Demographics at Berkeley
UC Berkeley is not an Ivy League institution, despite being a highly regarded university with exceptional chances for students. Private colleges in the Northeast make up the Ivy League. The eight prestigious Ivies are Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, UPenn, and Yale. Although the group was formerly a part of the Ivy League NCAA Division I athletic conference, they are now regarded as the pinnacle of American and international institutions.
Do you think there is a correlation between the demographics at Berkeley and its non-membership in the Ivy League? Does this affect the university’s student application positively or negatively?
Ivy League is now a term used to describe extremely prominent and competitive universities. Each Ivy League school accepted between 3% and 9% of candidates for the Class of 2025. The admissions process is extremely competitive as a result of the schools’ excellent academic standing, successful graduate programs, and overall quality of life. Additionally, the substantial endowments that each Ivy receives ensure that they can offer students extensive financial aid and services.
Although the Ivies are regarded as academic and research powerhouses on a global scale, other highly regarded colleges, such as MIT and Stanford, are not a part of the Ivy League. Known for their effective academic programs, the public universities that make up the UC system are dispersed throughout California.
These institutions are substantially bigger and have more affordable tuition than the best private universities because they are public universities. Academic rigor and top-notch instruction in a variety of academic subjects are hallmarks of UC Berkeley. Furthermore, Berkeley receives over 85,000 applications annually compared to the Ivy League institutions’ 40,000 or fewer. This will eventually sum up a huge admissions number when it comes to the student demographics at Berkeley.
Due to its outstanding list of famous alumni, which includes heads of state and renowned scientists, UC Berkeley is frequently mistaken for an Ivy League university. Numerous Nobel Laureates, Turing Award winners, and recipients of MacArthur Genius Grants are among the graduates on this list, all of whom have made important contributions to society. The university has ties to over 70 Nobel Laureates in total, surpassing many Ivy League institutions.
Similar to Ivy League universities, UC Berkeley has an outstanding faculty with academics who are leaders in their disciplines. All five colleges’ programs are famous for their high academic requirements. Additionally, there are chances for research in all fields of study for undergraduates to explore.
UC Berkeley invests upwards of $700 million annually in research and is ranked among R1 Doctoral Universities with very strong research activities. The extent of research opportunities at UC Berkeley is comparable to the Ivies due to its size, resources, and capacity.
UC Berkeley is renowned for its top-notch academics, research, and graduation outcomes, as well as for its successful sporting program. One hundred eighty-eight national championships have been won by Golden Bear student-athletes in sports like boxing, track and field, tennis, gymnastics, swimming, and more. Together, students and graduates have won 207 Olympic medals, achieving achievement on a worldwide scale as well.
What are the student demographics at Berkeley?
What are the student demographics at Berkeley? At UC Berkeley, there are 42,327 total students enrolled, including 30,799 undergraduate and 11,528 graduate students. The school has 20,321 male and 22,006 female students, divided by gender. There are 3,525 part-time students and 38,802 full-time students, according to attendance status.
Compared to the public, 4-year colleges in California, UC Berkeley has a significantly large student body. Its student body is sizable compared to other colleges with comparable rankings, like the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and the University of California, Los Angeles (average population is 37,597). Thirty-one thousand four hundred thirty-nine students are enrolled in the online degree and certificate programs offered by UC Berkeley.
What is the enrollment by attending status and gender at Berkeley?
What is the enrollment by attending status and gender at Berkeley? AdmissionSight’s data are as follows:
There are 20,321 male students and 22,006 female students enrolled at the institution. Since there are far fewer male students at the school, the male-to-female ratio is 0.92 to 1, which is unusually high (the average male-to-female ratio overall U.S. colleges is 0.75 to 1). The student population is broken down by gender and attendance status in the table.
Undergraduate:
| Total | Full-time | Part-time | |
| Total | 30,799 | 29,300 | 1,499 |
| Men | 14,178 | 13,478 | 700 |
| Women | 16,621 | 15,822 | 799 |
Graduate:
| Total | Full-time | Part-time | |
| Total | 11,528 | 9,502 | 2,026 |
| Men | 6,143 | 4,872 | 1,271 |
| Women | 5,385 | 4,630 | 755 |
Demographics at Berkeley by Transfer Students (Undergraduate)
Two thousand four hundred ninety-six of the 30,799 undergraduate students enrolled have transferred from other schools. 8.10% of the student body is made up of transfer-ins. Two thousand three hundred fifty-five students have enrolled full-time, while 141 have enrolled part-time.
