UC Riverside

People Like Us. They Really Do.

UC Riverside is regularly recognized as a top institution for higher education in national and international rankings.

Where We Rank

• The Princeton Review's America's Best Value Colleges (2008) named UCR among the top 123 Best Western Colleges and one of America's Best Value Colleges. UCR was lauded for:
• Academics
  • Small class sizes
  • Helpful and friendly professors
  • Strong pre-medical education
  • Popular majors including: biology, biological sciences, business administration, and psychology
• The student body
  • UCR’s student body is one of the most diverse in the nation.
  • The campus features clubs and organizations that serve as a uniting influence for a student body from differing backgrounds, providing "forums for the expression and understanding of these differences."

• U.S. News & World Report (2009) ranked UCR in several categories out of more than 1,900 schools:
  • 5^th in the nation in the category of most diverse universities
  • 9^th among the "up-and-coming" universities nationwide
  • 40^th among the best national public universities
  • 89^th among best national universities, public or private
  • 100^th for undergraduate engineering programs (Bourns College of Engineering)
• Forbes Magazine (2008) cited rankings by the Center for College Affordability and Productivity that placed UCR 41^st in the nation among national public universities and 91^st in the nation among all universities.
• The Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program (2008) recognized UCR as one of the top-10 schools in the nation with the highest number of students receiving Gilman Study Abroad Scholarships during the Fall 2008 and Academic Year 2008-2009 application period.
• Washington Monthly (2007) ranked UCR 15^th in the nation in terms of social relevance. Factors considered in this ranking included the degree to which the university is an engine for social mobility, promotes service to the country, and fosters scientific and humanistic research.

• The Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index (2007), ranks academic programs at research universities based on per-capita scholarly accomplishments among professors within departments offering Ph.D.s. Using this index, UCR's environmental sciences program ranked 3^rd in the nation and the soil science program offered by the Department of Environmental Sciences ranked 4^th. Other top-10 rankings included:
  • 4^th in entomology
  • 5^th in natural resources and conservation
  • 10^th in plant pathology
  • 10^th in botany and plant biology
• The Institute for Higher Education at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (2006) ranked UCR in the 102 to 150 group among the top 500 universities worldwide. Universities were ranked by indicators of academic or research performance, including:
  • Alumni and faculty receiving Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals
  • Highly-cited researchers
  • Articles published in Nature and Science and indexed in major citation indices
  • The university's per-capita academic performance
• Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine ranked UCR the 100^th Best Value in Public Higher Education in the nation.
• The Center for Measuring University Performance, in its 2007 Annual Report of the Top American Research Universities ranked UCR:
  • 87^th among public universities and 130^th overall in faculty awards
  • 37^th among public universities and 64^th overall in postdoctoral appointees
  • 66^th among public universities and 97^th overall in doctorates awarded
  • 78^th among public universities and 113^th overall in total research
• The Philosophical Gourmet Report (2006–08) — a ranking of graduate programs in philosophy in the English-speaking world — ranked UCR:
  • 1^st in the Philosophy of Action specialty area
  • 31^st in the U.S. for its faculty
  • 40^th of the top 50 faculties in the English-speaking world
• The Center for a Public Anthropology's National Rankings of Public Outreach (2006) ranked the UCR Department of Anthropology 24^th in terms of public outreach.
• Academic Analytics' (2006–2007) Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index ranked UCR's faculty:
  • 4^th in soil science
  • 4^th in entomology
  • 3^rd in environmental sciences
  • 11^th in plant pathology
  • 10^th in botany and plant biology

• Bourns College of Engineering is ranked 65 overall among 351 engineering programs by U.S. News & World Report. Furthermore, the magazine ranks BCOE:
  • 100^th among national undergraduate engineering programs
  • 38^th among public schools of engineering
  • 53^rd in chemical engineering
  • 57^th in computer engineering
  • 50^th in environmental engineering