The University of California—Berkeley is situated roughly 15 miles from San Francisco in what is known as the Bay Area. The public university, also commonly known as Berkeley or Cal, was founded in 1868. More than 70 percent of Berkeley students study at the undergraduate level. The university is divided into 14 colleges and schools, including the highly ranked Haas School of Business, College of Chemistry, College of Engineering, School of Public Health and School of Law. The academic calendar is semester-based and English is the language of instruction.

UC—Berkeley offers students around 350 degree programs. Some of the most popular majors for Berkeley undergraduates have included electrical engineering and computer science; economics; political science; business administration; and psychology. Around a quarter of undergraduate students live on campus, including some 95 percent of freshmen. Many graduate students live off campus, but they have the option to live in university-owned accommodations. Roughly 15 percent of the student body is international, and tuition and fees are higher for out-of-state students. Around 3,000 international scholars come to Berkeley each year in temporary teaching or research positions. Berkeley research is conducted not just within academic department labs and research centers but also in some of the school’s museums and university-managed biological field stations. Research in botany, zoology, ecosystems and forestry is undertaken at the remote field station sites. Berkeley researchers discovered several of the elements on the periodic table, including californium and berkelium.

University of California--Berkeley is ranked #4 in Best Global Universities. Schools are ranked according to their performance across a set of widely accepted indicators of excellence.