University of California - Berkeley Data & Information Overview

This overview covers the essential stats on University of California - Berkeley, including its rankings, majors, diversity, and more. Want to know more about a specific stat? Just click on its tile, and you'll go to a page that goes more in-depth on that subject. You can also use the links below to go directly to any section on this page.

• Rankings
• Admission and Acceptance
• Faculty
• Retention and Graduation Rates
• Diversity
• Cost
• Student Debt
• Average Earnings
• Location
• Majors
• Online Learning
• Related Schools

How Well Is University of California - Berkeley Ranked?

2021 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 289 badges in the 2021 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is non-professional general legal studies.

Overall Quality

UC Berkeley is ranked #69 out of 1,715 schools in the nation for overall quality on College Factual's 2021 Best Colleges list. This lands it a coveted spot in the top 5% of all colleges and universities in the country.

UC Berkeley is also ranked #10 out of 116 schools in California.

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

Is It Hard to Get Into UC Berkeley?

Acceptance Rate

University of California - Berkeley has a very low acceptance rate of 17%, making it one of the most selective out of all the colleges and universities in the nation. It's probably a good idea to apply to other schools in addition to UC Berkeley just in case you don't make the cut.

Average Test Scores

About 73% 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 630 and 720. Math scores were between 630 and 760.

UC Berkeley received ACT scores from 58% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 30 and 34.

Learn more about University of California - Berkeley admissions.

University of California - Berkeley Faculty

Student to Faculty Ratio

With a student to faculty ratio of 18 to 1, University of California - Berkeley is about average in this regard as the nationwide rate is 15 to 1. While this does not translate directly to class size, it's a good indicator of how much time professors will have to spend with their students on a one-on-one basis.

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 67%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Retention and Graduation Rates at University of California - Berkeley

Freshmen Retention Rate

University of California - Berkeley has a freshmen retention rate of 97%. That's a good sign that full-time students like the school and their professors enough to want to stick around for another year. It's also a sign that the admissions team did a good job in choosing applicants who were a good fit for the school.

Graduation Rate

Students are considered to have graduated on time if they finish their studies within four years. At UC Berkeley the on-time graduation rate of first-time, full-time students is 73%. That is great when compared to the national average of 33.3%

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

Excellent Overall Diversity at UC Berkeley

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 30,853 undergraduates at UC Berkeley with 29,570 being full-time and 1,283 being part-time.

UC Berkeley Diversity Score

For each college and university, College Factual calculates an overall diversity score that takes four factors into account: gender, ethnicity, age, and home location of the student. Then, the schools with the best mixtures of students with respect to these factors are ranked the highest.

With an overall score of 97.47 out of 100, UC Berkeley is one of the most diverse schools in the nation.

Get more detailed information on diversity and student demographics at University of California - Berkeley.

How Much Does University of California - Berkeley Cost?

The overall average net price of UC Berkeley is $14,846. 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 +
$8,043	$9,740	$13,750	$20,774	$31,177

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

It's not uncommon for college students to take out loans to pay for school. In fact, almost 66% of students nationwide depend at least partially on loans. At UC Berkeley, approximately 21% of students took out student loans averaging $6,175 a year. That adds up to $24,700 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at UC Berkeley is 2.0%. 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?

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 $64,700 in their early years. That's great news for UC Berkeley students since it is 63% more than the average college graduate's salary of $39,802 per year.

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

Location of University of California - Berkeley

University of California - Berkeley is a public institution situated 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.

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

During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 110 majors graduated from University of California - Berkeley. Of these students, 9,627 received undergraduate degrees and 4,563 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
Economics	719	$63,000
Computer Science	701	$114,800
Cell Biology & Anatomical Sciences	687	$34,900
Natural Resources Conservation	546	$44,100
Political Science & Government	478	$40,100
Electrical Engineering	442	$116,600
Business Administration & Management	344	$76,600
Cognitive Science	342	$44,300
Sociology	313	$38,700
Applied Mathematics	311	$61,500

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

Online learning is becoming popular at even the oldest colleges and universities in the United States. Not only are online classes great for returning adults with busy schedules, they are also frequented by a growing number of traditional students.

In 2017-2018, 1,581 students took at least one online class at University of California - Berkeley. This is the same number of students who took online classes the previous year.

Year	Took at Least One Online Class	Took All Classes Online
2017-2018	1,581	651
2016-2017	1,581	651
2015-2016	775	503
2014-2015	1,191	447
2013-2014	755	249

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

Related Schools

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

• University of California - Los Angeles
• University of California - San Diego
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
• University of Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh Campus

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

• National Center for Education Statistics
• College Scorecard
• Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System
• Image Credit: By LAgirl5252 under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.