Is Uc Irvine Hard To Get Into

Learn the UC Irvine acceptance rate, boilerplate GPA, and application requirements to ameliorate your UCI admissions odds

UC Irvine is ranked #36 by us news and world report for best colleges

Office one: Introduction

If your loftier-achieving child wants to experience the all-time of southern California while receiving a world-form education, they should consider the University of California, Irvine. Consistently ranked among the top 10 public universities past United states of america News & World Report, UCI is the perfect place for ambitious students who dream of making their mark on the globe.

One of the nine undergraduate campuses included in the University of California system, UC Irvine was founded just over 50 years ago merely has quickly climbed the UC rankings to secure the #five spot. Through consequent inquiry and innovation, UCI has earned its reputation every bit a national leader in sustainability and environmental protection. UC Irvine is proud to be the near energy-efficient university campus in California.

In the classroom, UCI students sit with peers from beyond the country and around the world.

Since more than half of UCI'due south classes comprise less than twenty students, each pupil is able to receive individualized attending from their esteemed professors—including winners of Nobel Prizes, Pulitzer Prizes, and the National Medal of Science.

On any given day, UCI students might sit down in a Chicano/Latino Studies grade taught by a winner of the National Humanities Medal or a Chemic Biology course taught past one of the researchers discovering treatments for COVID-19. After course, students might relax or study on-campus in Aldrich Park earlier attending a meeting of the Anteaters for Recycling and Conservation student grouping. To gain career feel, students can venture off-campus for internships or to shadow doctors at the nationally-ranked UCI Medical Centre. And before calling it a night, students might head to Disneyland and grab one of their legendary fireworks shows.

And after UC Irvine? Graduates join an alumni network of over 200,000 members who are spread throughout California and beyond. This highly respected network includes Fortune 500 CEOs, best-selling novelists, congressmen, senators, Usa ambassadors, presidential aides, and pioneers in technology. Wherever new UCI graduates turn, they'll find a beau Anteater eager to help them climb the career ladder.

Thank you to its strong reputation, over 100,000 high-achieving students apply to UC Irvine each yr—competing for less than 10,000 seats. With the competition this vehement, your child will need to be strategic in guild to boost their UCI admissions odds. In this guide, nosotros'll explore the UCI acceptance rate and application requirements to assistance your kid's UCI dreams come up true.

UC Irvine ranking

Forbes: 47
Niche: 82
U.S. News & World Written report: 36
Wall Street Periodical/Times Higher Education: 87

Where is UCI located?

Nestled in the center of Orangish Canton, UCI boasts one of the well-nigh ideal locations you could imagine. The Pacific Ocean is a mere v miles west of campus, offering students many pristine beaches to frequent during their downtime. If UCI students don't feel like relaxing in the sunday, they can bulldoze 20 minutes north to reach the Disneyland and California Adventure theme parks. And if appreciating nature is the mood of the twenty-four hours, Southern California offers a wealth of hiking trails, country parks, and a nearby mount range to explore.

Several big industries have made Orange County their base of operations, giving UCI students aplenty career development opportunities. For instance, Orangish Canton is a leader in the green or cleantech manufacture, particularly in areas of free energy product, energy efficiency, and environmental protection. You lot'll also observe large manufacture hubs in wellness care, business, international trade, high tech, and tourism.

UC Irvine setting

Suburban. UCI sits on a 1,475-acre campus in the thriving metropolis of Irvine. The campus is built around Aldrich Park, which serves as an piece of cake coming together place for students to residual and relish the California sunshine. Student housing spreads along the outskirts of campus, hosting about three-quarters of UCI underclassmen. The upperclassmen commonly move to off-campus apartments every bit they seek to get more involved in the surrounding communities.

Within minutes of venturing out from the UCI campus, you lot tin can notice simply about anything—from diverse fast-food options to expensive fine dining, from mom-and-pop donut shops to gourmet rolled ice cream. The urban center of Irvine caters to its large student population, offering many activities directed towards young adults and professionals. UCI students regularly savor shopping at the Irvine Spectrum, grabbing fresh produce from local farmers' markets, and even picking pumpkins or strawberries during their respective seasons at a local 30-acre farm.

