University of California, Berkeley

Also referred to as Cal, California, UC Berkeley, and Berkeley, this is a major research university which is the oldest of the ten campuses affiliated with the University of California. Most of its students were probably a dab hand with the home chemistry set - Berkeley physicists were instrumental to the Manhattan Project which developed atomic bombs during the Second World War and the hydrogen bomb soon afterwards. The tradition of academic excellence and expertise lives on - today Berkeley counts sixty-one Nobel Laureates among its faculty.

Despite having 33,000 students, Cal currently offers two years of guaranteed housing for entering freshmen. The official university mascot Oski the Bear is named after the Oski-wow-wow yell. Until 1941 he was a real, live bear but now he's just a glorified teddy bear. Campus can be a little noisy - the California Victory Cannon is fired before every Cal football home game, after every score, and after every Cal victory.