What is the enrollment by race/ethnicity at Berkeley?
What is the enrollment by race/ethnicity at Berkeley? The university has 12,931 (30.55%) Asian students and 10,761 (25.42%) White students, which are the top two most represented groups. UC Berkeley’s diverse population by race is depicted in the following tables:
Undergraduate:
| Total | Men | Women | |
| American Indian or Alaska Native | 25 | 10 | 15 |
| Asian | 10,884 | 5,233 | 5,651 |
| Black or African American | 658 | 259 | 399 |
| Hispanic | 5,751 | 2,300 | 3,451 |
| Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander | 50 | 22 | 28 |
| White | 6,726 | 3,099 | 3,627 |
| Two or More Races | 1,815 | 766 | 1,049 |
| Race/Ethnicity Unknown | 1,010 | 489 | 521 |
| Total | 30,799 | 14,178 | 16,621 |
Graduate:
| Total | Men | Women | |
| American Indian or Alaska Native | 34 | 17 | 17 |
| Asian | 2,047 | 1,021 | 1,026 |
| Black or African American | 367 | 178 | 189 |
| Hispanic | 1,133 | 551 | 582 |
| Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander | 6 | 3 | 3 |
| White | 4,035 | 2,072 | 1,963 |
| Two or More Races | 513 | 216 | 297 |
| Race/Ethnicity Unknown | 426 | 253 | 173 |
| Total | 11,528 | 6,143 | 5,385 |
What is the enrollment by age of students at Berkeley?
What is the enrollment by age of students at Berkeley? There are 4,223 students above the age of thirty and 32,065 students under the age of twenty-five. In particular, 13 students are older than 65, and 855 students are under the age of 18. The University of California-Berkeley student population by age is displayed in the tables below.
Undergraduate
Eight hundred fifty-five students under the age of 18 years and 8 students over the age of 65 years are enrolled in undergraduate programs. UC Berkeley has 28,982 undergraduate students aged under 25 and 1,817 students aged 25 and beyond.
| Total | Men | Women | |
| Total | 30,799 | 14,178 | 16,621 |
| Under 18 | 855 | 356 | 499 |
| 18-19 | 11,962 | 5,409 | 6,553 |
| 20-21 | 12,821 | 5,707 | 7,114 |
| 22-24 | 3,344 | 1,719 | 1,625 |
| 25-29 | 1,094 | 610 | 484 |
| 30-34 | 390 | 213 | 177 |
| 35-39 | 161 | 87 | 74 |
| 40-49 | 115 | 60 | 55 |
| 50-64 | 49 | 15 | 34 |
| 65 and over | 8 | 2 | 6 |
| Total | 30,799 | 14,178 | 16,621 |
Graduate
There are 8,445 graduate students over the age of 25 and 3,083 graduate students under the age of 25.
| Total | Men | Women | |
| Total | 11,528 | 6,143 | 5,385 |
| 18-19 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| 20-21 | 193 | 101 | 92 |
| 22-24 | 2,887 | 1,462 | 1,425 |
| 25-29 | 4,945 | 2,518 | 2,427 |
| 30-34 | 2,182 | 1,244 | 938 |
| 35-39 | 762 | 453 | 309 |
| 40-49 | 437 | 282 | 155 |
| 50-64 | 114 | 80 | 34 |
| 65 and over | 5 | 2 | 3 |
| Total | 11,528 | 6,143 | 5,385 |
Online Class Student Population
Another contributing factor to the demographics at Berkeley, 41,164 students (or 97.25%) complete their coursework online. Thirty-one thousand four hundred thirty-nine of them are enrolled in only online classes (no in-person presence is necessary), and others are combining online and in-person learning. The number of students who registered for one or more online courses is shown in the tables below.
Twenty-two thousand five hundred sixty-three of the enrolling students are from California, where the University of California-Berkeley is located, while 4,955 are from other states.