UCI educatee population

Undergraduate students: 29,638
Graduate students: 7,375

UCI credence charge per unit

Here are the admissions statistics for the form of 2025:

Applications: 107,957
Acceptances: 31,269
Matriculants: ~9,000
Acceptance rate: 28.96%

UC Irvine's transfer acceptance charge per unit is 37.82%.

UC Irvine tuition and scholarships

UCI'south 2021–2022 cost of omnipresence (i.due east., tuition, room, lath, and fees) is $36,466 for California residents and $66,220 for non-residents.

72 percent of UCI students receive grants or scholarships, and 57 percent pay no tuition. The average need-based fiscal help award is $xx,723 and the boilerplate merit-based honour is $viii,684.

Who gets into UC Irvine?

UCI students demonstrate strong academics; typically, 99 percent of students accepted to UCI ranked in the acme ten percentage of their graduating high school class. Hither are bookish and demographic statistics for the form of 2025:

UCI median weighted GPA: iv.xv
- 25th percentile: iii.96
- 75th percentile: 4.28
UCI median unweighted GPA: iii.91
- 25th percentile: 3.75
- 75th percentile: 4.00
California residents: l.3%
International students: 22.1%
The largest demographic of students are Asian Americans (40%), followed past Chicano and Latino students (34%), white students (15%), and Black students (6%).

UC Irvine no longer accepts standardized test scores. However, here are average ACT and SAT scores for the previous incoming class:

UC Irvine average Human action score
- 25th percentile: 27
- 75th percentile: 34
UC Irvine average SAT score
- 25th percentile: 1280
- 75th percentile: 1510

The nigh pop major categories at UCI are social sciences; business, management, and marketing; engineering; psychology; and biological and biomedical sciences.

Office two: UCI admissions requirements

UC Irvine seeks to enroll students who possess stiff academic potential and personal character. Applicants demonstrate these qualities primarily through their high schoolhouse coursework, exam results, and extracurricular activities.

UC Irvine'due south "A-G" course requirements

Each member of the UC system uses the same "A-G" course requirements as its standards for admission. The goal is to ensure that students inbound a UC school will possess the necessary knowledge and thinking skills in order to be a successful UC student.

All applicants must complete these "A-Yard" requirements past the time they graduate loftier schoolhouse. Students take to earn a C or higher in these classes in order to fulfill each requirement. While the "A-G" requirements are like to virtually college prep tracks, you lot'll want to check your child's loftier school plan confronting this listing. Missing just one or two required classes may disqualify them for admission to UCI and all other UC campuses.

(A) History/social scientific discipline: Ii years required
- I yr of earth history, cultures, or geography
- One twelvemonth of U.S. history OR half a twelvemonth of U.S. history and one-half a year of U.S. government
(B) English language: 4 years required
(C) Mathematics: 3 years required, but four years recommended
- One year of geometry required
(D) Laboratory science: Two years required, merely 3 years recommended
- Requires 2 of the post-obit: biology, chemistry, and physics
(Due east) Language other than English: Two years required, but three years recommended
(F) Visual and performing arts: One yr required
(1000) Higher preparatory electives: One year required
- Tin can be additional A-F courses in excess of requirement
- Other approved courses: psychology, speech or argue, computer science, economic science, Avid, etc.

This list reveals the minimum class requirements students must fulfill in order to exist considered for admission to UCI, just applicants should aim higher if they want to have strong admissions odds. UCI looks for students who pursue coursework beyond the minimums, specifically through honors, dual-enrollment, and AP or IB classes.

If your kid is planning to use to a rigorous major plan, they should research specific course requirements beyond the bones "A-G" classes. For example, UCI'south engineering program requires students to complete four years of math—at least upwards to pre-calculus—and strongly suggests students take physics and chemistry.

