The University of California, Berkeley, has a lively and determined vibe. It started as a small school for wealthy people in Northern California but became the main site for the University of California system. It got bigger and more diverse in the late 1800s and early 1900s. In the 1960s and 1970s, Berkeley became known for activism and new ideas. There was a famous protest called the Free Speech Movement.
Now, Berkeley is known for its research. It’s made important discoveries in science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM), which has helped it become one of the best public universities in the United States.
Professors at Berkeley have won 33 Nobel Prizes, 12 Turing Awards, 6 Academy Awards, 13 Fields Medals, and 10 Pulitzer Prizes. Some famous people who have studied there include Steve Wozniak, one of the founders of Apple, Eric Schmidt from Google, actor John Cho, and Jennifer Granholm, who used to be the Governor of Michigan and later worked as the Secretary of Energy.
Berkeley has a big community with 32,500 students and 12,800 postgraduates. Undergraduates study in different schools like Haas School of Business, College of Chemistry, College of Engineering, College of Environmental Design, College of Letters and Science, and Rausser College of Natural Resources to get their bachelor’s degrees.
Unlike many other top schools, Berkeley’s first school wasn’t the College of Letters and Science, which started in 1915. Instead, it was the College of Chemistry, established in 1872. The university’s long focus on chemistry and chemical engineering is still recognized nationally today.
The main subjects you’ll study at Berkeley are based on UC-wide rules about basic writing and American history and institutions. You usually have to pass tests in these subjects before you get admitted. Also, everyone has to take classes on American cultures. These classes help you think carefully about important topics like race, culture, and ethnicity in American society. Each school and department also sets its own standards for what you need to learn.
Berkeley was started in 1868 as the “University of California” at Oakland. Within a year of its start, the young university became open to both men and women and moved to its current campus in Berkeley, California. Other schools in the UC system were initially connected to Berkeley, like the University Farm near Sacramento, which later became UC Davis, and the Los Angeles State Normal School, which later became UCLA.
By World War II, the Berkeley faculty had discovered 16 chemical elements, more than any other university in the world. Berkeley’s reputation for scientific progress led to its significant involvement in the war effort through the Manhattan Project. Professor J. Robert Oppenheimer, known as “the father of the atomic bomb,” was chosen as the project’s scientific director.
Today, the R1 research university gets over $1 billion each year for research and has labs and organisations like the Space Sciences Lab, the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, the Institute of International Studies, and the Center for the Built Environment.
CalTV, the TV station run by students, a small but strong Greek life scene, and a good variety of cultural, political, and activist groups who continue the Berkeley tradition of community involvement all add to campus life.
A whopping 125,922 students applied to join Berkeley’s Class of 2027. Out of these, 14,772 students got accepted, making the acceptance rate drop to a record low of 11.2%. Berkeley’s Office of Undergraduate Admissions mentioned that Berkeley introduced the holistic review process at UC, now adopted by most UC campuses. This thorough evaluation method aims for a diverse student body, combining achievements similar to Ivy League schools, research excellence like MIT or CalTech, and the diversity of a large public university.
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