University of California, Los Angeles

Overview

The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) was founded in 1919 as the Southern Branch of the University of California and moved to its Westwood campus, now 419 acres, in 1929. It has the largest enrollment of the ten UC campuses: 33,534 undergraduates in 2025-26, with a 20:1 student-to-faculty ratio and a six-year graduation rate of about 93% for students who enter as first-years. UCLA is also the most applied-to university in the country, with 145,085 first-year applications for fall 2025 alone.

Two kinds of families tend to fit. In the first, the student has taken a demanding course load with steady grades and wants a research university in California at in-state tuition. In the second, the student already has a clear direction, such as engineering, film, music, or nursing, and is prepared to meet a school’s supplemental requirements. Irvine and UCLA are both in Southern California, and Irvine families generally pay as California residents, a fraction of what nonresidents pay. The rules differ sharply from private colleges: no SAT or ACT, no early round, and no recommendation letters. The last section of this page lays out what that means by grade.

Admissions data

UCLA publishes the number of first-year applicants, admits, and enrolled students each year, along with admit rates for each school.

9.4%Fall 2025 entrants admit rate

1. Applied145,085
2. Admitted13,659
3. Enrolled6,553

• Music24%
• The College11%
• Engineering6.8%
• Arts & Architecture5.1%
• Theater, Film & TV4.3%
• Nursing0.5%

The College received 98,459 applications, 68% of all first-year applications; engineering received 33,052, or 23%.

• California79.4%
• Out of state13%
• International7.6%

All enrolled undergraduates, from UCLA Facts and Figures.

Admitted first-years in fall 2025 had a median weighted GPA of 4.61 (middle 50%: 4.44 to 4.78) and a median unweighted GPA of 4.00 (middle 50%: 3.95 to 4.00). These GPAs are calculated only from courses taken in grades 10 and 11, and the weighted scale tops out at 5.00. That year 20,563 applicants were offered a place on the waitlist, 13,612 accepted it, and 1,514 were eventually admitted from it. The UC’s fall 2026 snapshot for UCLA shows 146,692 applicants and 15,903 admits, a 10.8% rate.

How to apply

UCLA has no application of its own. First-year and transfer applicants alike use the University of California’s shared UC Application, and UCLA admits for the fall term only.

Everything goes into the UC Application: high school courses and grades (self-reported when applying; official transcripts come after admission), activities and awards, and four Personal Insight Questions (PIQs). The fee is $80 per UC campus, or $95 for international applicants, and a fee waiver for eligible families covers up to four campuses. UCLA faculty have approved 13 criteria for first-year review, applied through comprehensive review, and course rigor is judged against what each applicant’s high school offers. Minimum eligibility requires 15 A-G courses (the seven subject areas the UC and CSU require), at least 11 of them before senior year, with a GPA of 3.0 or higher in those courses (3.4 for nonresidents).

Testing plays no part in review. The UC states that it will not consider SAT or ACT scores when making admission decisions or awarding scholarships; scores may only serve as an alternative way to meet minimum eligibility or for course placement after enrollment. AP and IB results can be reported in the application, and the UC adds extra weight to grades in UC-certified honors, AP, IB, and transferable college courses.

UCLA does not offer interviews and does not accept recommendation letters; applicants are considered on the information in the UC Application. The supplemental applications are the exception: arts, music, and theater majors may require a portfolio or an audition, and some professional schools ask for letters. For fall 2027, supplemental deadlines run from December 4, 2026 for music majors to January 20, 2027 for architectural studies and art, with nursing due January 15, 2027. Financial aid is a separate application: US citizens and permanent residents file the FAFSA, AB540-eligible graduates of California high schools file the California Dream Act Application, and the priority deadline is March 2.

Cost and financial aid

What a student pays depends on residency. The chart shows the billed items for a California resident living on campus in 2026-27.