In full general, UCI prefers students who display outstanding accomplishment in 1 or more specific academic areas. One style to practise this is to take several avant-garde courses in a specific surface area, such as the sciences. Students should also pursue special academic projects and extracurricular activities in the same or a closely related subject area to distinguish themselves as specialists.

UC Irvine testing requirements

UCI no longer uses students' Saturday or Deed scores as part of the application review process. But before yous tell your kid they should skip submitting their scores or taking the Sabbatum or Human action altogether, it's worth knowing that test scores tin all the same be used to determine grade placements or fulfill some graduation requirements.

UCI extracurricular requirements

About UCI applicants accept strong GPAs and histories of rigorous coursework—it'south practically a baseline requirement to be seriously considered for access. And then the all-time mode for students to stand out and truly print the UCI admissions commission is through their extracurricular activities.

According to the UCI Common Information Set, UC Irvine views applicants' demonstrated talents, delivery to volunteering, and work experiences equally "very important" factors in admissions decisions. Specifically, UCI wants students to demonstrate their character and potential for leadership through their extracurriculars—these qualities indicate how positively applicants volition exist able to contribute to the campus customs.

The best strategy for approaching extracurriculars is to focus intensely on ane expanse, rather than spreading time and energy over many different activities in order to appear "well-rounded." UCI will be more impressed with a pupil who's managed to become an skillful in a single field of their interest than with an applicant who'due south been moderately involved in a wide variety of pursuits.

To offer an illustration, if your kid is passionate about music, they could be a fellow member of a local community orchestra. They could also volunteer their time performing mini-concerts at nursing homes and provide music lessons to younger students. They might assemble musicians together and organize a fundraiser concert to benefit a specific charity—demonstrating leadership ability. And to dip their toes into research, they could help a study investigating the effectiveness of music therapy to treat depression.

If your kid were to submit this list of activities on their awarding, the UCI admissions part would be mightily impressed. To boost their admissions odds, assist your child decide their greatest area of interest and detect unique, exciting ways to go a specialist in that field.

(Suggested reading: How to Write an Impressive UC Activities List)

UCI awarding requirements

All UC campuses use a single application—allowing students to potentially apply to every UC school at in one case. Students must submit their UC application between November 1st and November 30th. Hither is a listing of the UC Irvine application requirements:

A completed University of California awarding
High school transcripts are needed to input grades into the online application but aren't submitted.
Optional: AP or IB exam scores
If your child is applying to the Claire Trevor Schoolhouse of the Arts as a music, dance, or musical theatre major, they must submit a video audition.

Function 3: 2021–2022 UC Irvine personal insight questions

Rather than writing a unmarried college essay, UC applicants must respond iv of viii possible personal insight questions (PIQs). Because students cannot submit messages of recommendation or interview as office of the UCI admissions process, their PIQs serve as the all-time opportunity to limited their potential and uniqueness to the admissions commission.

Students should use their PIQs—each one answered in less than 350 words—to share what's most important well-nigh them. What are their most pregnant hopes, ambitions, inspirations, and life experiences? How tin they uniquely contribute to the UCI academic and social community? This should be the type of fabric used to write personal insight questions.

The PIQs also offer students a hazard to explain their context or any challenging experiences that afflicted their academic performance. The UC system uses a comprehensive review process that evaluates students' achievements in light of the opportunities they've had. So students with fewer opportunities should use their PIQs to advocate for their college potential.

Writing higher essays can exist stressful, so we developed an entire guide to help your child learn how to write great UC essays. We break down each prompt, explain the virtually important components, and share sample PIQ responses. This guide is a must-read if your child is applying to UCI this year.

Final thoughts

As a top-ranked university with an unmatched location, UC Irvine is understandably a difficult academy to get accustomed to. But past excelling in rigorous coursework, going in-depth with extracurriculars, and writing strong PIQs, your child can put their best human foot forward and increase their UCI admissions odds.