University of California, Irvine

The University of California, Irvine (with San Diego and Santa Cruz) was one of three new University of California campuses established in the 1960s under the California Master Plan for Higher Education.^[23] During the 1950s, the University of California saw the need for the new campuses to handle the expected increase in enrollment from the post-war baby boom. One of the new campuses was to be in the Los Angeles area; the location selected was Irvine Ranch, an area of agricultural land bisecting Orange County from north to south. This site was chosen to accommodate the county's growing population, complement the growth of nearby UCLA and UC Riverside, and allow for the construction of a master planned community in the surrounding area.^[24]

On June 20, 1964, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson dedicated UC Irvine before a crowd of 15,000 people, and on October 4, 1965, the campus began operations with 1,589 students, 241 staff members, 119 faculty, and 43 teaching assistants.^[25][26] However, many of UCI's buildings were still under construction and landscaping was still in progress, with the campus only at 75% completion.^[27] By June 25, 1966, UCI held its first Commencement with fourteen students, which conferred ten Bachelor of Arts degrees, three Master of Arts degrees, and one Doctor of Philosophy degree.^[28]

Unlike most other University of California campuses, UCI was not named for the city it was built in; at the time of the university's founding (1965), the current city of Irvine (incorporated in 1971) did not exist. The name "Irvine" is a reference to James Irvine, a landowner who administered the 94,000-acre (38,000 ha) Irvine Ranch. In 1960, The Irvine Company sold 1,000 acres (400 ha) of the Irvine Ranch to the University of California for one dollar, since company policy prohibited the donation of property to a public entity.^[24] On campus, UC Irvine's first Chancellor, Daniel G. Aldrich selected a wide variety of Mediterranean-climate flora and fauna, feeling that it served an "aesthetic, environmental, and educational [purpose]."^[29] To plan the remainder of the ranch, the university hired William Pereira and Associates. Pereira intended for the UC Irvine campus to complement the neighboring community, and it became clear that the original 1,000 acres (400 ha) grant would not suffice. In 1964, the university purchased an additional 510 acres (210 ha) in 1964 for housing and commercial developments.^[24]

Much of the land that was not purchased by UCI (which is now occupied by the cities of Irvine, Tustin, and Newport Beach) remains held by The Irvine Company, but the completion of the university rapidly drove the development of Orange County. The City of Irvine became incorporated and established in 1971 and 1975, respectively.^[24] UCI remains the second-largest employer in Orange County, with an annual economic impact of $5 billion.^[30][31]

Aldrich developed the campus's first academic plan around a College of Letters and Science, a Graduate School of Administration, and a School of Engineering.^[32] The "principal author" of the plan was Ivan Hinderaker, who served under Aldrich as UCI's vice-chancellor for academic affairs before departing to become the second chancellor of UC Riverside.^[32] The UCI College of Letters and Science was to be divided into five divisions which together would initially offer about a dozen majors: Biological Sciences, Fine Arts, Humanities, Physical Sciences, and Social Sciences.^[32] Hinderaker came up with the idea "to appoint deans with strong authority for each of the divisions and to give them as much freedom as possible in determining the internal organization of their divisions".^[32] In 1967, the UCI Academic Senate voted to redesignate the divisions as "schools", with all their deans reporting directly to the vice chancellor for academic affairs.^[32] This is why schools became the dominant academic unit at UCI, in contrast to the relatively large colleges at the older UC campuses.

In 1967, the California College of Medicine (originally a school of osteopathy founded in 1896 and the oldest continuously operating medical college in the Southwest) became part of UC Irvine.^[33][34] In 1976, plans to establish an on-campus hospital were set aside, with the university instead purchasing the Orange County Medical Center (renamed the UC Irvine Medical Center) around 12 miles from UC Irvine, in the City of Orange.^[34]

On November 30, 2007, the Office of Civil Rights of the United States Department of Education issued a report finding insufficient evidence in support of allegations that Jewish students at UCI were harassed and subjected to a hostile environment based on their religious beliefs. The agency ultimately found that none of the incidents leading to the allegations qualified as "sufficiently severe, pervasive or persistent as to interfere with or limit the ability of an individual to participate in from the services, activities or privileges" provided by UCI, and that university officials had acted appropriately in response to each incident. In December 2007, UCI Administration was cleared of anti-semitism complaints by the US Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights.^[35][36] Following a speech by Chancellor Drake at the national Hillel meeting in Washington, D.C. in March 2008, Anteaters for Israel, along with three other Jewish organizations, issued a press release defending Drake and claiming that the anti-Semitic activity was "exaggerated".^[37]

