Stanford University is a private research university located in Stanford. The university offers over 65 majors through seven departments. The universities four undergraduate schools include earth sciences, engineering, humanities and science. Graduate schools include business, education, medicine and law. Classes are small, with a student-to-faculty ratio of 6.2-to-1. Approximately 7.3 percent of freshman applicants are anticipated to be accepted for the freshman class of 2014, 90 percent having graduated from the top 10 percent of their high school class. The school measures academic excellence, transcripts and personal qualities for acceptance.
The University of California is a public university, with 10 campuses, 16 health professional schools, five medical centers, four law schools and a veterinary school. As of 2010, the university offers over 150 majors in five departments. Undergraduate and graduate departments include engineering and computer science, arts and humanities, social sciences and physical and biological sciences. The school had 42,000 graduate students studying within 52 graduate programs in 2010.
The California Institute of Technology campus is located in Pasadena. Caltech offers majors in biology, chemistry and chemical engineering, engineering and applied science, geological and planetary sciences, humanities and social sciences, physics, mathematics and astronomy. All undergraduate studies lead to a Bachelor of Science degree. In 2010, the institute offered 28 graduate degree options. Caltech also offers a master's and doctoral degrees. The school had 967 undergraduate and 1,208 graduate students in 2010.
The California State University has 23 campuses and seven off-campus centers, several along the coastal region, spanning as far north as Humboldt to as far south as San Diego. The university offers 384 undergraduate and graduate degree programs. Top majors include business and management, social science, psychology, interdisciplinary studies, education, public affairs and services, communications, letters, health professions and fine and applied arts. The university awards bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees. There were approximately 430,000 students in 2010, with about 94 percent coming from California public high schools.