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University of California - Berkeley Data & Information Overview

3,729 awards Ranking Badges
Great Price Value for Your Money
17% Acceptance Rate
This overview covers the essential stats on University of California - Berkeley, including its rankings, majors, diversity, and more. If you’re interested in learning more about a particular stat, just click on its tile to go to a new page that covers the topic more in-depth. Also, you can jump to any section of this page by clicking one of the links below.

How Well Is University of California - Berkeley Ranked?

#17 Best Colleges in Nation
#3 Best Colleges in CA
General Materials Science Highest Ranked Major
Quality Badge

2023 Rankings

In its yearly rankings, College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities to determine which ones are the best in a variety of categories, such as overall value, quality, diversity, which schools are the best for each major, and much more.

University of California - Berkeley was awarded 3,729 badges in the 2023 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is general materials science.

Overall Quality

UC Berkeley is ranked #17 out of 2,241 schools in the nation for overall quality on College Factual's 2023 Best Colleges list. This puts it in the top 1% of all schools in the nation! This is an improvement over the previous year, when UC Berkeley held the #26 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.

UC Berkeley also holds the #3 spot on the Best Colleges in California ranking.

See all of the rankings for University of California - Berkeley.

Is It Hard to Get Into UC Berkeley?

17% Acceptance Rate
57% Of Accepted Are Women
82% Submit SAT Scores

Acceptance Rate

Even if you have the best grades and high test scores, that may not be enough to get into UC Berkeley since the school has one of the most selective in the country. Its acceptance rate is a mere 17%, so there's no shame if you don't get in. Be sure to apply to other schools just in case.

Average Test Scores

About 82% of students accepted to UC Berkeley submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 650 and 740. Math scores were between 660 and 790.

SAT Reading and Writing Scores for University of California - Berkeley  ( 650 to 740 )
200
800

SAT Math Scores for University of California - Berkeley  ( 660 to 790 )
200
800
UC Berkeley received ACT scores from 41% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 30 and 35.

ACT Composite Scores for University of California - Berkeley  ( 30 to 35 )
1
36

Learn more about University of California - Berkeley admissions.

University of California - Berkeley Faculty

19 to 1 Student to Faculty
70% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

The student to faculty ratio at University of California - Berkeley is 19 to 1, which is high when compared to the national average of 15 to 1. This may indicate that some of your classes will be larger in size than they would be at other schools. However, upper level classes will probably be smaller.

Percent of Full-Time Faculty

When estimating how much access students will have to their teachers, some people like to look at what percentage of faculty members are full time. This is because part-time teachers may not have as much time to spend on campus as their full-time counterparts.

The full-time faculty percentage at University of California - Berkeley is 70%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  70 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at University of California - Berkeley

96% Freshmen Retention
74% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

The freshmen retention rate of 96% tells us that most first-year, full-time students like University of California - Berkeley enough to come back for another year. This is a fair bit higher than the national average of 68%. That's certainly something to check off in the good column about the school.

Freshmen Retention Rate  96 out of 100
0
100

Graduation Rate

The on-time graduation rate for someone pursuing a bachelor's degree is typically four years. This rate at UC Berkeley for first-time, full-time students is 74%, which is better than the national average of 33.3%.

On-Time Graduation Rate  74 out of 100
0
100

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at University of California - Berkeley.

University of California - Berkeley Undergraduate Student Diversity

29,300 Full-Time Undergraduates
62.2% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
54.0% Percent Women

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 30,799 undergraduates at UC Berkeley with 29,300 being full-time and 1,499 being part-time.

How Much Does University of California - Berkeley Cost?

$16,032 Net Price
21% Take Out Loans
$28,344 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of UC Berkeley is $16,032. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group. See the table below for the net price for different income groups.

Net Price by Income Group for UC Berkeley

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$8,450 $9,999 $13,423 $21,601 $33,896

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.Note that the net price is typically less than the published for a school. For more information on the sticker price of UC Berkeley, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.

Student Loan Debt

While almost two-thirds of students nationwide take out loans to pay for college, the percentage may be quite different for the school you plan on attending. At UC Berkeley, approximately 21% of students took out student loans averaging $7,086 a year. That adds up to $28,344 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at UC Berkeley is 1.8%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.

Get more details about paying for University of California - Berkeley.

How Much Money Do UC Berkeley Graduates Make?

$80,364 Avg Salary of Grads
High Earnings Boost
Although some majors pay more than others, students who graduate from UC Berkeley with a bachelor's degree go on to jobs where they make an average salary of $80,364 in their early years. That's great news for UC Berkeley students since it is 89% more than the average college graduate's salary of $42,485 per year.

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See which majors at University of California - Berkeley make the most money.

Location of University of California - Berkeley

California State
29,300 Full-Time Undergraduates
Midsize City Campus Setting
University of California - Berkeley is a public institution located in Berkeley, California. The surrounding area of the school is a good match for students who enjoy city life.

Get more details about the location of University of California - Berkeley.

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Contact details for UC Berkeley are given below.

Contact Details
Address: 200 California Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720
Phone: 510-642-6000
Website: www.berkeley.edu/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UCBerkeley
Twitter: https://twitter.com/UCBerkeley

University of California - Berkeley Majors

111 Majors With Completions
10,523 Undergraduate Degrees
4,086 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 111 majors graduated from University of California - Berkeley. Of these students, 10,523 received undergraduate degrees and 4,086 graduated with a master's or doctor's degree. The following table lists the most popular undergraduate majors along with the average salary graduates from those majors make.

Most Popular Majors Bachelor’s Degrees Average Salary of Graduates
Cell Biology & Anatomical Sciences 829 $35,329
Computer Science 797 $125,250
Economics 758 $71,330
Computer Information Systems 614 NA
Electrical Engineering 516 $126,367
Political Science & Government 496 $40,526
Natural Resources Conservation 482 $41,250
Business Administration & Management 392 $74,034
Sociology 356 $42,238
Child Development & Psychology 303 $30,168

Learn more about the majors offered at University of California - Berkeley along with which ones have the highest average starting salaries.

Online Learning at UC Berkeley

97% Take At Least One Class Online
74% Take All Classes Online

Online courses area a great option for busy, working students as well as for those who have scheduling conflicts and want to study on their own time. As time goes by, expect to see more and more online learning options become available.

In 2019-2020, 41,164 students took at least one online class at University of California - Berkeley. This is an increase from the 2,342 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year Took at Least One Online Class Took All Classes Online
2019-2020 41,164 31,439
2018-2019 2,342 870
2017-2018 1,581 651
2016-2017 1,581 651
2015-2016 775 503

Learn more about online learning at University of California - Berkeley.

If you’re considering University of California - Berkeley, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.

Curious on how these schools stack up against UC Berkeley? Pit them head to head with College Combat, our free interactive tool that lets you compare college on the features that matter most to you!

Notes and References

Footnotes

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

References

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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