California Community Colleges (CCCS) system is the largest of the three public systems hosting 112 campuses and three million students. California State University (CSU) system is the second largest with 23 campuses serving over 400,000 students. The University of California (UC) is the smallest of the three systems, with ten campuses serving over 190,000 students in total. Stanford University, a private institution, has one campus and hosts over 15,000 students. These numbers reflect 2010 records.
Stanford University is California's most prestigious university and one of the most highly regarded colleges in the world. Its business school, education school and law school are all ranked in the top 10 in the country by reviewers. The UC system also has two schools, UC Berkeley and UCLA, that are ranked in the top 25 universities in the US by US News & World Report. The CSU and CCCS systems are not as highly ranked and many institutions within these systems are not ranked.
The schools in the UC system are heavily research-based, meaning that the majority of their academic work is geared to research. The CSU system is largely a teaching-oriented system, so academic work is geared to instruction. Institutions in the CCCS are primarily job-skills-oriented institutions. Stanford University is also research-oriented.
Graduation rates vary widely among the school systems in California. Stanford University has the highest graduation rates with 95% of students graduating within six years. The UC system has the second highest rates with 80.5% of students graduating within six years. The CSU system comes in third with 47.4% of students graduating within six years.
Stanford University has one of the highest tuitions and one of the largest endowments of any school in the country at $55,000 (as of 2011) and 16 billion, respectively. Tuition in the UC system varies from school to school, but is generally between $30,000 and $50,000 (as of 2011) for residents. The UC system schools have a total endowment of $5 billion. The CSU system schools have lower tuitions between $25,000 and $50,000 with a total system endowment of $717 million.