This is a list of colleges and universities in California.

Federal institutions

Graduate institutions

Naval Postgraduate School The Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) is a public graduate school operated by the United States Navy and located in Monterey, California. It offers master’s and doctoral degrees in more than 70 fields of study to the U.S. Armed Forces, DOD ci ...

(

Monterey Monterey (; es, Monterrey; Ohlone: ) is a city located in Monterey County on the southern edge of Monterey Bay on the U.S. state of California's Central Coast. Founded on June 3, 1770, it functioned as the capital of Alta California under bo ...

)

Other academic institutions

Defense Language Institute The Defense Language Institute (DLI) is a United States Department of Defense (DoD) educational and research institution consisting of two separate entities which provide linguistic and cultural instruction to the Department of Defense, other f ...

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State institutions

Two-year institutions

* See:

List of California Community Colleges This is a list of California Community Colleges, made up of 115 colleges within the California Community Colleges system. Ranking References See also * {{authority control * Community Colleges California Community Colleges The Califor ...

Four-year institutions

University of California

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a Normal school, teachers colle ...

was founded in 1882 as the southern branch of the

California State Normal School The California State Normal School was a teaching college system founded on May 2, 1862, eventually evolving into San José State University in San Jose and the University of California, Los Angeles in Los Angeles. History The school was cr ...

. It joined the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Fran ...

system in 1919 as the southern branch of the University of California. **

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the ...

was founded in 1891 as an independent teachers' college. It joined the

system in 1944.

California State University

* California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo was founded as a vocational high school. It became a vocational school in 1924, and then started awarding bachelor's degrees in 1940. **

California State Polytechnic University, Pomona California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona, CPP, or Cal Poly"Cal Poly" may also refer to California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo in San Luis Obispo. See the ''name'' section of this article for more info ...

, was founded as a southern branch of

California State Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (California Polytechnic State University, Cal Poly"Cal Poly" may also refer to California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt in Arcata, California or California State Polytechnic Un ...

in 1938, but became independent in 1966.

State graduate institutions

Private colleges and universities

List of Defunct Institutions

References

External links

Department of Education listing of accredited institutions in California
{{California *

Colleges and universities This is a list of lists of universities and colleges. Subject of study * Aerospace engineering * Agriculture * Art schools * Business * Chiropractic * Engineering * Forestry * Law * Maritime studies * Medicine * Music * Nanotechnology * Osteopathy ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...