In 2010, eleven students from the Muslim Student Union disrupted a speech by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren. The students and the student's union involved were first disciplined by UCI and then had criminal charges brought against them. They were convicted of misdemeanor charges and sentenced to three years probation, community service, and fines. This led to a debate on whether the students' protest was free speech and whether filing criminal charges against them was fair after UCI had already disciplined them.^[38][39] Critics argued that the students were victims of selective prosecution and that they were targeted because they were Muslims and supported the Palestinians.^{[40][41][42][43]}

In early July 2018, UC Irvine removed benefactor Francisco J. Ayala's name from its biology school and central science library after an internal investigation by the university's Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity substantiated a number of sexual harassment claims. Chancellor Gillman also authorized the removal of the Ayala name from graduate fellowships, scholar programs, and endowed chairs. Ayala resigned July 1, 2018 and was ordered to abstain from future university activities, following the university's consultative procedures that include a faculty review committee. The results from the investigation were compiled in a 97-page report, which included testimony from victims of Ayala.^{[44][45][46][47][48]}

The layout of the core campus resembles a rough circle with its center being Aldrich Park (initially known as Campus Park), lined up by the Ring Mall and buildings surrounding the road. To further emphasize the layout, academic units are positioned relative to the center, wherein undergraduate schools are closer to the center than the graduate schools.^[49]

As of 2010, Aldrich Park is planted with over 11,120 trees (there are over 24,000 trees on the entire campus), including 33 species of eucalyptus. At the time, it was one of 74 campuses nationwide to earn the designation of "Tree Campus USA" from the Arbor Day Foundation.^[50] Two ceremonial trees were planted in 1990, one for Arbor Day and the second for former chancellor Daniel Aldrich who had died that year. On the first anniversary of the September 11th tragedies, the chancellor planted a bay laurel tree in remembrance of the heroes and victims of the events of September 11, 2001. The tree itself was a gift from the UCI Staff Assembly. Aldrich Park is the site for "Wayzgoose", a medieval student festival held each year in conjunction with the "Celebrate UCI" open house. It also hosts many extracurricular activities.

Ring Mall is the main pedestrian road used by students and faculty to travel around the core campus. The road measures up to a perfect mile and completely encircles Aldrich Park.^[51] Most schools and libraries orbit this road with each of these schools having their own central plaza which also connects to the park.

Other areas of the university outside of the core campus such as the School of Arts are connected by four pedestrian bridges. Beyond the core campus and the bridges, the layout of the campus is more suburban.

Panoramic view of Aldrich Park

Irvine, California consistently ranks as the safest city in the United States.^[52] UCI is close to the beaches, mountains, and attractions of Southern California. Disneyland is approximately 20 minutes away by car. While the university is located in Irvine, the campus is directly bounded by the city of Newport Beach and the community of Newport Coast. The western side of the campus borders the San Diego Creek and the San Joaquin Freshwater Marsh Reserve, through which Campus Drive connects UCI to the 405 freeway. The northern and eastern sides of UCI are adjacent to Irvine proper; the eastern side of the campus is delineated by Bonita Canyon Road, which turns into Culver Drive at its northern terminus. California State Route 73 marks UCI's southern boundary and separates the campus from Newport Beach.

The "North Campus" houses the Facilities Management Department, the Faculty Research Facility, Central Receiving, Fleet Services, the Air Pollution Health Effects Laboratory, and the 1.2 million square foot Irvine Campus Medical Complex (ICMC). It is located next to the UCI Arboretum, which was closed until further notice due to the COVID-19 pandemic with plans to relocate to the main campus.^[53] Both the North Campus and the arboretum are located about 1 mile (2 km) from the main campus. In 2024, construction of the Joe C. Wen & Family UCI Health Center for Advanced Care and the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center was completed. In late 2025, an all-electric 144-bed acute care hospital will follow suit, making this the nation’s first medical center to be powered by an all-electric central utilities plant.^[54]

William Pereira's original street layout for the region surrounding the university had a wingnut-shaped loop road as the main thoroughfare, which twice crossed the campus. However, the Irvine Company's development plans expanded before it could be completed, and portions of California, Carlson, Harvard and Turtle Rock roads today constitute segments of what would have been the Loop Road.

Despite the suburban environment, a variety of wildlife inhabits the university's central park, open fields, and wetlands. The university is home to cougar, hawks, golden eagles, great blue herons, squirrels, opossums, peregrine falcons, rabbits, raccoons, owls, skunks, weasels, bats, and coyotes. The UCI Arboretum hosts a collection of plants from California and Mediterranean climates around the world. The rabbits in particular can be seen across campus in high numbers, especially during hours of low student traffic.

