The University of California, San Diego, commonly known as UCSD or UC San Diego, is a public research university located in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, California, United States. UCSD is one of the ten general campuses of the University of California system and was founded in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography. 22,048 undergraduate and 5,073 graduate students enrolled in Fall 2007 and the university awarded 6,802 degrees in 2005/06. The university is organized into six undergraduate colleges and six graduate divisions and offers 125 undergraduate majors, 52 masters degrees, 51 doctoral programs, and four professional degrees.
The University of California, San Diego is currently ranked the 14th best university in the world by the Academic Ranking of World Universities. The 2011 edition of U.S. News & World Report ranked UC San Diego as the 35th best university in the nation. UCSD is consistently ranked high in other college and university rankings. In 2010, the university ranks 1st nationally in The Washington Monthly.
The university is a designated sea and space grant institution and has a very high level of research activity. The university operates the UC San Diego Medical Center and is affiliated with several regional research centers, such as the Salk Institute, the Burnham Institute for Medical Research, and The Scripps Research Institute. The university employs 7,566 faculty members including eight Nobel Laureates, eight MacArthur fellows, three National Medal of Science laureates, and one Fields medalist. The university was admitted to the Association of American Universities in 1982.
UCSD's 19 intercollegiate sports teams are known as the Tritons and participate in the NCAA's Division II (DII) level in the California Collegiate Athletic Association.