It’s highly ranked and competitive, offering remarkably low tuition for California residents and 10 attractive, distinctive campuses across the state. Here are six awe-inspiring—or just plain fun—things to know about the University of California, which by just about every measure is the best public university system in the world.
COLLECT ’EM ALL
Together, the UC system’s holdings make up the largest academic library in the world: 40 million books and counting. But the collections contain so much more, including concert flyers for ’80s L.A. punk bands like Black Flag and Circle Jerks, a journal from a member of the Donner Party, and assorted Woody Woodpecker ephemera.
This article appears in Issue 30 of Alta Journal.
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GRUB HUB
UCLA’s cafeteria offerings—“steak, horseradish goat cheese, & beet stacker,” anyone?—have been named the Best College Food in America (by the college review site Niche) multiple times in the past 10 years. Less celebrated but possibly greener: Crossroads dining hall at UC Berkeley (a.k.a. Cal), which became the first certified-organic kitchen on a U.S. campus in 2006.
NOBEL FEAT
Since 1934, UC faculty and alumni have amassed an impressive array of Nobel Prizes, including Ernest Lawrence (the cyclotron!) and Andrea Ghez (a really big black hole!). With over 60 laureates, Cal alone has won more Nobels than any country except the United States (whose haul, of course, the campus has generously contributed to), the U.K., Germany, and France.
MASCOT MAYHEM
There are Bears (Cal), Bruins (UCLA), and Aggies (UC Davis) in other parts of the country, but no other U.S. school can boast Banana Slugs (UC Santa Cruz) or Anteaters (UC Irvine), and only a handful have Tritons (UC San Diego).
IMPOSTOR SYNDROME
UC campuses have played backdrop to loads of films, from Contagion (UC San Francisco) to Ocean’s Eleven (UC Irvine). Some have even stood in for other schools, most notably UCLA, which regularly masquerades as Harvard (Legally Blonde, Angels & Demons) and even as fellow UC school Cal (Oppenheimer).
FACT FROM FICTION
Its institutions may be dedicated to rational thought, but that hasn’t prevented the UC system from falling victim to urban myths. A few (untrue) gems: Cal’s infamous book bound in human skin (it’s actually horse skin), UCLA’s locker papered over with alumnus Jim Morrison’s acid tabs (um, no), and UC San Diego’s network of underground tunnels created during the 1960s to allow National Guard troops to navigate the campus in case of riots (tunnels, yes; conspiracy, no).•
