UC Irvine shines in Princeton Review, Money ratings

Once again, leading ranking services have rated UC Irvine among the finest universities in the U.S.

The Princeton Review chose it as the fifth-best-value public college in its 2024 rankings, based on academic quality, costs, financial aid, debt, graduation rates, and alumni career and salary data.

And for its 2023-24 Best Colleges in America list, Money has again offered kudos to UC Irvine. Instead of numbering universities, the magazine assigns them stars. (Its editors say that while the underlying methodology is similar to that of previous years, the new rating system can help families with college searches by showing the variety and diversity of high-value colleges in the U.S.) UC Irvine is one of 53 campuses to receive a five-star rating, the highest possible for the online survey.

The university was lauded for its top-quality education, affordability and student outcomes, particularly the graduation rate of Pell Grant recipients – 3,736 of whom earned bachelor’s degrees this month. Overall, 49 percent of 2024 graduates were first-generation students.

Anteaters benefit from the high value of a UC Irvine education. In its latest survey, U.S. News & World Report ranks the campus among the nation’s top 10 public universities for the ninth year in a row and among the top 12 for social mobility.