The first buildings were designed by a team of architects led by William Pereira and including A. Quincy Jones and William Blurock. The initial landscaping, including Aldrich Park, was designed by an association of three firms, including that of the noted urban-landscaping innovator Robert Herrick Carter. Aldrich Park was designed under the direction of landscape architect Gene Uematsu, and was modeled after Frederick Law Olmsted's designs for New York City's Central Park. The campus opened in 1965 with the inner circle and park only half-completed. There were only nine buildings and a dirt road connecting the main campus to the housing units. Only three of the six "spokes" that radiate from the central park were built, with only two buildings each. Pereira was retained by the university to maintain a continuity of style among the buildings constructed in the inner ring around the park, the last of which was completed in 1974. These buildings were designed with the appearance of being displayed on "pedestals" (containing the first floor and basement levels) that elevated them above the rolling terrain, with distinctive white railings evoking the deck of an ocean liner. They additionally feature an elevated second pedestrian level above ground, originally intended as a "skyway" to connect all the buildings in each of the six "spokes".^[55]

Construction on the campus all but ceased after the Administration building, Aldrich Hall, was completed in 1974, and then resumed in the late 1980s, beginning a massive building boom that continues today. This second building boom continued the futuristic trend, but emphasized a much more colorful, postmodern approach that somewhat contradicted the earthy, organic designs of the early buildings. New campus architect David J. Neuman, succeeding Pereira in 1977,^[56] brought in architects such as Frank Gehry, Robert Venturi, Eric Owen Moss, James Stirling and Arthur Erickson to bring the campus more up to date. The recession in the early 1990s along with internal politics led to a change in direction, due to the reduced capital budget, and changing attitudes towards architectural innovation at the university. This, in turn, led to a "contextualist" approach beginning in the late 1990s combining stylistic elements of the first two phases in an attempt to provide an architectural "middle ground" between the two vastly different styles.

In the mid-2000s, the campus underwent a historic $1.1 billion dollar expansion to keep pace with projected enrollment, adding another 2.7 million square feet of instructional and research facilities and over 20 buildings.^[57] As a consequence, Frank Gehry's Information and Computer Science/Engineering Research Facility (ICS/ERF) building, which won a Progressive Architecture Award in 1985 and had brought UCI to prominence in architectural circles, was demolished in 2007^[58] to make way for the new six-story, 180,000 square foot Engineering Hall. It sparked outcry from architecture critics and art historians alike, while campus architect and associate vice chancellor Rebekah Gladson maintained that the ICS/ERF building was an "interim fix" during the building boom of the 1980s. The relatively inexpensive cost of construction, at $2 million in 1986, was merely adequate at a time when state funding was insufficient for larger, more permanent facilities. As a result, the twenty years that had passed since construction had led to problems with exterior waterproofing and structural deterioration. A target enrollment of about 30,000 students, which called for higher density accommodations on campus were other motivators for the razing.^[59][60] Two buildings designed by Frank Gehry in the Henry Samueli School of Engineering still remain today, the McDonnell Douglas Engineering Auditorium and the Rockwell Engineering Center, completed in 1990.^[61][62]

In a later reversal of Pereira's vision, a 2008 earthquake retrofit of Steinhaus Hall saw the removal of Pereira's signature sunshades for a "flat skin of stone and glass", after the precast originals had deteriorated and presented a hazard for those walking below.^[63][64]

In 2009, the Humanities Gateway building, designed by Curtis W. Fentress, was opened. The curvilinear design marked a return to the sculptural treatment of concrete begun by Pereira. The design sought to encapsulate the multifaceted nature of a humanities education, with a split-persona inspired by Janus, the two-faced god of mythological literature. The side that faces the Humanities Quad and the interior of the campus was intended to maintain formality and harmony with existing campus architecture while the opposing courtyard side contrasts this with an organic, free-flowing design. In addition, it achieved 57 of the 69 benchmark points (minimum 52) required to reach USGBC's LEED Platinum certification, which recognizes new construction that has gone above and beyond in incorporating eco-friendly features in its design and operations.^[65] This was the first building on campus to receive the distinction.^[66]

Humanities Gateway, facing campus.

Humanities Gateway, facing the courtyard.

In addition to holding a noted critical theory archive and Southeast Asian archive, the Libraries also contain extensive collections in Dance and Performing Arts, Regional History, and more. Additionally, Langson Library hosts an extensive East Asian collection with materials in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.

Nearly all departments and schools on campus complement the resources of the UC Irvine Libraries by maintaining their own reading rooms and scholarly meeting rooms. They contain small reference collections and are the choice for more intimate lectures, graduate seminars, and study sessions. There is also the large Gateway Study Center located across from Langson Library, one of the university's original buildings and under the custody of UC Irvine Libraries. Having served formerly as a cafeteria and student center, it is now a dual-use computer lab and study area which is open nearly 24 hours.

The UCI Student Center offers a large number of study areas, auditoriums, and two food courts, and therefore is one of the most popular places to study on campus. UC Irvine also has a number of computer labs that serve as study centers. The School of Humanities maintains the Humanities Instructional Resource Center, a drop-in computer lab specializing in language and digital media. Additionally, UCI maintains five other drop-in labs, four instructional computer labs, and a number of reservation-only SmartClassrooms, some of which are open 24 hours. Other popular study areas include Aldrich Park, the Cross-Cultural Center, the Locus (a study room and computer lab used by the Campuswide Honors Program), and plazas located in every school.

