UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science

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University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science

Type	Public
Established	1915
Dean	Jennifer Johnson-Hanks, Executive Dean[1]
Academic staff	~750[2]
Undergraduates	~23,601[3]
Postgraduates	2,417[4]
Location	Berkeley , California , United States
Affiliations	University of California, Berkeley
Website	ls.berkeley.edu

The College of Letters and Science (L&S) is the largest of the 15 colleges at the

The majority of undergraduates at the university are enrolled in the College of Letters and 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.[6] L&S undergraduates must declare a major before they begin their junior year.^[7] "Capped majors" (e.g. Economics, Public Health, Psychology) are impacted and have more stringent declaration policies.^[8] All undergraduates in L&S must complete classes in reading & composition, quantitative reasoning, foreign language, and a seven-course breadth requirement.^[9]

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.

The main disadvantage of the gigantic size of L&S (as with its counterpart at Los Angeles) is a coldly impersonal undergraduate experience, especially in large lower-division survey courses (before students declare specific majors, begin to work more closely with department advisers and faculty members in their chosen major, and switch to smaller upper-division courses).^[12] During the Berkeley student protests in the 1960s, one student reportedly wore a placard which mocked the preprinted warning on the punched cards used in that era to automate class registration and grading for many thousands of students: "I am a UC student. Please do not bend, fold, spindle or mutilate me".^[13] It is because of L&S's impersonal atmosphere that UC President Clark Kerr experimented with residential college systems at the newer UC campuses at San Diego and Santa Cruz.^[14]

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