Universities in California
19 indexed campuses in Pacific, 361,300 students in total. Ranked by the Campus Atlas quality index; tuition shown as the in-state / out-of-state band.
Top 10 by quality index
| # | Institution | City | Control | Students | Admitted | Tuition | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stanford | Stanford, CA | private | 17,500 | 3.9% | $62,000 | 96 |
| 2 | Caltech | Pasadena, CA | private | 2,300 | 3.1% | $61,000 | 89 |
| 3 | UC Berkeley | Berkeley, CA | public | 45,000 | 11% | $14,800 / $36,000 | 85 |
| 4 | UCLA | Los Angeles, CA | public | 46,500 | 9% | $13,500 / $35,500 | 84 |
| 5 | Harvey Mudd | Claremont, CA | private | 800 | — | $60,000 | 84 |
| 6 | Pomona | Claremont, CA | private | 1,500 | — | $60,000 | 78 |
| 7 | Claremont McKenna | Claremont, CA | private | 1,400 | — | $60,000 | 78 |
| 8 | USC | Los Angeles, CA | private | 49,500 | 10% | $62,000 | 77 |
| 9 | UC San Diego | La Jolla, CA | public | 42,000 | 24% | $14,300 / $36,000 | 76 |
| 10 | Scripps | Claremont, CA | private | 1,100 | — | $60,000 | 74 |
Largest campuses
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA · private · 50k students
Large private research university next to Hollywood: film, business, engineering and diplomacy with a huge alumni network in entertainment and tech.
University of California, Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA · public · 47k students
One of the most applied-to universities in the country, with leading programs in film, life sciences, engineering and nursing.
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA · public · 45k students
The flagship of the California system: enormous research output across engineering, computing, chemistry and the social sciences.
University of California, San Diego
La Jolla, CA · public · 42k students
Biotech, oceanography, engineering and physics cluster around the Scripps and Salk institutes in one of the densest research corridors in California.
University of California, Davis
Davis, CA · public · 40k students
Veterinary medicine, agriculture, food science and environmental engineering anchor a big UC campus.
University of California, Irvine
Irvine, CA · public · 36k students
Young UC campus with strengths in computer science, cognitive sciences, nursing and earth system science.
City clusters
- Claremont5 campuses · 5.3k students
- Los Angeles3 campuses · 97k students
- Pasadena2 campuses · 4.2k students
- Berkeley1 campus · 45k students
- La Jolla1 campus · 42k students
- Davis1 campus · 40k students
- Irvine1 campus · 36k students
- Riverside1 campus · 27k students
- Santa Barbara1 campus · 26k students
- Santa Cruz1 campus · 20k students
Guides about California
- ResearchStanford won a $25 million federal centre for AI in dementia careA five-year National Institute on Aging award, an AI-run virtual biotech in Science, and the deadline calendar that decides who benefits.
- Rankings & MethodologyCaltech jumped to fifth in the US News list - and won a $1 billion telescopeThe institute's biggest ranking climb in more than 25 years landed the same week NASA selected PRIMA, with JPL building it and IPAC running the science centre.
Enrolment, tuition and acceptance figures are rounded planning values compiled in 2025/26 for orientation. Verify exact numbers with each university's official fact sheet before you apply.