A network of tunnels runs between many of the major buildings on campus and the Central Plant, with the major trunk passage located beneath Ring Mall. Smaller tunnels branch off from this main passage to reach individual buildings, carrying electrical and air-conditioning utilities from the Central Plant. These tunnels have been the subject of much campus lore, the most popular story being that the tunnels were constructed to facilitate the safe evacuation of faculty in the event of a student riot. The main tunnel actually contains an above-ground section, in the form of the interior of an unusually thick pedestrian bridge near the Engineering Tower, in an area where the Ring Mall crosses between two hills. The tunnels are only accessible to maintenance staff, although there are also publicly accessible tunnels which intersect the utility tunnels, such as the one that goes between the main Information & Computer Science building and the Engineering Tower.^{[citation needed]}

The University of California, Irvine, is one of nine UC undergraduate campuses that sends students to the University of California, Washington DC (UCDC) program. This is a UC systemwide program housed in the University of California Washington Center, located on Scott Circle in Downtown Washington ( 38°54′23.4″N 77°2′14″W / 38.906500°N 77.03722°W / 38.906500; -77.03722). The center serves as the headquarters of the University of California Office of Federal Governmental Relations and supports UC students interning in the District of Columbia. UC Washington Center is currently led by UC Merced sociology professor, Tanya Golash-Boza.

Like other University of California campuses, UC Irvine operates under a system of shared governance, or a partnership between the Chancellor and his administration and the faculty through the Academic Senate. The Chancellor is the chief campus officer and has authority over the campus budget.^[72] The Academic Senate has authority to determine the conditions for admission and supervise courses and curricula.^[73] The Chancellor is nominated by and is responsible to the Regents of the University of California and the UC President.^[74]

After the Chancellor, the second most senior official is the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost,^[75] the university's chief academic and operating officer. Every school on campus reports to the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost through a Dean, and all other academic and administrative units report to his office through a Vice Chancellor or chief administrator. A partial list of these units includes Campus Recreation, Intercollegiate Athletics, Planning and Budget, Student Affairs, UC Irvine Libraries, UC Irvine Medical Center, and University Advancement.

UC Irvine's academic units are referred to as schools. As of the 2023–2024 school year, there were fifteen schools and several interdisciplinary programs.^[76] The College of Health Sciences was established in 2004,^[77] but no longer exists as a separate academic unit.^[78] On November 16, 2006, the University of California Regents approved the establishment of the School of Law.^[79] The School of Education was established by the UC Regents in 2012.^[80] In 2016, the university announced that it had received a $40 million donation from Bill Gross' philanthropic foundation to turn its nursing science program into the Sue and Bill Gross School of Nursing. The UC Regents formally approved the establishment of the school in January 2017.^[81][82] In July 2020, the UC Regents approved the establishment of the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.^[83] In July of 2024, UCI received a gift of $50 million to support the transition of the former Program in Public health to the Joe C. Wen School of Population and Public Health, named for the donor and his family.^[84] Supplementary education programs offer accelerated or community education in the form of Summer Session and UC Irvine Extension.^[85]

The academic units consist of (with their founding in parentheses):^[86]

• Claire Trevor School of the Arts (1970)
• Charlie Dunlop School of Biological Sciences (1965)
• Paul Merage School of Business (1965)
• School of Education (1967)
• Henry Samueli School of Engineering (1965)
• School of Humanities (1965)
• Donald Bren School of Information & Computer Sciences (2002)
• Interdisciplinary Studies (1992)
• School of Law (2007)
• School of Physical Sciences (1965)
• School of Social Ecology (1970)
• School of Social Sciences (1965)
• School of Medicine (1896)
• Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing (2007)
• School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences (2020)
• Joe C. Wen School of Population and Public Health (2024)

The School of Medicine constitutes the professional schools of health science. The UC Irvine Medical Center is ranked among the nation's top 50 hospitals by U.S. News & World Report for the 12th consecutive year.^[87] The school has 19 clinical and 6 basic science departments^[88] with 560 full-time and 1,300 volunteer faculty members involved in teaching, patient care, and medical and basic science research. With an acceptance rate of 3.98% for 6,929 applicants in 2025, it is among the nation's 20 most selective medical schools.^[89]

UCI Gavin Herbert Eye Institute

Sue & Bill Gross Nursing & Health Sciences Hall

UC Irvine's Medical Center and Education Building.

