This is a list of colleges and universities in California.

Federal institutions

Graduate institutions

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 bot ...

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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 California Community Colleges, * California edu ...

Four-year institutions

University of California

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California S ...

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 Jose State University, San José State University in San Jose, California, San Jose and the University of California, Los Angel ...

. 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 Franci ...

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 U ...

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 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 Univ ...

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 ''California State Polytechnic University, Pomo ...

, was founded as a southern branch of California State Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo 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

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 m ...