Research brief & institution hub

University of California-Berkeley

CALarge public institution · Overall rank #4 nationally

Data snapshot September 27, 2026Updated October 1, 2026

Azimuth ranks University of California-Berkeley #4 nationally.

Who it’s a good fit for

University of California-Berkeley is a public university in Berkeley, California, whose degree mix is led by Social Sciences, Computer & Information Sciences, and Engineering. Mobility is among the highest we track.

Graduates out-earn what predicts for students like them, and the model attributes part of the gap to the factors it measures, which adds, while the unexplained remainder subtracts. Most graduates are estimated to go into work rather than further study, so the four-year figure captures the earnings picture for the bulk of the class.

Students who arrive with Pell Grants finish below the rate for the entering cohort as a whole, and mobility is among the highest we track. The lowest income band pays well below the published cost, while the highest band pays closer to it, so the aid structure tilts toward families who need it.

The admission rate is below the median for comparable schools. A student drawn to the social sciences should go in knowing that the highest-earning fields are in engineering and computer science.

UC Berkeley at a glance

Admissions and outcomes

Admission rate^[1]: 11.0%
Six-year completion^[2]: 92.8%
Four-year earnings^[3]: $96,018

Cost and family borrowing

Average annual net price · $48–75K family income^[6]: $9,693
Median student debt^[4]: $13,000
Median Parent PLUS debt^[7]: $28,508

UC Berkeley rankings: how Azimuth assesses value^[5]

University of California-Berkeley is a public university in Berkeley, California, enrolling 33,068 undergraduates. Its composite standing sits near the very top of the Azimuth ranking among nonprofit four-year institutions.

The university admits 11.0% of applicants, a rate far below the 78.1% median for comparable institutions (same type and size). Among full-time first-year students, 96.8% return for a second year, against a peer median of 83.1%.

92.8% of the first-time, full-time cohort finish within six years, well above the peer median of 65.0%. An estimated 30.7% of entrants arrive as transfers or part-time students.

The four at University of California-Berkeley sit close together in the upper reaches of the ranking. Mobility is the strongest and affordability the weakest, with return and access between them. All four remain in the top tenth of nonprofit four-year institutions.

Azimuth places University of California-Berkeley in the 98th percentile for mobility among nonprofit four-year institutions, the university's strongest pillar. The access pillar reaches the 97th percentile, and the return pillar sits at the 96th percentile.

Affordability, at the 91st percentile, is the weakest of the four. Even so, every pillar for the university lands above the median among nonprofit four-year institutions.

Pell Grants reach 28.6% of undergraduates at University of California-Berkeley, a share that shapes its access profile. For access, Azimuth places the university at #41 among nonprofit four-year institutions.

Among Pell recipients, the six-year completion rate is 71.8%, a figure that trails the overall graduation rate (92.8%) by 21.0 percentage points. The mobility pillar ranks #26 among nonprofit four-year institutions. Graduates earn about $6,810 more than the model expects for similar students.

How value-added outcomes are assessed · How to interpret program rankings

UC Berkeley rankings in context
Geography	Rank
National	#4
California	#3
West	#3

Azimuth overall value rankings within each geographic comparison group.

National pillar percentiles

Economic mobility: National percentile: 98

Access & reach: National percentile: 97

Affordability: National percentile: 91

Return on investment: National percentile: 96

Top-ranked majors

Natural Resources Conservation and Research#1
Architecture#1
Ethnic, Cultural Minority, Gender, and Group Studies#1

This school’s three highest-ranked programs nationally. Each rank compares bachelor’s programs in the same field; field sizes differ.

Explore major rankings

01 / UC Berkeley briefing

UC Berkeley cost & financial aid^[6]^[7]

The published cost of attendance at University of California-Berkeley is $45,619, but the average aid recipient pays far less. In its 2025-26 Common Data Set, the university reported in-state tuition of $14,202, required fees of $4,262, and on-campus food and housing of $26,028 for the 2025-26 academic year.

Nonresidents face tuition of $53,472. After grants and scholarships, the average net price for aid recipients is $13,481.

That is $2,153 below the peer median of $15,634 for comparable institutions (same type and size). Financial aid reduces the published cost by an average of $32,138 for aid recipients.

Azimuth ranks the university #128 for affordability among nonprofit four-year institutions. The university reported that 0.0% of full-time undergraduates pay more than the base tuition and fees.

The published cost of attendance at University of California-Berkeley is $45,619. Azimuth ranks the university #128 for affordability among nonprofit four-year institutions.