UCI's many research organizations^[90] are either chaired by or composed of UCI faculty, frequently draw upon undergraduates and graduates for research assistance, and produce innovations, patents, and scholarly works. Some are housed in a school or department office; others are housed in their own facilities. These are a few of the research organizations at UCI:

• Beckman Laser Institute
• California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2)
• Center for Chemistry at the Space-Time Limit (CaSTL Center)
• Center for Complex Biological Systems
• Center for Global Peace and Conflict Studies
• Center for Cognitive Neuroscience
• Regional Center of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Disease (RCE)^[91]
• Center for Unconventional Security Affairs
• Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center
• Institute of Transportation Studies
• National Fuel Cell Research Center
• The Fleischman Lab
• Reeve-Irvine Research Center
• Center for the Study of Democracy
• Center for Health Policy Research
• W. M. Keck Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry
• Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center
• Institute for Genomics and Bioinformatics (IGB)
• Center for Machine Learning and Data Mining (CML)
• University of California Transportation Center (UCTC)^[92]

Among universities under 50 years of age, Times Higher Education ranked UCI 4th in the world and 1st in the US for 2012, 5th in the world and 1st in the US for 2013, 7th in the world and 1st in the US in 2014, and 7th in the world and 1st in the US in 2015.^[103] 2015 was the final year UCI was eligible for this ranking. In 2025, THE ranked UCI's Psychology program 42nd, their law school 66th, and Computer Science program as 75th globally.^[104] Nationally, the university was 35th overall.^[105] In 2025's Academic Ranking of World Universities, UC Irvine was 34th among US universities and ranked globally in the subjects Atmospheric Science (10), Law (14), Education (25), Water Resources (31), and Psychology (32).^[106] The 2024 World University Rankings by CWUR ranked UC Irvine 85th globally out of 20,966 universities and 44th nationally, placing it among the top 0.5% in the world.^[107] UCI's graduate philosophy program ranks among the finest worldwide, according to the Philosophical Gourmet Report, with the Department of Philosophy and the Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science jointly achieving a 28th position in global rankings. The Webometrics Ranking of World Universities for 2024 ranked UCI 31st in the world, using "web indicators as proxies to assess [universities'] global performance comprehensively, considering its activities, outputs, relevance, and impact". The composite score was determined by "visibility" (24th), "transparency" (22nd), and "excellence" (83rd).^[108][109]

For 2026, U.S. News & World Report ranked UC Irvine tied for 32nd among national universities in the U.S., tied for 9th among public universities, 12th in "Top Performers on Social Mobility", tied for 56th in "Most Innovative Schools", and tied for 35th in "Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs".^[110]In 2019, Forbes ranked UCI 3rd out of the 300 Best Value Colleges, based on Return on Investment.^[111]In 2017, Kiplinger ranked UCI 26th out of the top 100 best-value public colleges and universities in the nation, and 5th in California.^[112]In 2018, Sierra Magazine ranked UCI 1st in its "Coolest Schools" in America list for campus sustainability and climate change efforts. In 2021, it was ranked 2nd, marking the 12th time in a row it had placed in the top 10.^[113][114]In 2024, The Princeton Review ranked UCI 5th among public universities by return on investment (ROI) in its Best Value Colleges list.^[115] It also ranked 13th in ROI among public schools for students that do not qualify for financial aid.^[116]

Washington Monthly's 2025 Best Colleges For Research ranked UCI 34th out of 139 institutions, based on total search spending, science and engineering PhDs awarded, faculty receiving major national awards, and the share of faculty elected to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.^[117]

For 2025-26, Niche, whose ranking methodology combines both student experiential reviews with objective metrics supplied from third-party institutions,^[118] ranked UCI 63rd nationally amongst colleges (including LACs) and 18th amongst public universities. It ranked UCI in the top 50 nationally for Criminal Justice (6), Public Health (15), Film and Photography (27), Performing Arts (24), Music (28), Psychology (30), Computer Science (39), Education (33), Anthropology and Sociology (37), Physics (48), Math (39), Engineering (39), Chemistry (40), Biology (46), International Relations (47), and Philosophy (49).^[119]

In addition, many of UCI's graduate programs are ranked in the top 50 of the 2025 U.S. News & World Report rankings: Criminology (2), Organic Chemistry (14), English (21), Chemistry (24), Sociology (20), Computer Science (27), Public Health (27), Physics (35), Psychology (27), Law (38), Statistics (27), Education (18), Biological Sciences (32), Earth Sciences (27), History (42), Engineering (37), Business Part-Time MBA (23), Political Science (41), Mathematics (34), and Economics (41).^[110]

UCI faculty are affiliated with the following learned societies.

