‘U.S. News’ ranks UC Berkeley No. 2 public school in the country

For over two decades, Berkeley has almost always been ranked as the No. 1 or No. 2 public school in the country.

Students walk under Sather Gate on UC Berkeley's campus — “Berkeley continues to stand out as a world-class institution of higher education and research,” said Chancellor Rich Lyons, of this year's U.S. college rankings by *U.S. News and World Report.*

September 23, 2024

UC Berkeley is the No. 2 public school in the country for 2025, according to the latest American college rankings by U.S. News and World Report, which were announced today (Monday, Sept. 23, 2024).

Last year, Berkeley tied first with UCLA, which came in first this year. During the past 20 years, Berkeley has been named the No. 1 public school in the U.S. 15 times by the publication, and was in the No. 2 slot several times during that period. Berkeley also earned U.S. News’ top spot among all ranked colleges for its environmental/environmental health and data analytics/science programs.

Today’s results echo other national and global rankings that place Berkeley in the top tier of American universities. Earlier this month, Berkeley was named the country’s No. 1 public university in the Wall Street Journal‘s 2025 Best Colleges in the U.S. ranking. It earned the same distinction last month in Forbes magazine’s list of America’s top colleges. And earlier this month, a PitchBook ranking found that Berkeley generates more startup founders, companies and female entrepreneurs than any other school in the world.

“Berkeley continues to stand out as a world-class institution of higher education and research,” said Chancellor Rich Lyons. “Rankings like these recognize exactly what we know to be true: that Berkeley remains the best place in the world for our brilliant students and faculty to do groundbreaking work. We’ll keep striving together to support our diverse Berkeley community, making this an even better institution than it already is. As I’ve said many times before, we’re just getting started.”

Among Berkeley’s many accomplishments are 26 faculty Nobel laureates, 400 degree programs — including 30 graduate programs ranked in the Top 10 by U.S. News and World Report last April — and 246 all-time Olympic medals.

These recent rankings arrive at an exciting time on campus. Berkeley researchers continue to make groundbreaking discoveries in cutting-edge fields like artificial intelligence, neuroscience and data science. This year, Berkeley joined the Atlantic Coast Conference, a move to secure Cal Athletics’ long-term stability and preserve its important role on campus. And a flurry of major construction projects are springing up across campus, including new student housing, a new undergraduate academic building and a home for the new College of Computing, Data Science, and Society.

In today’s announcement by U.S. News, Berkeley also made the top five in 28 of the 44 other categories, including entrepreneurship and undergraduate psychology programs. Across the UC system, every undergraduate campus was ranked by U.S. News among the top 100 public and private universities, combined. UC Berkeley came in at No. 17 in the combined rankings.

For the past 10 years, U.S. News has named Berkeley the top public university in the world in its annual global universities ranking, which are issued later in the fall.

As in previous years, U.S. News made revisions to this year’s ranking methodology. The 2025 list no longer considers six-year graduation rates of first-generation students, and it gives extra weight to the graduation rates of Pell grant recipients, among other changes.