Best UC for Psychology major?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - GENERAL
1

Is there a ranking for Psychology major for University of California system?

2

It depends on what you want to study.

If you go by US News, it’s UCB and then UCLA, both top 5.

If you go by Niche, it’s UCLA very high and then UCSD #19. Then Irvine, then Berkeley.

If you go by College Factual, it’s UCLA and then Irvine - although neither is high.

Psych is the kind of degree you can do well with from anywhere - but some schools might have wider course offerings than other.

Good luck.

3

Yeah, I searched for all those sources, and they are all over the place. One ranking even have Merced ranked higher than UCB.

Or, maybe I should ask, are there any campus that we should avoid?

4

The ones that you visit and you don’t feel comfortable at.

It’s a psych major - I wouldn’t overthink it but I would check curriculums to make it sure it has the breadth of electives that interest you.

5

check to make sure each campus offers the degree you are looking for. UCSB, for example, no longer offers a BA degree in Psychology and has replaced it with a BS in Psychobiology

6

For additional information, here are the some overall admit rates for the UC’s and a few CSU’s Psychology majors and Capped weighted UC/CSU GPA for admitted students (not Psychology specific). As noted, UCSB has the Psychological and Brain Science major instead of General Psychology.

Campus Psychology
UC Berkeley 4.4% UC Capped GPA 4.15-4.29- High Demand major
UC Davis 37.9% for College of L&S UC Capped GPA 4.03-4.27- Selective Major
UC Irvine 28.6% UC Capped GPA 4.07-4.28
UCLA 11% for College of L&S UC Capped GPA 4.20-4.31
UC Merced 89% UC Capped GPA 3.48-4.08
UC Riverside 48% UC Capped GPA 3.76-4.18
UC San Diego No data but estimated <20% UC Capped GPA 4.11-4.29
UC Santa Barbara 32% For College of L&S UC Capped GPA 4.13-4.29
UC Santa Cruz 42% UC Capped GPA 3.86-4.22- Proposed major
Cal Poly SLO 6% GPA 4.00-4.25 for the College of LA
Cal State Long Beach 36% Avg GPA 4.01 for Psychology
San Diego State 28% Avg GPA 4.03 for the Major College
San Jose State 63% No Avg GPA data the College
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7

Great posts, thanks!

Why is Cal Ploy SLO admission rate so low? Is it really 6%, lower than UCLA? The GPA requirement is way lower than most UCs.

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UCLA does not admit by major into the College of Letters and Sciences so the 10% admit rate is the overall admit rate for that College. Actually the new 2023 numbers are out so the admit rate is now 11% but UCLA the College of L&S had 95,967 applicants and admitted 10,420. Since UCLA does not admit by major, once admitted the students can pursue any major by just completing the required pre-req courses to declare. UCLA’s overall campus admit rate was 9% with 145,910 applicants with 13,747 admits.

In contrast, Cal Poly SLO admits by major and has less capacity for the number of students that they will admit into their programs.
SLO has target projections for each major so they expected 3579 applicants for the 73 spots available in Psychology. They will admit more students than spots since not all admitted students will commit. Cal Poly SLO’s overall campus admit rate was 29.7% with 63,958 applicants and 18,964 admits.

Admit rates are just another data point but you need to look at the context. The GPA ranges quoted for UCLA is the 25th-75th percentile for the entire campus. The SLO GPA is the 25th-75th percentile for the College of Liberal arts where Psychology is housed but not for the entire campus. SLO GPA also uses 9-11th grades where the extra grades added to the Honors point cap dilutes the weighted GPA.

I hope this information gave you more perspective.

9

In terms of the topic title, UCLA may offer “the best” undergraduate psychology program of the UCs. Nonetheless, schools such as UC Davis, UCSB, UC Riverside and UCSC definitely would be worth exploring as well.

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UCLA psychology is not a fully open-access major.

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