• American Academy of Arts and Sciences (47 members)^[120]
• American Association for the Advancement of Science (154 members)
• American Philosophical Society (11 members)^[121]
• American Physical Society (30 members)
• Howard Hughes Medical Institute (3 members)^[122]
• American Psychological Association (20 members)
• National Academy of Medicine (6 members)^[123]
• National Academy of Engineering (11 members)^[124]
• National Academy of Sciences (34 members)^[125]
• National Academy of Education (5 members)^[126]

Undergraduate

UC Irvine is categorized by U.S. News & World Report as "most selective" for college admissions in the United States.^[127] It was the third-most selective University of California campus for the freshman class entering in the fall of 2019, as measured by the ratio of admitted students to applicants (behind UC Berkeley and UCLA).^[128] UC Irvine received 119,210 applications for admission to the fall 2022 incoming freshman class and 25,213 were admitted, making UC Irvine's acceptance rate 21% for fall 2022. The first-year median weighted GPA was 4.22 for fall 2022.^[129][130]

The incoming 2024 freshmen were predominantly from Los Angeles County (27.7%), followed by Orange County (24.8%), San Bernardino County (6.6%), Riverside County (7.1%), and San Diego County (6.5%). Of the 2024 freshmen international students, a majority came from Asia. 63.9% were from China, 8.8% from India, 6.6% from South Korea, and a distant 2.8% from Taiwan.^[131]

Admission rates also vary by the residency of applicants. For Fall 2024, California residents had a selectivity rate of 21.8% out of 87,538 applicants, with a yield rate of 26.1%. Out of state residents saw greater rate of admission, with 49.8% of 15,792 applicants receiving acceptance. However, only 7.6% of those admitted went on to enroll. Of the 19,376 international students who applied, 43.1% were accepted and 13.8% went on to enroll.^[132]

That year, the most popular major for freshmen was Undeclared (22%), followed by Biological Sciences (12.5%), Computer Science (4.2%), Public Health Sciences (3.9%), Criminology, Law & Society (3.0%), and Mechanical Engineering (2.9%).^[133] The median freshman's unweighted and weighted incoming high school GPA was 3.94, and 4.18, respectively.^[134]

The choice to offer admission is based on the University of California's comprehensive review program, which considers a candidate's personal situation, community involvement, extracurricular activities, and academic potential in addition to the traditional high school academic record, personal statement, and entrance examination scores.^[135] While residency is not a factor in admission, it is a factor in tuition expenses, with out-of-state residents fees much greater than California residents. Since the approval of Proposition 209 in November 1996, California state law has prohibited all public universities (including UC Irvine) from practicing affirmative action as part of their admissions processes.

Graduate

In Fall 2024, The School of Law accepted 17.38% of its 3,096 applicants for an enrolling class that has a median LSAT score of 167, and median GPA of 3.81 (interquartile range 3.65-3.89).^[137][138] The School of Medicine saw an acceptance rate of 3.98% for 6,929 applicants in 2025, putting it among the nation's 20 most selective medical schools.^[89]

The University of California Irvine hosts the UCI Machine Learning Repository, a data resource which is very popular among machine learning researchers and data mining practitioners.^[141] It was created in 1987 and contains 622 datasets from several domains including biology, medicine, physics, engineering, social sciences, games, and others.^[142] The datasets contained in the UC Irvine Machine Learning Repository have been used by thousands of students and researchers in the computer science community and facilitated the publication of approximately 26 thousand scientific articles.^[143]

The first fraternities and sororities at UCI began in 1973 with three sororities and three fraternities.^[145]

There are around 600 student clubs and organizations on campus.^[146][147] Campus activities throughout the year include cultural nights, arts performances, and live music at Anteater Plaza. Special events such as Aldrich Park After Dark, Summerlands, Soulstice, and Earth Day are held yearly.^[148] ASUCI, the university's undergraduate student government, traditionally organizes a world record attempt by the university at the beginning of each academic year. UCI has won Guinness World Records for the largest game of capture the flag six times, with the most recent one in September 2015. In addition, the university has broken the record for the largest game of dodgeball three years straight.^[149][150] They have also won records for largest water pistol fight and largest pillow fight.^[151]

UC Irvine has a number of residential options for students interested in living on campus, and guarantees two years of housing to undergraduates who are single and under the age of 25.^[152] Part of UCI's 2007 long-range development plan involves expanding on-campus housing to accommodate 60% of all UCI students, and to support a growing graduate population.^[153] In the wake of the pandemic, the university has considered additional construction as student demand in the surrounding region soars, placing a strain on the housing available. As of 2024, UCI houses approximately 17,878 students or about 50% of the campus enrollment, with plans to add another 1,000 beds by 2030.^[154]

Middle Earth is a student housing complex that includes housing approximately 1,784 first-year students in 24 "classics" residence halls, and another 640 in two five-level "towers", a student center (Pippin Center), dining facility (Brandywine) and several resource centers.^[155] Each hall houses 48–96 students, although Quenya was built with sixty single-suite rooms originally intended for graduate students.^[156] The names of the halls and other facilities were selected from J.R.R. Tolkien's legendarium.^[157]

