University of California-Berkeley

UC-Berkeley, or Cal for short, is one of the most selective public colleges in the country, with an acceptance rate of about 17%. About 91% of freshmen graduate within six years, which is a bit more than comparable elite public schools. A respected research institution, Cal gives students access to a faculty that includes numerous MacArthur fellows, Pulitzer Prize winners, and Nobel laureates, including biologist Randy Schekman, who received the 2013 Nobel Prize for medicine, and astrophysicist George Smoot, who won the 2006 award in physics. As with many big universities, lower-level classes are large -- one computer science course usually draws more than 1,000 students. With scale also comes a mind-boggling array of choices for non-academic pursuits, including more than 60 sororities and fraternities, as well as hundreds of clubs (including several devoted to specific dance styles such as tango, ballroom, and K-Pop). Sports are a big attraction on campus, and the Golden Bears' Division I sports teams tend to be very strong -- the football rivalry with nearby Stanford is legendary and results in an annual "Big Game." Cal grads go on to earn an average of $65,800 in their first five years after graduation, according to PayScale, which is 7% more than what peers from comparable schools typically make. Famous former students include the author Maxine Hong Kingston, Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak, actor John Cho, novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen, and "Myspace Tom" Anderson.