Type of Enrollment:
| Total | Undergraduate | Graduate | |
| Total | 42,327 | 30,799 | 11,528 |
| Enrolled Exclusively in Online Classes | 31,439 | 25,059 | 6,380 |
| Enrolled Some in Online Classes | 9,725 | 5,718 | 4,007 |
| Not Enrolled in Online Classes | 1,163 | 22 | 1,141 |
Student’s Residence:
| Total | Undergraduate | Graduate | |
| Total (Enrolled Excl.) | 31,439 | 25,059 | 6,380 |
| California Residents | 22,563 | 19,582 | 2,981 |
| Other State in U.S. | 4,955 | 2,704 | 2,251 |
| Outside of U.S. | 3,920 | 2,773 | 1,147 |
| Unknown | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Economic Diversity of Students at Berkeley
Median Household Income: $77,601 per year
According to the receipt of Federal Pell Grant Aid, 21% of students might be categorized as from low-income families.
Graduation Rate at Berkeley
In comparison to the public, four-year colleges in California, UC Berkeley’s graduation rate was 92.34% last year, which is incredibly high (most students finished on time). Five thousand fifteen students have finished their degree/certificate programs among 5,431 candidates. Its graduation rate is ordinary when compared to other colleges with similar rankings, where the average graduation rate is 92.00%.
Total Number of Participants and Graduation Rate
The result metrics gathered by AdmissionSight are listed in the following table, together with the total number of University of California, Berkeley students. Five thousand fifteen students have finished. In addition, 363 students left the institution before finishing their studies, leaving 53 pupils still enrolled.
| Total | Bachelor’s or Equivalent | |
| Total (Candidates) | 5,431 | 5,431 |
| Completers | 5,015 (92.34%) | 5,015 |
| Still Enrolled | 53 (0.98%) | 53 |
| No Longer Enrolled | 363 (6.68%) | 363 |
Rate of Graduation by Time Spent Completing a Bachelor’s Degree
The number of participants and graduation rate are broken down by completion time in the table below. The demographics at Berkeley students who graduate are shown by the number in parentheses. The figures and rates for the 125% and 150% typical times aren’t totaled; rather, they represent the increased graduates and completion rates for those periods. For instance, 4,129 students have graduated in four years, and 776 more have graduated in five years.
| Total | Bachelor’s or Equivalent | |
| Total (Candidates) | 5,431 | 5,431 |
| Completers | 5,015 (92.34%) | 5,015 |
| Still Enrolled | 53 (0.98%) | 53 |
| No Longer Enrolled | 363 (6.68%) | 363 |
Rate of Graduation by Race/Ethnicity
| Total | Men | Women | |
| 100% normal time (in 4 Years) | 4,129 (76.03%) | 1,824 (72.24%) | 2,305 (79.32%) |
| 125% normal time (in 5 Years) | 776 (14.29%) | 408 (16.16%) | 368 (12.66%) |
| 150% normal time (in 6 Years) | 110 (2.03%) | 60 (2.38%) | 50 (1.72%) |
What is the first-year retention rate at UC Berkeley?
What is the first-year retention rate at UC Berkeley? The University of California, Berkeley’s retention rate for first-year students is 97%. The retention rate is the proportion of first-time, first-year undergraduate students who return to their original institution the following academic year. A college’s retention rate is a reliable indicator of how content or happy its students are there.
A diverse group of students can receive a top-notch education at the flagship site of the expansive University of California system for a fraction of the cost of an exclusive private school.
The University of California, Berkeley offers top-notch academics, fantastic extracurricular activities, a lovely location in the Bay Area, affordable tuition, and rich heritage. The tuition and fees that Cal’s 31,000 undergraduates pay each year are slightly over $14,000 ($29,000 more for non-California residents), but they get an education that is arguably more comprehensive than what they would get at archrival Stanford.
To help low- and moderate-income families pay for college, the federal government offers Pell Grants, which are awarded to about 21% of incoming freshmen and 43% of transfer students at Cal. These pupils succeed on their own because they are so driven. On average, alumni of Cal earn enough to recoup their education expenses in 1.45 years. Low-income Golden Bears, as they are known, perform even better, wiping off their college debt in just 0.7 years.
How much do UC Berkeley graduates make?