Middle Earth is located along Ring Road, toward the core of the university's campus. The residence halls were built in three consecutive phases, beginning in 1974.^[158][159] The first phase was designed by William Pereira.^[160] The first phase included seven halls: Hobbiton, Isengard, Lorien, Mirkwood, Misty Mountain, Rivendell, and the Shire, along with a separate Head Resident's manufactured home called "Bag End". The second phase was built in 1989 with thirteen more halls: Balin, Harrowdale, Whispering Wood, Woodhall, Calmindon, Grey Havens, Aldor, Rohan, Gondolin, Snowbourn, Elrond, Shadowfax, and Quenya. The third phase was built in 2000 with four halls: Crickhollow, Evenstar, Oakenshield, and Valimar. The last phase was completed in the summer of 2019 and officially opened September 16, 2019; although reported in the media as being called the two towers of Middle Earth,^[161] its two buildings are actually named Telperion and Laurelin, after the Two Trees of Valinor. These towers house around 640 undergraduate students.

Mesa Court is another housing community intended for freshman as part of the "First Year Experience". It houses around 3,100 students in 29 "classics" halls and three residential towers. The towers themselves accommodate 1,016 students and include study areas, computer labs, a fitness center, with shared kitchenettes and laundry facilities. Situated below "Caballo", one of the towers, is the other major dining facility on campus (The Anteatery) which can serve 780 students at maximum.^[162]

Mesa Court is situated closer to the northern edge of campus and is fed via pedestrian bridges from the Student Center and the School of Humanities making it less connected to the core campus than Middle Earth. Located in close proximity are the Claire Trevor School of the Arts and the Bren Events Center.

For continuing and transfer students, apartments in East Campus have been privately managed and constructed in phases by a partnership with American Campus Communities since 2004 through a ground lease to Collegiate Housing Foundation as a non-profit owner.^[163] The first phase of apartments, Vista del Campo, was completed in 2004 and houses 1,488 students in 488 units.^[164] The second phase, Vista del Campo Norte, consists of 1,564 beds distributed across 545 units and began operation in 2006. The third phase, Puerta del Sol and Camino del Sol, finished construction in 2010, adding 2,111 spaces, combined, in two separate townhome communities.^[165][166] This phase of construction also added an 1,822 stall parking garage, located adjacent to the Anteater Recreation Center.^[167] The most recent phase, was completed in two stages: In 2019, the completion of Plaza Verde added 1,441 beds, and Plaza Verde II finished in 2023 to provide accommodations for another 1,077 students. These two complexes share a community center and 543-stall parking structure.^[168][169]

Plaza Verde

Plaza Verde II

Additional on-campus housing for undergraduates under the age of 25 in East Campus comes in the form of a community of 42 academic theme, fraternity, and sorority chapter houses. Over two-thirds of the houses are Academic Theme Houses, which are sponsored by academic programs and group together students of similar areas of study. The rest are available for occupation through Greek life organizations.^[170]

Full-time graduate students are guaranteed on-campus housing for the duration of a determined "normal time to degree" for their program, and as long as they maintain good academic standing. They are accommodated in either the Palo Verde, Verano Place, Campus Village, or ACC apartments.^[171]

The Verano Place apartments first began housing graduate students in 1966, not long after the founding of the university.^[172] Subsequent development has supplemented the original residence halls with higher-density housing for a predominantly medical, law, and graduate student population of about 2,095.^[173]

In summer of 2022, the Verano 8 Graduate Student Housing Community was completed, adding 1,055 beds across five seven-story buildings to help alleviate the demand of a growing graduate population. Included in the housing community is a community center and an 853-stall parking garage.^[174]

The Verano 8 residential community consists of five seven-story buildings.

UC Irvine's sports teams are known as the Anteaters and the student body is known as Antourage. They currently participate in the NCAA's Division I, as members of the Big West Conference^[175] and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.^[176] In the early years of the school's existence, the teams participated at the NCAA Division II level with great success as explained in the UC Irvine Anteaters page. UC Irvine fields nationally competitive teams in baseball, basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, track and field, volleyball and water polo. The university has won 28 national championships in nine different sports, and fielded 64 individual national champions, 53 Olympians and over 500 All-Americans.

The university's most recent NCAA Division I national championship was won by the men's volleyball team in 2013. UC Irvine men's volleyball won four national championships in 2007, 2009, 2012 and 2013.

UC Irvine won three NCAA Division I men's water polo titles, with championships in 1970, 1982 and 1989.

UC Irvine Anteaters baseball won back-to-back national championships at the NCAA College Division College World Series and the NCAA Division II College World Series in 1973 and 1974. Anteater baseball moved to the NCAA Division I level. The 2007 baseball team finished 3rd at the College World Series, and in 2009 the baseball team earned a No. 1 national ranking in NCAA Division I polls from Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball for the first time, as well as a national seed and the right to host an NCAA Regional. The 2014 baseball team returned to the College World Series and finished 5th.

