Berkeley, CA 94720, Top 100 Universities in USA 2014 – Rank – 4, University of California, Berkeley in  California

The University of California, Berkeley (also referred to as UC Berkeley; Berkeley; California; or simply Cal),^[8] is a public research university located in Berkeley, California. The university occupies 1,232 acres (499 ha) on the eastern side of the San Francisco Bay with the central campus resting on 178 acres (72 ha).^[4] Berkeley is the flagship institution of the 10 campus University of California system and one of only two UC campuses operating on a semester calendar, the other being UC Merced.

Established in 1868 as the result of the merger of the private College of California and the public Agricultural, Mining, and Mechanical Arts College in Oakland, Berkeley is the oldest institution in the UC system and offers approximately 350 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines.^[9] Berkeley has been charged with providing both “classical” and “practical” education for the state’s people.^[10][11] Berkeley co-manages three United States Department of Energy National Laboratories, including the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy.

Berkeley faculty, alumni, and researchers have won 72 Nobel Prizes (including 30 alumni Nobel laureates), 9 Wolf Prizes, 7 Fields Medals, 15 Turing Awards, 45 MacArthur Fellowships,^[12] 20 Academy Awards, and 11 Pulitzer Prizes. To date, UC Berkeley scientists have discovered 6 chemical elements of the periodic table (californium, seaborgium, berkelium, einsteinium, fermium, lawrencium). Along with Berkeley Lab, UC Berkeley researchers have discovered 16 chemical elements in total – more than any other university in the world.^[13] Berkeley is a founding member of the Association of American Universities and continues to have very high research activity with $652.4 million in research and development expenditures in 2009.^[14][15] Berkeley physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer was the scientific director of the Manhattan Project that developed the first atomic bomb in the world, which he personally headquartered at Los Alamos, New Mexico, during World War II. Faculty member Edward Teller was (together with Stanislaw Ulam) the “father of thehydrogen bomb“. Former United States Secretary of Energy and Nobel laureate Steven Chu (PhD 1976), was Director of Berkeley Lab from 2004–09.

Known as the California Golden Bears (often shortened to “Cal Bears” or just “Cal”), the athletic teams are members of both thePacific-12 Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation in the NCAA.

Rankings and reputation

Berkeley was listed as a “Public Ivy” in Richard Mull’s 1985 Public Ivies.^[67] In the 2013 Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings Berkeley was ranked the world’s 5th most prestigious university and one of six globally recognized “super brands.”^[68]Among world universities, Berkeley had the 2nd highest number of academic programs rated in the Top Ten in their field by QS.^[69] In 2009 the Center for Measuring University Performance placed Berkeley 9th among national research universities.^[70] The 2014 annual ranking by U.S. News & World Report ranked Berkeley first among public universities and tied for 20th among national universities in the U.S.^[71] In 2014 Kiplinger ranked Berkeley 9th out of the top 100 best-value public colleges and universities in the nation, and 2nd in California.^[72] The Princeton Review ranks Berkeley as a “college with a conscience”^[73] and the 5th best value in public colleges.^[74] For “Best Undergraduate Teaching,” UC Berkeley was ranked #7 in the nation and tied with Duke University.