After grants and scholarships, the average net price for aid recipients from families earning under $30,000 is $5,311, for those earning $48,001–$75,000 it is $9,693, and for families earning over $110,000 it is $34,529. The spread between the lowest and highest bands is $29,218.

Aid covers about 70% of the published cost for the average aid recipient, bringing the across all bands to $13,481. That is $2,153 below the $15,634 median for comparable institutions (same type and size).

Borrowers who finish carry a median of $13,000 in federal student loans, $7,076 below the $20,076 peer median. About 66.4% of federal aid recipients take federal loans.

Parents who borrow through the Parent PLUS program hold a separate median of $28,508. If repaid over ten years, the median federal student debt corresponds to an estimated payment of $148 a month.

Your family income

Choose a household income range to see estimated net price.

Reported average annual net price · $48–75K$9,693

After grants and scholarships. Your aid offer may differ.

Averages within each income band; individual aid packages vary.

Borrowing and repayment at UC Berkeley

Borrowers who finish carry a median of $13,000 in federal loans, $7,076 below the $20,076 median for comparable institutions (same type and size). If repaid over ten years, that debt corresponds to an estimated payment of $148 a month.

66.4% of federal aid recipients take federal loans. Parents who borrow hold a separate median of $28,508 in Parent PLUS loans.

In its 2025-26 Common Data Set, the university reported that 26% of graduates borrowed from any source, averaging $18,653 per borrower. 25% of graduates held federal loans averaging $13,659. Private loans were held by 2% of graduates, averaging $62,896.

The University of California-Berkeley combines strong earnings with relatively low debt. Graduates earn about $6,810 more than the model expects for similar students, an outcome in the 76th percentile nationally.

The median earnings four years after completion reach $96,018, placing the university in the 96th percentile among nonprofit four-year institutions. Earnings scenarios anchored on the program mix show a typical earnings level of $96,018.

The downside earnings scenario sits at $65,376, while the upside scenario reaches $192,078. Borrowers who complete a degree carry a median federal student debt of $13,000, which is below the $20,076 median for comparable institutions (same type and size). The estimated monthly payment if repaid over ten years is $148.

Median Parent PLUS borrowing, a separate parent-borrower population, is $28,508. The estimated monthly student payment if repaid over ten years is $148.

How Financial GPS measures payment burden · The four risk-and-reward zones

Financial GPS

What does repayment look like?

Institution median student debt: $13,000
Institution Parent PLUS debt: $28,508

Federal loans only; private or institutional loans aren’t included.

Estimated student payment · monthly: $148/mo
Estimated Parent PLUS payment · monthly: $362/mo

Payments use school-wide median balances, not a specific major’s.

Payment assumptions

Payments are 10-year standard payments on the median balance, before loan fees, used as a yardstick. Rates for newly issued loans may differ, and loans made after July 1, 2026 can repay over a longer term; existing loans keep their original fixed rates.

Explore your own numbers in Financial GPS

Read the full cost & aid brief

02 / UC Berkeley briefing

UC Berkeley career outcomes & earnings^[3]^[8]^[9]

University of California-Berkeley reports median earnings of $96,018 four years after completion. That institution-wide figure is a starting point; results for particular fields can differ.

Read earnings alongside retention and completion. Earnings among completers do not include every student who entered the institution, while the lower and higher planning estimates describe modeled mixes of program outcomes rather than observed salary percentiles.

What explains value-added earnings?

Program & institutional factors The part attributed to observed institutional characteristics.: +$13,101
Unexplained remainder What remains after the model’s observed factors.: -$6,291
Total modeled value added The modeled difference from expected earnings.: +$6,810

These are statistical model components, not proven causal effects; the remainder is not a direct measure of teaching quality.

Read the full outcomes brief

Read the full admissions brief

04 / UC Berkeley briefing

What are the largest majors at UC Berkeley?^[12]

The largest program records at University of California-Berkeley, by reported degrees awarded, are: Computer Science (848 awards); Economics (799 awards); Cell/Cellular Biology and Anatomical Sciences (767 awards); Computer and Information Sciences, General (669 awards); Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering (528 awards). These counts describe degree output in the source reporting period, not current enrollment or unique people.

Among those larger programs, reported median earnings four years after completion include Computer Science at $204,379; Economics at $135,050; Cell/Cellular Biology and Anatomical Sciences at $66,577. Program size and earnings answer different questions; the largest program need not have the highest earnings.

Keep individual program records separate from broader degree categories and from records for other reporting periods. Those views can describe different parts of the university’s academic mix.