2026-27 (California resident, on campus)$36,297tuition, fees, housing, and food

• Tuition$15,588
• Fees$842
• Housing$12,299
• Food$7,568

What a family actually pays

1. California, under $100,000Tuition $0Most families receive enough grant aid to cover UC tuition (Blue and Gold)
2. California, above $100,000Need assessed through the FAFSA or California Dream Act Application; aid can include grants, loans, and work-study
3. NonresidentsAdd $39,270 in nonresident supplemental tuition

Most aid is need-based, and UCLA also awards scholarships for academic merit, background, and particular talents. UCLA reports that nearly half of its undergraduates pay no tuition, 28% receive federal Pell Grants, and 78% of first-years receive some form of aid (2023 figure). Graduating seniors nationally carried an average of $39,000 in student loans in 2025, against $19,000 for UCLA seniors, and nearly 8,000 undergraduates work part-time on campus each year. Residence for tuition purposes is decided by the Registrar’s Office and is not the same as other definitions of California residency; a student whose parents are not California residents will find it very difficult to be classified as a resident.

Schools and fields of study

UCLA consists of the College of Letters and Science and 12 professional schools, which together offer more than 5,000 courses and over 140 undergraduate majors. Unlike Harvard, UCLA admits by school: applicants choose a school and major when they apply, and admit rates differ sharply among them. The College offers more than 100 majors across four divisions (Humanities, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, and Social Sciences), while engineering, arts and architecture, music, theater, film and television, and nursing review their own applicants. The Anderson School of Management enrolls graduate students only; the undergraduate business path is the College’s Business Economics major. The map below groups a selection of representative majors by field.

For the College, the major an applicant chooses neither helps nor hurts the chance of admission, and first-years may apply as undeclared; engineering also offers an undeclared option for first-year applicants. Popular majors such as Economics, Business Economics, Psychology, Political Science, and Mathematics admit students to pre-major status, and students move into the major after completing the required preparation courses. Public Affairs and Public Health admit first-years as pre-majors who then apply to the school in their second year, and Education and Social Transformation requires the lower-division prerequisites and 45 lower-division units before a student applies to the major.

UCLA runs on the quarter system, with three terms in the academic year and a faster pace than a semester calendar. In fall 2025, 33,052 first-years applied to engineering and 6.8% were admitted, a lower rate than the College. Computer Science sits in the engineering school, while the College offers computation-heavy alternatives such as Mathematics of Computation, Statistics and Data Science, and Linguistics and Computer Science. In arts and architecture, music, and theater, film and television, each department reviews its own applicants and may require a portfolio or an audition.

Campus life

UCLA guarantees four years of university housing to incoming first-years and two years to transfer students; first-years must submit the housing application by May 1 to receive four consecutive years. Nearly every first-year lives on campus; in UCLA’s Common Data Set, 98.9% of first-years live in university housing. The residential area, known as the Hill, brings together residence halls, dining, and study spaces, with a faculty-in-residence program and Living Learning Communities organized around shared interests and identities. The campus has 16 sports facilities and six pools. UCLA athletes have won 127 NCAA team championships, and the university joined the Big Ten Conference in August 2024.

A timeline for Irvine families

The UC GPA counts only A-G courses from grades 10 and 11, and the five Irvine Unified high schools differ in when AP courses open and what they offer, so the grade 9 schedule already affects the application. School-by-school rules are in the IUSD high school guides.

1. Grade 9Plan four years of A-G
   • Confirm every course is on the A-G list
   • Settle the math and science sequence
   • Choose one or two activities that can run four years
2. Grade 10UC GPA years begin
   • Grade 10 grades start counting toward the UC GPA
   • Take the first honors or AP courses the school allows
   • Turn activities into visible output
3. Grade 11The last graded year
   • Finish at least 11 A-G courses before senior year
   • Schedule the SAT or ACT if applying to private or out-of-state colleges
   • Start drafting the four Personal Insight Questions over the summer
4. Fall of grade 12Submit the UC Application
   • Start on August 1; submit from October 1
   • File the UC Application by November 30
   • Arts, music, theater, and nursing majors add a supplemental application

UCLA does not look at the SAT or ACT, but Irvine students usually also apply to private colleges that do. Dates are on the 2026-27 test calendar, and preparation options are on the SAT page.

How EDUBUS helps

EDUBUS college planning runs year by year from grade 9: a four-year course plan that satisfies A-G and follows the rules of each Irvine high school, grades and rigor in grades 10 and 11 that hold up in UC review, and a clear activities direction. In grade 12 a counselor reviews every part of the UC Application, including course entry, activity descriptions, and the four Personal Insight Questions. Students applying to arts, music, theater, film and television, or nursing also get a portfolio and materials schedule built around the supplemental deadlines. To see where a student stands relative to schools like UCLA, start with a free assessment.