2025 College Rankings

The University of California–Los Angeles is much like the city itself. On its face, it is a paradise, blessed with good weather, beautiful buildings, and connections that will serve graduates well for a lifetime. Beneath the surface, however, the challenges facing one of California’s great institutions quickly become apparent.

The school ranks in the bottom 25 percent of schools with regard to its administrative resistance to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Nearly all advertised faculty jobs require a DEI statement, and for every 1,000 students, there are three DEI employees. The school’s fixation on DEI has recently been cause for embarrassment: in 2024, UCLA’s medical school, long considered one of the most competitive in the country, faced criticism when it was revealed that a DEI-driven admissions process was lowering its standing in national rankings. Not long afterward, another investigation indicated that the medical school’s head of diversity had plagiarized the work of others in her dissertation—a demonstration of how deep the DEI problem runs. The school is “test blind” in admissions, meaning that it does not consider prospective students’ SAT or ACT scores, allowing diversity considerations to outweigh merit.

Radical anti-Semitic activism is a serious problem on campus. Such attitudes are pronounced among faculty members, a large contingent of whom support an academic boycott of Israel. Additionally, the school has an active Faculty for Justice in Palestine chapter, and five university departments have released statements in recent years committing themselves to anti-Zionist positions. The same attitudes have taken hold in the student body. This trend was on full display in the 2023–24 school year, when anti-Israel protesters set up an encampment that barred Jewish students from accessing campus. The administration’s lackluster response to the protests invited public scrutiny; in 2025, the Department of Justice announced that it is investigating the school’s anti-Semitic climate.

Free speech remains a point of contention at UCLA. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) awards UCLA a “green” rating for free speech, meaning that policies at least nominally protect it. Thirty-six percent of students say that that it is “extremely” or “very” clear that the administration supports free speech on campus. At the same time, only 22 percent of students say that it is “extremely” or “very” likely that the administration would defend the right of a speaker to express controversial views. Students say that they are more likely to tolerate left-leaning than right-leaning campus speakers.

Though UCLA has a good reputation among California state schools, its academic offerings do not fare well upon closer inspection. The American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) gives it an F in its annual What Will They Learn? ratings, which assign letter grades based on how many of seven core subjects are required in the core curriculum or general education program. The poor rating is well earned. To graduate, UCLA students do not have to take any courses in history or government—but they are required to take courses pushing DEI ideologies. ACTA, however, identifies one area of academic excellence: the Center for Liberal Arts and Free Institutions, which seeks to impart to students an understanding of civics and the principles underpinning free institutions. And because the school is one of the state’s largest research universities, UCLA performs well—in the top 10 percent—when it comes to faculty research quality.

Graduation and retention rates overperform what would be expected, based on SAT scores and the Pell Grants received by entrants. In fact, the school has a 97 percent retention rate and a 92 percent six-year graduation rate. UCLA scores in the top 10 percent in the time it takes to pay back the cost of attendance: for most students, only a year. The Princeton Review ranks its alumni network among its top 20 for public schools nationwide.