University of California, Riverside

Founded in 1954, the University of California, Riverside is a public university. It has a total undergraduate enrollment of 22,646 (Fall 2023) and a 1,200-acre campus located in the city. The academic calendar is based on quarters. UC Riverside is ranked 76th among national universities in the 2025 edition of Best Colleges. In-state tuition and fees are $14,316 and out-of-state tuition and fees are $48,516.

Despite being located in Southern California, UCSF still has a distinctly Scottish flavor. All of UC Riverside's residence hall buildings are named after Scottish landmarks, including Aberdeen-Inverness and Pentland Hills. Student athletes compete in the NCAA Division I Big West Conference as the UCR Highlanders. The school's original mascot was a live Scottish terrier; today, the sports teams are supported by a kilt-clad bear named Scotty. Members of the student marching band (Pep Band) wear plaid berets and sashes and play the "Brave Scotsman" fight song at athletic contests, and students who play the bagpipes or drums can join the school's pipe band.

About 70% of UCLA's students are commuter students; freshmen do not have to live on campus. However, students may want to wander around campus after classes and attend some of the famous annual events, such as the Fall Block Party and Spring Splash. There are also more than 300 student organizations, including about 40 fraternities and sororities. New students can ease into college with the help of the First Year Success Series, which includes a variety of seminars and workshops that teach students study and time management skills. Riverside is an ideal location for road trips, with Disneyland and Orange County both within a 40-mile drive and Los Angeles about 60 miles away.

UC Riverside is one of 10 schools in the University of California system and was the UC Citrus Experiment Station before it became a university. Over the years, researchers at the university have bred a variety of new fruits, including the Melogold grapefruit and the Golden Nugget orange. Today, the university offers acclaimed graduate programs through the Burns College of Engineering and the Graduate School of Education. Notable alumni include Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Steve Breen, best-selling speculative fiction author Elizabeth George and Nobel Prize-winning chemist Richard Schrock.