As thousands of students began moving into UCLA’s residence halls just days ago, Neilani Maximo, a newly admitted first-year student took a moment to soak it all in. Flanked by her beaming mother and sister outside her new dorm, the Gardena resident and pre-psychology major said UCLA felt like the right choice the moment she stepped foot on campus last spring for a Black student admit event.

“I just felt really welcomed. I just felt, ‘This is the place for me,’” she said. “And I knew it was the No. 1 public university. So I’m definitely bragging about it.”

Her mother, Lily, wearing a “UCLA Mom” T-shirt, spoke about Maximo’s hard work and dedication coming to fruition. “I’m very proud,” she said. “I think she’ll have a great experience.”

Maximo is among the newest class of diverse and academically accomplished students to enter UCLA, which continues to cement its reputation as a place where students from all walks of life can learn, thrive and shape their future success.

That excellence has been recognized by U.S. News & World Report, which once again named UCLA the No. 1 public university in the United States in its influential annual “Best Colleges” rankings, released today. This is the eighth consecutive year UCLA has garnered the top ranking.

“This achievement is a testament to the hard work, dedication, resilience and ingenuity of UCLA’s students, faculty, staff and alumni,” Interim Chancellor Hunt said. “With our firm commitment to inclusive excellence, UCLA is continuing to redefine what it means to be a great public institution.”

Excellence across the board

The U.S. News rankings are based on 17 measures of academic quality, including graduation and retention rates, class size and the average federal loan debt of graduates, as well as schools’ academic reputation, as assessed by other chancellors, presidents, provosts and admissions deans at colleges throughout the U.S.

UCLA performed extremely well across all criteria. Among the top 25 national universities — public or private — the campus ranked highest in social mobility, which looks at the academic success of diverse students, particularly first-generation students and those from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds, who account for nearly 1 in 3 undergraduates. At UCLA, these students graduate at rates comparable to campus’s overall graduation rate, which exceeds 90%. A majority of students complete their education without debt.

The rankings also highlighted the quality of research conducted by UCLA faculty members, 40 of whom were recently named among the most influential researchers in the world in their fields. Each year, UCLA’s exceptional scholars bring in nearly $1.7 billion in external research funding, and their projects present unique research opportunities for undergraduates.

For Damian Ojeda, a second-year biochemistry and public affairs student from California’s Central Valley who intends to become a surgeon, UCLA’s diversity and its student research initiatives have helped him feel at home and chart a course of the future.

“I grew up in a small rural town and didn’t even know what a UC was,” he recalled. “I came to the Latinx Admit Weekend, and I came to Bruin Day, and I saw people who looked like me, who spoke like me, who spoke Spanish, who liked the same food as me. And I see people who look like me in class.”

Ojeda recently completed an intensive, hands-on summer research project through the UCLA Undergraduate Research Center–Sciences in which he studied the effect of a protein on hypertension — and he expects to continue with faculty-mentored research in the future. Ultimately, he said, having seen firsthand the struggles many Latinos face within the health care system, he plans to return to his community as a doctor to make a difference.

UCLA’s commitment to enhancing research activities for both faculty and students and strengthening its engagement with diverse and dynamic communities locally and throughout the world are key elements of the campus’s five-year strategic plan, Hunt said.

“We want to make UCLA the most impactful university. We often talk about being a great research university, and of course U.S. News & World Report has said that we are the best public university,” he said. “But we really aspire to be the most impactful — to have the greatest positive influence on the real world, to shape society in beneficial ways, to make a difference.”

A university where military veterans can excel

Providing comprehensive resources for military-connected students and their families has long been a university priority, and for the eighth year in a row, UCLA has been named U.S. News’ No. 1 public university for veterans.

Today, approximately 400 veterans and active-duty service members and 600 of their spouses and dependents are enrolled at UCLA, where they are served by more than 100 programs and initiatives — from the Veteran Resource Center and the UCLA/VA Veteran Family Wellbeing Center to STEM student mentoring — that help them succeed in their academic and personal journeys.

More on UCLA’s rankings

As part of the U.S. News rankings, universities were also rated across several academic programs. UCLA ranked in the top 10 public universities for its undergraduate programs in psychology, economics, computer science, engineering, teaching and nursing.

But the campus’s excellence is also rooted in efforts not reflected in U.S. News rankings. For example, UCLA is the only campus in the UC system to guarantee housing to all students for the duration of their undergraduate education, and it regularly wins awards for its academic accomplishments, campus life and food offerings.

“I don’t see how any school can top this one — the environment is great, the academics are great, our professors are Fields Medal winners,” said Francisco Turrubiartes Campos, a fourth-year applied math major and member of UCLA’s Undergraduate Math Council who is originally from Mexico. “It’s more than just an academically rigorous school, which is what I was looking for — it’s also a community. Whatever your interests are, you can find a group here and they’ll support you.

“I think we should be No. 1 every year.”

In addition to UCLA, four other University of California campuses were among the top 10 public universities in this year’s U.S. News rankings: UC Berkeley (No. 2), UC San Diego (6), and UC Davis and UC Irvine (tied for 9).

UCLA was tied with Dartmouth for the No. 15 ranking among all national universities — the same position it held last year.