Campus Description — UC Berkeley

A place of brimming curiosity and passion for learning, UC Berkeley is truly a prototype of a contemporary university. One of the world’s leading academic institutions, it attracts the best and brightest applicants, generating an ethnically and culturally diverse student population and providing one of the finest undergraduate learning experiences available. Here, students learn from leaders in every field and take advantage of the intellectual stimulation of the nation’s most outstanding scholars and educators.

Academic Highlights

Cal students have more in common than their strong academic records — they all have demonstrated the potential to add to Berkeley’s rich intellectual environment and spirit of pluralism.

Berkeley’s academic programs are recognized internationally for their excellence. More than 7,000 courses and more than 100 undergraduate majors are available in the sciences, humanities, arts, social sciences and natural resources. Students also may design their own undergraduate majors. Nearly 100 freshman and sophomore seminars are offered each semester, featuring small classes on topics of special interest to the professors.

Even first-year students may find themselves in a classroom with one of Berkeley’s 131 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 28 MacArthur fellows, 299 members of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, 14 National Medal of Science awardees or four Pulitzer Prize winners. These faculty members and their distinguished colleagues choose to teach and study at Berkeley because of its legacy of innovative thinking and its exceptional standard for scholarship.

Through the undergraduate research apprentice program, students reap the benefit of attending a renowned research university by getting hands-on, real-life experience in the labs of some of the foremost researchers working today.

Berkeley has one of the top university libraries in the nation. With well over 10 million volumes and more than 400 special collections, Berkeley’s library holdings are the fourth-largest in North America and have been ranked first in the nation among public libraries by the Association of Research Libraries. In addition to the Doe/Moffitt libraries for undergraduates, some three dozen subject-specific and affiliated libraries serve schools and programs across campus. Distinguished museums of anthropology, paleontology and science, and the University Art Museum, which includes one of the country’s leading film exhibition centers, the Pacific Film Archive, are all housed on campus.

The Berkeley campus is divided into 14 colleges and schools, most of which are subdivided into departments. Colleges and schools that offer programs for undergraduates are the Haas School of Business, College of Chemistry, College of Engineering, College of Environmental Design, College of Letters and Science, and College of Natural Resources. The College of Letters and Science is the largest, with more than half the campus's faculty and nearly three-quarters of its undergraduate students.

Campus Life

A lush and tranquil oasis in an urban setting, the campus is bordered by the hills of Tilden Regional Park and the city of Berkeley, one of America’s most lively, culturally diverse and politically adventurous municipalities.

Coffeehouses, bookstores and vendors line the streets near campus, and lecturers, artists and performers from around the world make sure to visit UC Berkeley.

Students are serious about their studies, but life extends beyond the classroom. Thousands of students pass through Sproul Plaza daily, making it a popular spot for presentations and performances.

With more than 700 clubs, from political parties to the Rubber Band Club, it's easy to get and stay connected. Can't find a club you like? Start your own.

Cal boasts one of the nation’s finest all-around intercollegiate athletic programs, with:

• 27 sports for men and women;
• More than 70 national team championships;
• 130 NCAA individual championships in various sports; and
• 34 particpants in the 2004 Olympics.

housing options abound for undergraduates who live in campus housing. With choices ranging from single-sex or high-rise dorms to theme housing or off-campus apartments, finding home-sweet-home is a cinch.

The San Francisco Bay Area forms an extraordinary environment for educational, artistic and recreational pursuits, many within easy reach of BART, the area’s rapid transit system.