 UC Santa Cruz was tied for 82nd in the list of Best National Universities in the United States by U.S. News & World Report 's 2016 rankings . In 2015 Kiplinger ranked UC Santa Cruz 63rd out of the top 100 best @-@ value public colleges and universities in the nation , and 7th in California . Money Magazine ranked UC Santa Cruz 114th in the country out of the nearly 1500 schools it evaluated for its 2015 Best Colleges ranking . The Daily Beast ranked UC Santa Cruz 157th in the country out of the nearly 2000 schools it evaluated for its 2013 Best Colleges ranking . In 2015 – 2016 , UC Santa Cruz was rated tied for 144th in the world by Times Higher Education World University Rankings . In 2015 it was ranked 93rd in the world by the Academic Ranking of World Universities and 269th worldwide in 2015 by the QS World University Rankings . 
