When it comes to producing high-earning graduates with less student debt, the University of California is the best of the best, a new Forbes ranking finds, placing UC campuses in all 3 top spots among public universities in the country.
The Forbes 2026 “America’s Top Colleges” list, released Aug. 28, ranked 8 UC campuses among its top 30 public universities in total, with six campuses among the top 50 schools nationally, public or private. Forbes’ ranking is noteworthy in its explicit emphasis on return on investment, weighting factors like alumni salary, debt and graduation rates in addition to measures of academic performance.
Forbes 2026 America’s Top Colleges rankings by campus
| Campus | U.S. (public) | U.S. (all) |
|---|---|---|
| UC Berkeley | 1 | 5 |
| UCLA | 2 | 15 |
| UC San Diego | 3 | 20 |
| UC Irvine | 6 | 31 |
| UC Santa Barbara | 12 | 42 |
| UC Davis | 13 | 44 |
| UC Santa Cruz | 22 | 63 |
| UC Riverside | 27 | 77 |
| UC Merced | 80 | 190 |
The rankings reflect what Californians themselves feel about the UC system, per a recent poll from the nonpartisan Institute of Governmental Studies (IGS), which found a clear majority of respondents in agreement that UC helps students get ahead. According to the poll, released August 28, 70 percent of Californians would recommend a close friend or relative to enroll in a UC school and 76 percent of respondents who graduated from a UC agreed that it is worth its cost.
“As public universities brace for the impact of slashed research funding and future enrollment declines, they’re still doing the bulk of the work of educating America’s students, and doing it at a lower price than their private counterparts,” the editors of Forbes note, pointing to a 2024 estimate from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center that public schools educate more than twice as many students as their private, four-year counterparts. The top 25 public schools, including eight UCs, “give private elites a run for their money,” according to the editors, and indeed, UC Berkeley outranked Harvard, Yale and Penn. Describing the campuses in their top 25, Forbes editors pointed to specific qualities of the UC campuses, including:
UC Berkeley provides the highest median salary of the top 25 publics;
UCLA received the most applications in the nation;
UC Irvine and UC San Diego enroll the most Pell Grant recipients among the top 25, with 37 percent and 33 percent of undergraduates receiving these grants for lower-income students, respectively;
UC Santa Barbara also enrolls a significant number of Pell Grant recipients, at 28 percent; and
UC Davis graduates students with a median of $11,000 in debt, the lowest of Forbes' top 25 public colleges.
The Forbes methodology relies upon seven factors, including alumni salary from Payscale and College Scorecard (20 percent); debt (15 percent); graduation rate (15 percent, with 5 percent of that dedicated to the success of Pell Grant recipients at an institution); presence of alumni on the Forbes American Leaders List, which includes individuals on Forbes’ lists, such as 30 Under 30, as well as honorees of awards including Nobel Prizes, Guggenheim fellowships, and many more (15 percent); return on investment as measured by Third Way’s price-to-earnings premium (15 percent); retention rate (10 percent); and academic success (10 percent), as measured by receipt of prestigious scholarships and pursuit of Ph.D.s by the student body.
The positive findings echo recent rankings by Money, Princeton Review and U.S. News and World Report on the UC system’s academic strength and value for alumni.
The University of California consistently leads universities in the United States in undergraduate education, graduate research and the number of influential scientists among its faculty. It also ranks highly on assessments that measure social mobility and setting up students for future financial success, with alumni making an impact on the world at a young age. Visit universityofcalifornia.edu to learn more about how the University of California has a positive impact on lives around California and the nation.
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