The College of Letters and Science (L&S) is the largest of the 14 colleges at the University of California, Berkeley and encompasses the liberal arts. The college was established in its present state in 1915 with the merger of the College of Letters, the College of Social Science, and the College of Natural Science. As of the 2022-23 academic year, there were about 23,601 undergraduates and 2,417 graduate students enrolled in the college. The College of Letters and Science awards only Bachelor of Arts degrees at the undergraduate level, in contrast to the other schools and colleges of UC Berkeley which award only Bachelor of Science degrees at the undergraduate level.

Faculty and students

L&S is organized into five divisions: Arts and Humanities, Biological Sciences, Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Social Sciences, and the Undergraduate Division. Of the graduate divisions, Social Sciences is the most popular, followed by Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Arts and Humanities, and Biological Science. The Undergraduate Division serves the 23,000 undergraduate students in L&S. Each division has its own administration, including a dean, associate dean, and assistant deans. Jennifer Johnson-Hanks serves as the College's executive dean. L&S has about 750 faculty members, including 13 Nobel laureates, 3

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...

winners, and 12 MacArthur Fellows. The majority of undergraduates at the University are enrolled in the College of Letters & Science. Although freshman applicants indicate an area of interest on their applications, all freshmen in L&S enter as undeclared majors. This contrasts with other undergraduate colleges at UC Berkeley, such as the College of Engineering, where applicants indicate their major on the application and enter as declared majors. L&S undergraduates must declare a major before they begin their junior year. "Capped majors" (e.g. Economics, Public Health, Psychology) are impacted and have more stringent declaration policies. All undergraduates in L&S must complete classes in reading & composition, quantitative reasoning, foreign language, and a seven-course breadth requirement. L&S offers a wide variety of graduate programs, including master's and doctorate programs. Many of these programs are ranked within the top five in their field by ''U.S. News & World Report.'' Two programs, Jewish Studies and Near Eastern Religions, are joint programs with the

Graduate Theological Union The Graduate Theological Union (GTU) is a consortium of eight private independent American theological schools and eleven centers and affiliates. Seven of the theological schools are located in Berkeley, California. The GTU was founded in 1962 ...

in Berkeley. One program, Medical Anthropology, is a joint program with UCSF. The L&S graduate division serves 87 master's/first professional students and 2,676 doctoral students as of Fall 2013.

Departments

Arts & Humanities

* Art History * Art Practice *

Classics Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

* Comparative Literature * East Asian Languages and Cultures * English *

Film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

and

Media Studies Media studies is a discipline and field of study that deals with the content, history, and effects of various media; in particular, the mass media. Media Studies may draw on traditions from both the social sciences and the humanities, but mostly ...

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

* Italian Studies * Music * Near Eastern Studies *

Philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

Rhetoric Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate parti ...

* Scandinavian * Slavic Languages and Literatures *

South South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...

and

Southeast Asian Studies Southeast Asian studies (SEAS) refers to research and education on the language, culture, and history of the different states and ethnic groups of Southeast Asia. Some institutions refer to this discipline as ASEAN Studies since most of the countr ...

* Spanish and Portuguese * Theater,

Dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

, and Performance Studies

Biological Science

* Integrative Biology *

Molecular and Cell Biology Cell biology (also cellular biology or cytology) is a branch of biology that studies the Anatomy, structure, Physiology, function, and behavior of cell (biology), cells. All living organisms are made of cells. A cell is the basic unit of life th ...

** Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology ** Cell and Developmental Biology ** Genetics, Genomics, and Development ** Immunology and Pathogenesis ** Neurobiology * Physical Education Program

Mathematical & Physical Sciences

Astrophysics Astrophysics is a science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena. As one of the founders of the discipline said, Astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the nature of the h ...

* Earth and

Planetary Science Planetary science (or more rarely, planetology) is the scientific study of planets (including Earth), celestial bodies (such as moons, asteroids, comets) and planetary systems (in particular those of the Solar System) and the processes of their f ...

Mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

** Applied Mathematics * Physics *

Statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ''wikt:Statistik#German, Statistik'', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of ...

Social Sciences

* African American Studies * Anthropology * Demography * Economics * Ethnic Studies * Gender and Women's Studies * Geography * History * Linguistics * Political Science (Charles and Louise Travers Department of Political Science) * Psychology * Sociology

Additional majors administered by the Division of Undergraduate Studies

* American Studies *

Asian Studies Asian studies is the term used usually in North America and Australia for what in Europe is known as Oriental studies. The field is concerned with the Asian people, their cultures, languages, history and politics. Within the Asian sphere, Asian ...

* Cognitive Science * Creative Writing *

Data Science Data science is an interdisciplinary field that uses scientific methods, processes, algorithms and systems to extract or extrapolate knowledge and insights from noisy, structured and unstructured data, and apply knowledge from data across a br ...

(program managed by the Division of Computing, Data Science, & Society) * Development Studies * Disability Studies * Interdisciplinary Studies * Latin American Studies *

* Religious Studies * Middle Eastern Studies *

Peace and Conflict Studies Peace and conflict studies is a social science field that identifies and analyzes violent and nonviolent behaviours as well as the structural mechanisms attending conflicts (including social conflicts), with a view towards understanding those pro ...

* Political Economy

Additional majors administered by other colleges

Chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

(B.A.) (College of Chemistry) * Computer Science (B.A.) (College of Engineering) * Environmental Economics and Policy (College of Natural Resources) * Legal Studies (School of Law) * Operations Research and Management Science (College of Engineering) * Public Health (School of Public Health) * Social Welfare (School of Social Welfare)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:California, Berkeley Letters and Science, University of 1915 establishments in California Educational institutions established in 1915 Liberal arts colleges at universities in the United States Science and technology in California Letters and Science, College of