The University of California was chartered in 1868 and its flagship campus — envisioned as a "City of Learning" — was established at Berkeley, on San Francisco Bay. Today the world's premier public university and a wellspring of innovation, UC Berkeley occupies a 1,232 acre campus with a sylvan 178-acre central core. From this home its academic community makes key contributions to the economic and social well-being of the Bay Area, California, and the nation.

Most popular majors (as of Spring 2009): Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1,394 students; Molecular and Cell Biology, 1,135 students; Political Science, 965 students.

Rankings: UC Berkeley ranks first nationally in the number of graduate programs in the top 10 in their fields.

Research: Berkeley ranks first amongst U.S. universities in the number of its research programs considered "distinguished" (32), according to the most recent National Research Council study.

There are 7 Nobel Laureates, 28 MacArthur Fellows, and 4 Pulitzer Prize winners among its active faculty.

In 2007, the Association of Research Libraries ranked the UC Berkeley's University Library as the No. 1 public research university library in North America. You will see it with AIA guided tour on the first week of the program.

Famous UC Berkeley alumni including : Steve Wozniak ( Co-founder Apple computer ), Eric Schmidt ( Google, CEO ), Shantanu Narayen ( Adobe, CEO ), Bill Joy ( Co-founder Java & Sun Microsystem), Tom Anderson ( Founder My Space ), Scott Adams ( Dilbert comic strip creator ), Walter Haas ( President Levi's Strauss Jeans inc ), Donald Fisher ( Founder Gap Inc ), John Cho ( actor - Harold & Kumar ), Kevin Johnson ( NBA All star ), George Takei ( Startrek - original ), Gregory Peck ( Actor ), James Schamus ( Producer - Crouching Tiger ), Jason Kidd ( NBA all star ) and many others