Four-year earnings · six largest reported fields

Computer Science 848 degrees awarded: $204,379
Economics 799 degrees awarded: $135,050
Cell/Cellular Biology and Anatomical Sciences 767 degrees awarded: $66,577
Computer and Information Sciences, General 669 degrees awarded: Too few graduates to report
Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering 528 degrees awarded: $200,543
Political Science and Government 464 degrees awarded: $75,128

Fields selected by reported completions. Counts describe credentials awarded, not unique students or the earnings sample. Bars show median four-year earnings.

Read the full majors brief

05 / UC Berkeley briefing

How does UC Berkeley serve students from different backgrounds?

The mobility pillar at University of California-Berkeley sits in the 98th percentile among nonprofit four-year institutions. The six-year graduation rate for the first-time full-time cohort is 92.8%, while Pell recipients complete at 71.8% — a figure that sits below the overall rate by 21.0 percentage points.

Graduates earn about $6,810 more than the model expects for similar students, a result that lands in the 76th percentile nationally.

Azimuth places the access pillar of University of California-Berkeley in the 97th percentile among nonprofit four-year institutions. The public university admits 11.0% of applicants and enrolls 33,068 undergraduates.

Pell Grant recipients make up 28.6% of the undergraduate body, and an estimated 30.7% arrive as transfers or part-time students.

06 / UC Berkeley briefing

What colleges are similar to UC Berkeley?^[15]

The comparisons for University of California-Berkeley cover higher reported admission rates, similar admissions profiles, higher reported earnings at similar cost, lower reported cost with similar earnings and options in the same state or region. The similar-schools brief keeps these questions in separate groups, with related institutional profiles shown as another comparison.

Each group has its own candidate list and ordering. A high position within one group is not a rank against all the schools in the other groups, and a school can appear more than once for different reasons. Check the source definition and earnings period for the comparison you choose.

A shortlist for different decisions

Choose a row to compare the figures with UC Berkeley.

Admissions peerUniversity of California-Los Angeles9.0% admitted

Comparison with UC Berkeley
Measure	UC Berkeley	University of California-Los Angeles
Peer earnings · 4 years	$96,018	$77,677-$18,341 vs UC Berkeley
Average annual net price	$13,481	$12,548-$933 vs UC Berkeley · lower cost
Admission rate	11.0%	9.0%

Explore University of California-Los Angeles →

Higher-admission alternativeDominican University of California83.5% admitted

Comparison with UC Berkeley
Measure	UC Berkeley	Dominican University of California
Peer earnings · 4 years	$96,018	$95,437-$581 vs UC Berkeley
Average annual net price	$13,481	$35,333+$21,852 vs UC Berkeley · higher cost
Admission rate	11.0%	83.5%

Nearby alternativeSan Jose State UniversityNearby option · CA

Comparison with UC Berkeley
Measure	UC Berkeley	San Jose State University
Peer earnings · 4 years	$96,018	$89,614-$6,404 vs UC Berkeley
Average annual net price	$13,481	$13,760+$279 vs UC Berkeley · higher cost
Admission rate	11.0%	84.6%

Explore San Jose State University →

Higher-earnings alternativeStanford University$136,959 earnings

Comparison with UC Berkeley
Measure	UC Berkeley	Stanford University
Peer earnings · 4 years	$96,018	$136,959+$40,941 vs UC Berkeley
Average annual net price	$13,481	$13,807+$326 vs UC Berkeley · higher cost
Admission rate	11.0%	3.6%

Explore Stanford University →

Lower-cost alternativePrinceton University$6,128 average net price

Comparison with UC Berkeley
Measure	UC Berkeley	Princeton University
Peer earnings · 4 years	$96,018	$108,590+$12,572 vs UC Berkeley
Average annual net price	$13,481	$6,128-$7,353 vs UC Berkeley · lower cost
Admission rate	11.0%	4.6%

Explore Princeton University →

Similar profileSan Jose State UniversityMatched across several measures

Comparison with UC Berkeley
Measure	UC Berkeley	San Jose State University
Peer earnings · 4 years	$96,018	$89,614-$6,404 vs UC Berkeley
Average annual net price	$13,481	$13,760+$279 vs UC Berkeley · higher cost
Admission rate	11.0%	84.6%

Explore San Jose State University →

Each school is the first-ranked match in its category, not a recommendation across every measure. The same college may lead more than one category. Figures use the matching snapshot; earnings reflect the matched four-year cohort. — means unavailable.

Read the full similar schools brief

Data scope & methodology

Structured payloads generated September 27, 2026Governed hub narrative September 27, 2026Governed spoke corpus September 27, 2026

Four-year earnings describe cohorts of completers. Figures for other horizons describe different cohorts and are not joined into a career-growth projection.

