Is Rice University or UCSD harder to get into?

In results reported by OfferLand users, the admit rate is 68.8% at Rice University (78 results) and 61.6% at UCSD (190 results). This is a self-reported sample: admitted applicants report more often, so the rates run high, and they depend on which programs people applied to.

What GPA do admitted applicants to Rice University and UCSD have?

Among applicants who reported an admit, the median GPA is 3.67 at Rice University and 3.72 at UCSD (on a 4.0 scale; OfferLand sample).

Rice University vs UCSD: admit rates, GPA and how Taiwanese applicants choose

Name: Rice University vs UCSD admissions data
Creator: OfferLand
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

OfferLand users have reported 78 application results for Rice University and 190 for UCSD; 42 applicants applied to both. The table puts admit rates, admitted applicants’ scores, top fields and programs side by side.

Self-reported sample from OfferLand users, not official school data; figures based on fewer than 5 results are not shown. Data as of 2026-10-22.

Side by side

Admit rate = (admitted + enrolled) ÷ (admitted + enrolled + rejected); waitlisted and pending results are left out. Median GPA and TOEFL count each admitted applicant once. Figures based on fewer than 5 results are not shown.

Metric	Rice University	UCSD
Country	United States	United States
QS ranking (2027)	#122	#81
US News ranking (2027)	#16	#29
Application results	78	190
Applicants	78	179
Admit rate	68.8%	61.6%
Median GPA (admitted)	3.67	3.72
Median TOEFL (admitted)	103	102
Most-reported fields	Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (60),Data Science (6),General Engineering (4),Physics & Chemistry (3)	Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (114),Materials Science (22),General Engineering (19),Data Science (12)

Most-reported programs

Programs with at least 5 results, by number of results.

Rice University

Program	Results	Admit rate
Master of Computer Science (Master's)	55	70.4%
Data Science (Master's)	6	33.3%

UCSD

Program	Results	Admit rate
Computer Science and Engineering (Master's)	59	47.5%
Electrical and Computer Engineering (Master's)	46	65.2%
Material Science and Engineering (Master's)	22	86.4%
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (Master's)	11	72.7%
Data Science (Master's)	9	33.3%

Applicants to both schools

42 applicants reported results at both schools: 32 were admitted to Rice University, 18 to UCSD, and 16 to both.

Too few people admitted to both have reported a final choice (1) to show a preference.

AI summary (from OfferLand data and posts on the site, 2026-10-21)

In OfferLand's data, Rice's overall admit rate (68.8%) is slightly higher than UCSD's (61.6%), UCSD admits report a slightly higher median GPA (3.72 vs 3.67), and median TOEFL is similar (102 vs 103). Rice's results are almost all for its Master of Computer Science (55 results, 70.4% admitted), while UCSD's are spread across the CSE master's (59 results, 47.5%), the ECE master's (46 results, 65.2%) and programs such as Materials Science; for CS alone, Rice's MCS has the higher admit rate. Of the 42 people who applied to both, 16 were admitted to both and only 1 reported a decision (UCSD), so no preference can be read from the data.

A 2023 Fall applicant with an NTU EE degree, a 3.66 GPA and a 105 TOEFL was admitted to both Rice's MCS and UCSD's MS in CSE, and went to neither, choosing Cornell Tech's Connective Media.Source: 2023 Fall CS 申請心得
Data Science master's results are thin at both: 6 for Rice and 9 for UCSD, each with a 33.3% admit rate.Source: data on this page

Written by AI from the data on this page and the cited posts and interview reports. It may contain mistakes and is neither official school information nor application advice; check the original posts and the schools’ own announcements.

When citing these figures, please credit OfferLand. How the data is collected: About the data.