According to the latest American college rankings, UC Berkeley is the second best public school in the country in 2025. US News and World Report, which were announced today (Monday, September 23, 2024).

Last year, Berkeley was tied with UCLA, which took first place this year. Over the past 20 years, Berkeley has been named the best public school in the U.S. by the publication 15 times, and has placed second several times during that time. Berkeley also earned US News’ Ranked top among all universities evaluated for its Environmental/Environmental Health and Data Analytics/Science programs.

Today’s results echo other national and global rankings that place Berkeley among the top tier of American universities. Last month, Berkeley was named the nation’s top public university in Forbes list of the magazine’s best American universities. And earlier this month PitchBook The ranking found that Berkeley produces more startup founders, companies and entrepreneurs than any other university 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 confirm exactly what we already know: that Berkeley remains the best place in the world for our brilliant students and faculty to do groundbreaking work. We will continue to strive together to support our diverse Berkeley community and make it an even better institution than it already is. As I have said many times, we are only just beginning.”

Berkeley’s many achievements include 26 Nobel Prize winners on the faculty and 400 degree programs – including 30 graduate programs ranked in the top 10 of the US News and World Report last April – and 246 Olympic medals in total.

These latest rankings come at an exciting time on campus. Berkeley researchers continue to make groundbreaking discoveries in cutting-edge fields such as artificial intelligence, neuroscience, and data science. This year, Berkeley joined the Atlantic Coast Conference, ensuring the long-term stability of Cal Athletics and preserving its important role on campus. And a number of major construction projects are going up across campus, including new student housing, a new undergraduate academic education building, and a home for the new College of Computing, Data Science, and Society.

In today’s announcement of US NewsBerkeley also ranked in 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 US News among the top 100 public and private universities overall. UC Berkeley ranked 17th in the combined rankings.

In the last 10 years US News has named Berkeley the best public university in the world. These annual world rankings will be released later this fall.

As in previous years US News has revised the methodology of this year’s rankings. The 2025 list no longer takes into account six-year graduation rates of first-year students and places more emphasis on graduation rates of Pell Grant recipients, among other changes.