University of California, San Diego

The University of California, San Diego (popularly known as UCSD) is a public, coeducational university located in La Jolla, California. The university, one of ten University of California campuses, was founded in 1959 around the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

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Academics

In 1995, the National Research Council ranked UCSD faculty the 10th best in the nation, and ranked numerous graduate programs among the top ten in the United States in terms of quality: neurosciences (1st), oceanography (1st), bioengineering (2nd), physiology (2nd), pharmacology (3rd), theatre and dance (3rd), genetics (6th), geosciences (6th), cell and developmental biology (7th), anthropology (9th), biochemistry and molecular biology (2nd), political science (2nd), aerospace engineering (10th), and mechanical engineering (10th). UCSD also counts among its research centers the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the San Diego Supercomputer Center.

UCSD's biological science related research, aided by a strong local biotechnology sector, is especially well-respected.

The 2004 Princeton Review and Fiske Guide to Colleges 2004 both ranked UCSD's admissions as "most selective", although this is a superlative description generously used throughout their assessments of other colleges. The US News rankings placed the university 35th in the nation and 7th among public universities in the doctoral research category. Compared to other public universities in California, UCSD is ranked third, behind Berkeley and UCLA.

Similar to the applicant pool of all other UCs, 99% of undergraduate applicants are in the top 10% of their high school classes.

UCSD is an important research center, with total annual research funding of more than $600 million. The National Science Foundation has ranked UCSD first in the UC system and sixth in the nation in terms of Federal research expenditures. Furthermore, some 200 San Diego companies have been founded by UCSD faculty and alumni, and over 40% of the people employed in the San Diego biotechnology industry work in UCSD spin-offs.

Sixteen UCSD faculty members have won the Nobel Prize, nine of whom are currently on the faculty. UCSD faculty also include nine MacArthur Fellows and 146 Guggenheim Fellows. UCSD ranks sixth in the nation in terms of National Academy of Science membership.

For the 2004-2005 academic period, UCSD received 41,330 freshmen applications of which 17,269 students were offered admission (a small number of these offers required students to enter in winter quarter). The admit rate was about 42%. Of those admitted, 22% chose to attend UCSD (First-time freshman profile), forming an entering class of 3874. The group of admitted students this year attained a mean weighted high school grade point average (GPA) of 3.96 and an average composite SAT score of 1243 (Undergraduate profile).

Organization

UCSD's distinctive Geisel Library, named for Theodor Seuss Geisel ("Dr. Seuss") and featured in UCSD's logo.

Undergraduate colleges

The undergraduate college system is one of the most distinctive characteristics at UCSD. Undergraduate housing is organized around a system of residential colleges inspired by those at the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge, and somewhat similar to the systems at UC Santa Cruz and Princeton University. At UCSD, each college has its own campus and places of residence, requires a different core writing course. Each college also has specific general education requirements and a distinctive academic philosophy.

UCSD's six colleges are: Roger Revelle College, founded in 1964 as First College, which boasts rigorous and highly structured requirements in the tradition of a classic liberal arts college; John Muir College, founded in 1967 as Second College, which emphasizes a "spirit of self-sufficiency and individual choice" and offers loosely structured general-education requirements; Thurgood Marshall College, founded in 1970 as Third College, which emphasizes "scholarship, social responsibility and the belief that a liberal arts education must include an understanding of [one's] role in society" and whose requirements emphasize a culture of community involvement and multiculturalism; Earl Warren College, founded in 1974 as Fourth College, which seeks to create well-rounded students by requiring students to pursue a major of their choice while also requiring an "area of concentration" in two completely unrelated subjects; Eleanor Roosevelt College, founded in 1988 as Fifth College, which emphasizes an embrace of internationalism and focuses its core education program on a cross-cultural interdisciplinary approach to both Western and non-Western cultures; and Sixth College, founded in 2002 with a focus on "historical and philosophical connections among culture, art and technology."

Undergraduates can major in any discipline offered at UCSD without regard to their undergraduate college. However, the colleges issue undergraduate diplomas and hold individual commencement ceremonies.

Major divisions

While the colleges constitute the most important division for undergraduate students, courses and programs at UCSD are also divided into the following divisions:

Graduate and professional schools

Research Centers

Charter School

The Preuss School is a charter school established on the UCSD campus in 1999 to provide an intensive college preparatory curriculum for low-income students from the greater San Diego area.

Athletics

UCSD’s sports teams are called the Tritons. UCSD's perennial strengths are in aquatic sports (swimming and water polo, soccer, volleyball, men's rowing, and tennis. UCSD participates in the NCAA's Division II, in the California Collegiate Athletic Association, although water polo competes at the Division I level. Before joining Division II in 2000, for years the school participated at the Division III level and won numerous national championships there. However, due to its comparatively large student body and a lack of west-coast Division III opponents, UCSD moved up to Division II.

UCSD is the only NCAA Division II school that does not offer athletic scholarships. In 2005, the NCAA created a rule that made it mandatory for Division II programs to award athletic grants; UCSD, though, will likely be granted an exception. However, a measure has been proposed to begin offering small grants to all intercollegiate athletes in order to meet this requirement.

In addition to UCSD's NCAA teams, the school fields a number of respectable club sports teams. The UCSD surfing team, for example, has won the national title six times. The UCSD roller hockey team continues to grow, reaching the nationals in its short existence.

Public Art

Numerous public art projects, part of the Stuart Collection, decorate the campus. Perhaps the most famous of these is the Sun God, a large winged creature located near the Faculty Club. Other Stuart Collection art includes a collection of Stonehenge-like stone blocks, a large coiling snake path, a building that flashes the names of vices and virtues in bright neon lights, and three metallic Eucalyptus trees.

Notable people

See List of University of California, San Diego people