institution and an Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution.

Faculty

1 Nobel Prize winner

1 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences winner

2 National Academy of Engineering members 

1 National Academy of Medicine member 

1 Royal Society of Chemistry member

5 National Academy of Inventors fellows

16 members of the National Academy of Sciences

6 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers fellows 

29 members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

46 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

4 Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigators

Student:

1 Rhodes Scholar 

Alumni:

10 winners of 12 Pulitzer Prizes 

7 MacArthur ‘genius’ Awards

Facts and figures

Enrollment, 2023–2024

Undergraduates: 17,312
Graduate Students: 1,861
Total: 19,173

Alumni 

Total alumni: more than 150,000
Monterey Bay area alumni: 13,500

Academics at UC Santa Cruz

Undergraduate majors: 74
Graduate studies: 66 programs

Mascot

Sammy the Slug

Locations

2,000-acre residential campus

Westside Research Park

Coastal Science Campus, located at the edge of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary 

Silicon Valley Campus, extends the reach of UC Santa Cruz and is home to UCSC Extension

Excellence with impact (pdf)

Front page of the 2023 campus factsheet.
Last modified: Dec 06, 2024