UC Santa Barbara is the number-three school in the UC system, according to U.S. News & World Report’s ranking of public universities, coming after top-ranked UCLA and second banana Berkeley. UCSB was fifth overall, with U of Virginia and U of Michigan-Ann Arbor intervening. The school proudly stated its freshman applicants averaged a 4.28 GPA and a 1395 total SAT score. Among universities public and private, UCSB placed 30th.
Editor’s Note: This story was corrected on September 24, 2018. UCLA earned first place in the 2019 rankings; Berkeley is number two.