The University of California, San Diego (is abbreviated by UC San Diego or UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is the southernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California, and offers over 200 undergraduate and graduate degree programs, enrolling 33,096 undergraduate and 9,872 graduate students. UC San Diego is ranked among the best universities in the world by major college and university rankings.

UC San Diego consists of twelve undergraduate, graduate and professional schools as well as seven undergraduate residential colleges. It received over 140,000 applications for undergraduate admissions in Fall 2021, making it the second most applied-to university in the United States. UC San Diego Health, the region's only academic health system, provides patient care, conducts medical research and educates future health care professionals at the UC San Diego Medical Center, Hillcrest, Jacobs Medical Center, Moores Cancer Center, Sulpizio Cardiovascular Center, Shiley Eye Institute, Institute for Genomic Medicine, Koman Family Outpatient Pavilion and various express care and urgent care clinics throughout San Diego.

The university operates 19 organized research units as well as eight School of Medicine research units, six research centers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and two multi-campus initiatives. According to the National Science Foundation, UC San Diego spent $1.403 billion on research and development in fiscal year 2020, ranking it first in the University of California system and 6th in the nation. According to the annual Highly Cited Researchers 2022 list, UC San Diego ranks 8th globally for the most influential researchers making it the highest ranked University of California institution on the list. Accordingly, the list includes 66 distinct individuals from UC San Diego (up from 51 researchers last year).

UC San Diego is ranked 5th as Best Public University by Academic Ranking of World Universities and 16th in the U.S. by the Center for World University Rankings. Washington Monthly ranked the university 12th in its 2021 National University ranking, based on its contribution to the public good as measured by social mobility, research, and promoting public service.

UC San Diego is considered one of the United States's Public Ivies. UC San Diego faculty, researchers, and alumni have won 27 Nobel Prizes as well as three Fields Medals, eight National Medals of Science, eight MacArthur Fellowships, and three Pulitzer Prizes. Additionally, of the current faculty, 29 have been elected to the National Academy of Engineering, 70 to the National Academy of Sciences, 45 to the Institute of Medicine and 110 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

According to Wikipedia