Enrollment at UC San Diego has reached an all time high with 45,273 students across graduate and undergraduate programs matriculated for Fall Quarter 2024, according to a preliminary headcount by the UCSD Office of the Registrar, released on Oct. 18. This increase in enrollment is a result of a record-breaking admissions cycle that amounted to 156,932 combined freshman and transfer applications.
The acceptance rate for first-year applicants was 26.8% and 54.7% for transfer applicants. Compared to the 32,061 first-years admitted during the 2023–24 application cycle, over 3,000 more students were admitted for the 2024-25 academic year.
The number of students currently attending UCSD exceeds the university’s 2018 Long-Range Development Plan for the campus, which projected the student population reaching a maximum of 42,400 in 2035.
It also outlines the university’s goals for expanding on-campus student housing. The plan indicated that UCSD aimed to construct space for 30,000 students and faculty to live on campus. As of Fall 2024, the university was able to provide housing to roughly 22,000 students, including 16,750 undergraduates.
Recently completed housing in Pepper Canyon West and the Theatre District Living and Learning Neighborhood increased the housing available for enrolled students this year.
Looking forward, “Ridgewalk North Living and Learning Neighborhood will provide housing to 2,400 undergraduate students when it opens next year,” Associate Director of University Communications Leslie Sepuka wrote in response to The UCSD Guardian’s request for comment.
UCSD is currently building new on-campus housing to meet the needs of the growing student population. “Enrollment and housing are related because the university’s ultimate goal is to make progress toward a four-year undergraduate housing guarantee at below-market rates for comparable units,” she explained. The university is able to provide a two-year on-campus housing guarantee to undergraduates who meet housing application deadlines.
Aside from the ongoing construction, UCSD will also begin building a new student housing development, the Pepper Canyon East Neighborhood District. This development is scheduled to be completed in Summer 2029, with a projected capability to house up to 2,000 undergraduate students. Upon completion, there will be a projected capacity for an estimated 28,000 to 29,000 students to live on campus.
During an interview with KPBS in July 2024, UCSD Campus Planner Robert Clossin noted that the goal for the university is to develop housing for 65% of students. Currently, UCSD has the capacity to house about 50% of its students.
There is also infrastructure being implemented to support higher rates of enrollment for California residents, which will ultimately make on-campus housing projects more accessible.
“A new Higher Education Student Housing Grant Program was established by the state to provide one-time grants for projects to support increased California resident enrollment. UC San Diego competed for and received $100 million to support student housing,” Sepuka said.