Azimuth's overall rank and pillar percentiles come from the school profile. Absolute pillar ranks, city, enrollment and official-site links are shown only when structured data supplies them.

Detailed earnings, cost, admissions and program values come from the endpoint responsible for each measure. Missing values are not replaced with zero. Value-added estimates are model associations, not causal effects.

Figures are refreshed with each data release, at most a quarter apart. The underlying source dates can be earlier than the release.

Explanatory text is AI-assisted drafting checked against those figures; it is not an additional data source.

Analysis and methodology by Daniel Rogers, founder of College Azimuth.

Read the ranking methodology, data definitions and limitations · About College Azimuth

Read the analysis behind value-added earnings and the change to four-year graduate earnings. These articles are published on collegeazimuth.com.

Data notes & source fields

Scorecard field codes identify the underlying measure; Azimuth-derived values are labeled separately. Snapshot dates are not measurement years. Source populations and reporting periods differ across measures. Field definitions are in the U.S. Department of Education · College Scorecard documentation; notes with a different source link it below.

Admission rate. Reported applicants admitted; not a transfer-specific or individual admission probability.
Source fields: ADM_RATE
Six-year completion. First-time, full-time students completing at the institution within 150% of normal time, typically six years for a bachelor’s degree.
Source fields: C150_4
Four-year institutional earnings. Median earnings of graduates in the reported cohort who are working and not enrolled, four years after completion.
Source fields: MD_EARN_WNE_4YR
Median federal student debt. Federal student-loan debt among completers in the reported borrowing cohort. Excludes Parent PLUS and is not total debt across all students.
Source fields: GRAD_DEBT_MDN
National, regional and state ranks; pillar percentiles; major ranks. Derived scores within the stated eligible comparison set, not raw Scorecard fields. Major ranks compare institutions within a field; their denominators differ.
Source fields: Azimuth rankings
College Azimuth · Ranking methodology
Annual net price by family income. Average annual cost after grants and scholarships for the eligible first-time, full-time aid-recipient cohort. Public-school figures reflect in-state tuition. Includes living costs; these are averages, not medians or individual offers.
Source fields: NPT4_PUB/PRIV; NPT41_PUB/PRIV through NPT45_PUB/PRIV
Parent PLUS debt, payments and GPS illustration. Stored payments use Financial GPS loan and repayment assumptions. The adjustable spectrum applies the published framework to annual student payments divided by earnings minus an expense allowance; its initial allowance uses the frozen 2024 framework baseline. It is an illustration rather than a school rating. Parent PLUS uses the completer median where available, otherwise the all-borrower median; these describe different borrowing populations.
Source fields: PLUS_DEBT_ALL_COMP_MD; fallback PLUS_DEBT_ALL_MD; Azimuth Financial GPS calculations
College Azimuth · Financial GPS methodology
Downside and upside earnings; yellow band. The band spans the modeled lower and higher scenarios. It is not the P25–P75 interval for individual graduates. The median marker is the separately reported institutional median.
Source fields: Azimuth modeled program-mix scenarios
College Azimuth · Earnings scenario methodology
Value added and its components. Observed-factor attribution plus the unexplained remainder equals total modeled value added. These are associations, not proven causal effects; the remainder is not a direct measure of teaching quality.
Source fields: Azimuth statistical model
College Azimuth · Value-added methodology
SAT score range and reported midpoint. Reported scores of enrolled score-submitters, not admission cutoffs. The midpoint field is not necessarily the middle of the displayed range.
Source fields: SATVR25 + SATMT25; SATVR75 + SATMT75; SAT_AVG
First-year retention. Retention of the reported full-time cohort at four-year institutions.
Source fields: RET_FT4
Program earnings, completion counts and major-mix dots. Included bachelor’s programs have at least five reported completions. Counts are aggregated credentials, not unique people or an earnings sample. Major-mix dots group those counts by field of study; excluded programs are not zero activity.
Source fields: EARN_MDN_4YR; IPEDSCOUNT1; CIPCODE
College Scorecard · Field-of-study technical documentation
Pell recipients. Share of undergraduates receiving a Pell Grant in the reported academic year.
Source fields: PCTPELL
Entering students outside the first-time, full-time group. This is not an observed transfer-in rate. It includes part-time entrants and other entering-student attendance patterns.
Source fields: 1 − PFTFTUG1_EF
Peer earnings and signed differences. Differences are peer minus this school, from the same matching snapshot. A positive earnings difference does not mean the peer is better on every measure.
Source fields: Azimuth peer model using MD_EARN_WNE_4YR
College Azimuth · Comparison methodology

How to interpret program rankings