University of California-Merced

Public · Moderately Selective · CA

Photo: Qymekkam (CC BY-SA 3.0)

School data & stats

TypePublic

LocationCA · West

SettingSuburban

Undergrads8,372

Student:faculty20:1

Outcomes

4-yr grad rate50.5%

6-yr grad rate68.7%

Drop-out rate17.9%

Study abroad—

Cost

In-state tuition$16k

Out-of-state tuition$50k

Application fee—

Community

Racial diversity90.8%

Gender diversity45.2%

International0.5%

Identity—

Overview

UC Merced, opened in 2005, is the newest campus in the University of California system and the first American research university built in the twenty-first century, sited in the San Joaquin Valley rather than one of California's traditional coastal hubs. Its student body is heavily first-generation and Hispanic-Serving, and its comparatively small scale next to sister UC campuses is a defining feature — undergraduates reach faculty-led research labs earlier than at most large research universities, and the sense of being part of something still being built is part of the culture.

Academics

The campus is organized into three schools — engineering, natural sciences, and social sciences/humanities/arts — plus a growing management program, and research access is the signature strength: undergraduates routinely join labs by freshman or sophomore year through structured mentorship programs rather than competing for spots as juniors. Environmental engineering, public health, and cognitive and computational science are areas of particular momentum, and interdisciplinary research centers give students exposure across traditional departmental lines.

Campus & student life

The campus itself is new-built and organized around sustainability as a genuine point of institutional pride — some of the most energy-efficient buildings in the UC system, a stated goal of net-zero energy and carbon operation, and a student culture that treats environmental design as identity rather than marketing. Housing is largely on-campus and centrally organized around a single core, and the surrounding city of Merced is small and still adjusting to being a college town, so campus itself is the center of student life more than an off-campus scene.

Getting in

Admission follows the UC system's holistic, essay-driven process built around the Personal Insight Questions, but Merced is markedly more accessible than its sister campuses, making it a realistic option within the UC system for strong students who might not clear the bar at Berkeley, UCLA, or San Diego while still earning a full UC degree and research pedigree.

After graduation

Because research access comes so early, a notable share of graduates head into PhD programs or research-adjacent careers for a campus this young, and the university's public-health and STEM pipelines connect directly to California's Central Valley healthcare and agricultural-science employers.

Worth knowing

As the youngest and smallest UC, Merced offers the UC name, UC research infrastructure, and UC financial aid policies with a far more intimate undergraduate experience than Berkeley, UCLA, or Davis — a real tradeoff worth weighing for students choosing between UC campuses on fit rather than name alone.

ucmerced.edu ↗

Admissions

Acceptance rate90.5%

Enrolled mid-50%—

Test policynot used

Rec letters0

Deadlines (2026–27 cycle)

Regular decisionNov 30

Verified from the school’s admissions page ↗

Applying