UCI Anteater's golf team won the NCAA Division II national team championship in 1975 with team member Jerry Wisz winning the individual title. At the NCAA national championships in 1973, 1974 and 1976, those teams finished second twice and fourth the other year. These teams included seven All-Americans.

In 2015, for the first time, the UC Irvine Anteaters men's basketball team appeared in the Division I tournament. It was narrowly defeated in a first-round tournament game by Louisville. The Anteaters made their second NCAA appearance in 2019, beating fourth-seed Kansas State University for their first March Madness win ever.

The anteater was chosen in 1965 when students were allowed to submit mascot candidates, which would be voted on in a campus election. Three undergraduates named Pat Glasgow, Bob Ernst, and Schuyler Hadley Basset III were credited with choosing the anteater and designing a cartoon representation, having been disappointed with other candidates such as a roadrunner, unicorn, seahawk and golden bison.^[177]

While often attributed to the Johnny Hart comic strip B.C., the original anteater design was based on the Playboy bunny.^[178]

In August 2007, a small stuffed anteater accompanied astronaut Tracy Caldwell on Space Shuttle Endeavour mission STS-118.^[179]

Following the 2015 men's basketball team's inaugural appearance in the NCAA Division I tournament, Mashable named Peter the Anteater the winner of its "Mascot Madness" tournament.^[180] The mascot also appeared on an episode of Conan.^[181]

Since 2019, anonymous students distribute "Petr [sic] stickers", a satiric misspelling of Peter. These stickers are designed with unique designs in limited quantities, and the distribution location is posted on Instagram spontaneously, encouraging students to run to collect them.^[182]

UC Irvine has more than 200,000 living alumni.^[183] These include astronauts (Tracy Caldwell Dyson), athletes (Steve Scott, Scott Brooks, Greg Louganis and 53 Olympians), Broadway, film, and television actors (Bob Gunton, James LeGros, Jon Lovitz, Brian Thompson, Teal Wicks, Windell Middlebrooks), technological innovators (Roy Fielding, Paul Mockapetris, and Patrick J. Hanratty), educators (Erin Gruwell), musicians (Kevin Kwan Loucks), and scientists (Mika Tosca).^[184]

Five people affiliated with UCI have been honored with the Nobel Prize: three faculty members, one postdoctoral scholar, and one alumnus. In 1995, professor Frank Sherwood Rowland along with postdoctoral student Mario Molina won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry while Frederick Reines won the Nobel Prize in Physics. In 1974, Rowland and Molina worked together to discover the harmful effects of CFCs on the ozone layer, while Reines received the Nobel Prize for his work in discovering the neutrino. In 2004, Irwin Rose, a professor at the School of Medicine, was co-awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with two professors from the Technion for the discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation. Additionally, David MacMillan, who completed his PhD. from UCI in 1996 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2021 for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis.

Seven Pulitzer Prize winners have been associated with UCI, including three faculty members and four alumni.^[19][20] These include Michael Chabon, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2001 for The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, and Richard Ford, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1996 for Independence Day. Claude Yarbrough (aka Jonathan Pendragon), class of '76, is one of the most influential magicians of the 20th and 21st centuries.^[186] Thomas Keneally was a visiting professor at UCI in 1985 (when he taught the graduate fiction workshop) and again from 1991 to 1995 (when he was a visiting professor in the writing program).^[187] Keneally is most famous for his book Schindler's Ark (1982) (later republished as Schindler's List), which won the Booker Prize and is the basis of the film Schindler's List that was directed by Steven Spielberg.

The Comparative Literature and Philosophy departments at Irvine have accommodated distinguished intellectuals of international acclaim, including Jacques Derrida, a philosopher and critic most commonly associated with postmodern and post-structuralist thought, who held a position at the University of California, Irvine Department of Comparative Literature from 1986 to his death in 2004; his colleague, Jean-François Lyotard, who taught at UCI from 1987 until 1994;^[188] Fellow at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, British philosopher Margaret Gilbert best known for her founding contributions to the analytic philosophy of social phenomena; and British philosopher and FRSE Duncan Pritchard.^[189]

In addition to the Department of Philosophy at UCI, its sister department, the Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, which together are ranked as one of the top philosophy programs in the world,^[190] also accommodates philosophers such as Brian Skyrms, known for his contributions on game theory and social norms; Jeffrey A. Barrett, known for his contributions to philosophy of physics; and Kai Wehmeier, known for his contributions to Frege.

Ralph J. Cicerone, an earth system science professor and former chancellor of UCI, served as president of the National Academy of Sciences from 2005 to 2016.^[191]

Three UCI faculty members have been named National Medal of Science recipients.^[192] In January 2009, UCI Professor Reg Penner won the Faraday Medal for his research with nanowires.^[193]

• Anteater Recreation Center
• Center for Chemistry at the Space-Time Limit