How much do UC Berkeley graduates make? Alumni at UC Berkeley make a lot of money compared to alumni of other private and public universities. Despite the fact that income differs depending on the major and career chosen, earnings for all majors eventually approach the median.
Berkeley graduates have very high early-career wages, which quickly overcome the short-run financial challenges caused by tuition and other costs, said a UC Berkeley doctoral candidate in economics who is researching higher education, adding, “relative to other public institutions, those wages are high.”
What careers do students pursue upon graduation?
Students at UC Berkeley have access to a huge selection of majors. The idea of a profession is on many students’ minds before they even arrive on campus because many students must apply to the college of their choice before beginning as freshmen.
When in reality, students are only 18, 19, or 20 years old and have no idea what their future professional path would include; they feel tremendous pressure to have the answers. Students can clarify what they want or do not want out of their major by using their campus experiences with classes, extracurricular activities, and friends.
28% of alumni from the College of Chemistry matriculate to another university right after completing their undergraduate studies, making them the group most likely to do so. Alumni from Haas and engineering are most likely to find employment right after graduation. UC Berkeley has participated in a larger trend in institutions over the past ten years toward specialization within technical disciplines.
Shifts in technology and a high level of student interest are the driving forces behind recently developed majors like data science and institutions like the UC Berkeley Advanced Media Institute, which teaches students interested in digital journalism. As was already said, technical majors with greater specialization—like electrical engineering and computer sciences—are closely associated with particular types of post-graduation professions.
Even though the majority of engineering students opt to become engineers, there is not as much of a correlation between major and profession as students may think. Humanities majors frequently choose to pursue a larger range of career options after graduation, including teaching, nonprofit work, and law school.
After a few years, an alum’s major no longer closely correlates with their line of work. Though it’s unlikely that their success in their chosen fields can be attributed to the major-related classes they took, UC Berkeley alumni frequently achieve success. Instead, it just seems that, on the whole, the knowledge and experiences that young people acquire at Berkeley are of quite high value.
In many ways, UC Berkeley offers the advantages of an elite private university education, including high career earnings, outstanding graduate school placement, and a wide range of academic programs in both the arts and the sciences. Students at UC Berkeley develop their interests and talents while in college, allowing them to pursue a variety of occupations regardless of their degree.
But UC Berkeley is still fundamentally a public institution with the goal of making education accessible, according to its mission statement. Recent years have seen pressure on that objective due to dwindling income and the effects of COVID-19. The position of UC Berkeley in the educational system will be determined in large part over the coming years.
Ranking, Acceptance Rate, and More at Berkeley
Numerous prestigious publications give UC Berkeley excellent marks on the national and international levels. UC Berkeley is ranked first among US public colleges and fourth among US institutions in the QS World University Rankings. Research, employability, learning opportunities, and diversity all factor into placement. With the exception of Harvard, this high placing shows that UC Berkeley is ranked higher than any other Ivy League institution.
In its 2020 worldwide rankings, US News ranks UC Berkeley as the top public school and fourth overall. The school is the only one ahead of Harvard, MIT, and Stanford in the total rankings. This ranking considers a number of variables, including reputation overall and standing in international research. Numerous undergraduate programs, such as those in chemistry, biotechnology, ecology, economics, and physics, have excellent rankings.
UC Berkeley is regarded as one of the six mega brands in the world by Times Higher Education. The study of more than 10,000 academics aims to reflect the perception of university reputation on a global scale. The other chosen university superbrands are Stanford, MIT, Cambridge, Harvard, and Oxford. UC Berkeley emerges as the most well-rounded university in the humanities, business, and STEM fields based on a measurement of strength across several topic areas.
UC Berkeley is one of the nation’s most selective colleges, with a 16% acceptance rate. Every year, the school faces greater competition, and in 2021, there were a record number of applications. This is probably because the testing requirement was removed, which promotes a wider range of students to apply. Based on student demand, the selectivity varies from college to college.
If you’re looking for guidance when it comes to the admission process to gain entry into one of the elite universities in the country, we’ve got you covered! At AdmissionSight, we have over 10 years of experience guiding students through the competitive admissions process. We will be able to assist you in preparing your admission requirements. Feel free to set up an appointment today to book your initial consultation.
