For the second consecutive year, the University of California system holds the top spot at the top of American public higher education.
UC Berkeley and UCLA are tied at No. 1 in the 2027 U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges rankings, released September 21, continuing a streak that has placed a UC campus at the top of the public university list every year since the 1999 edition.
Five total UC campuses rank in the top 10 public universities nationally, including UC San Diego at No. 6 and UC Davis and UC Irvine tied at No. 8. Every one of the nine UC undergraduate campuses lands in the top 50 public universities, and all nine appear among the best 125 universities in the country out of more than 1,700 institutions evaluated (both public and private).
Social mobility rankings
Beyond prestige rankings, the UC system’s performance on social mobility tells a different, arguably more consequential story. UC Riverside ranked No. 1 nationally in U.S. News’ Top Performers on Social Mobility category, UC Merced came in at No. 4, and every UC campus ranked in the top 100.
The social mobility metric evaluates how well institutions enroll and graduate students who receive Pell Grants, the federal need-based awards that are a key indicator of economic disadvantage.
UC Merced, which welcomed its first class only in 2005, ranked in the top 30 among all public schools despite being barely two decades old.
Veterans and financial outcomes
UC Berkeley and UCLA also tied at No. 6 in the Best Colleges for Veterans ranking, which spans public and private institutions. UC San Diego (No. 14), UC Davis and UC Irvine (both No. 16), and UC Santa Barbara (No. 22) also placed in the top 25.
The rankings arrive alongside internal UC data reinforcing the financial case for a UC degree. UC bachelor’s degree-holders in California out-earn both high school graduates and the state median for bachelor’s degree-holders — and that earnings gap widens with age. 63% of California resident undergraduates graduate with no student loan debt at all, and those who do borrow leave with significantly less debt than peers at comparable institutions, according to a press release from the University of California.
The 2027 results have been echoed by recent rankings from Forbes, Money, and Pitchbook, each independently placing UC campuses among the nation’s top public universities.