College of the Day: UC-Berkeley

University of California-Berkeley

Quick Facts:

Location: Berkeley, CA

Established:1868

Students Enrolled: 32,354

Applicants: 49,333

Male/Female Ratio: 45/55

The University of California at Berkeley is located on 1,200 acres on a hill over looking the San Francisco Bay.  The beautiful park-like location in an oasis in the busy area.  Berkeley has previously been known for it's political activism in the 1960s, but today the school is a lot more tame, although there are still plenty of flower children.

Berkeley is one of the top ranked and hardest universities to get accepted to in the United States. Students who are accepted are the top in their high school class.  There is an intense academic climate at Berkeley.  Students say that it can be very stressful, but it pays off to be taught by some of the brightest minds in the country.

Berkeley offers six different undergraduate colleges all with different general requirements.  Most of the programs at Berkeley are renowned and many are the best in the country such as the engineering and architecture programs.

Student Life:

Berkeley students are guaranteed on campus housing for their first two years, but after that students find it hard to find rooms on campus.  The campus only has enough housing for twenty-six percent of the  student body.  There is plenty of apartments and student-housing projects for students to live in off campus for a decent price.

Students have easy access to San Francisco and the Bay area through the BART subway system, but students find that their is plenty of social life and entertainment on campus.  Berkeley is a quintessential college town; there are plenty of bookstores, cafes, and coffee shops for students to hang out in.  Greek life has started to grow at Berkeley, but still only ten percent of the student body participates.  

Applying:

If you are interested in applying to the University of California at Berkeley you should have a Critical Reading SAT Score of 590-720 and a Math SAT Score of 630-770. ACT Scores for all sections should be at least 27-33. Berkeley typically has at least 61,000 applicants each year with only 18% of applicants being accepted.  

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 Source: Fiske, Edward B. "UC-Berkeley." Fiske Guide to Colleges. Vol. 2015. N.p: 90-92. Print