Ask almost anyone which major is hardest to get into at UC Berkeley, and Computer Science is the near-universal answer -- it's the assumption behind why so much of the "hardest major" conversation centers on engineering and CS specifically. Berkeley's own admissions data, published directly by the University of California, doesn't back that up. For Fall 2025, Computer Science admits 6% of freshman applicants -- and two other disciplines admit at a lower rate.
The real ranking, from Berkeley's own numbers
The chart above shows all twelve broad disciplines UC's Freshman Admission by Discipline dashboard reports for Berkeley, Fall 2025, against the campus's own 11% overall admit rate. The bottom of the list is the surprise:
- Public Health: 3,415 applicants, 74 admits -- 2%
- Business: 7,102 applicants, 323 admits -- 5%
- Computer Science: 9,750 applicants, 629 admits -- 6%
- Engineering: 25,025 applicants, 1,788 admits -- 7%
Public Health is Berkeley's single hardest published admit category, at less than half of Computer Science's rate. Business is also harder than CS, despite drawing a smaller, more self-selected applicant pool than Engineering's 25,000+. Meanwhile Arts & Humanities, the discipline furthest from any "hard major" reputation, sits at the top of the list at 25% -- more than four times easier than Public Health.
Why this doesn't match the popular assumption
Computer Science's reputation as the hardest admit almost everywhere comes from real patterns at other schools -- UC Irvine's and UCLA's own Computer Science and Engineering majors really are dramatically harder to get into than each university's overall rate, and the same is true at University of Washington and UIUC. But "CS is usually one of the hardest majors" isn't the same claim as "CS is always the single hardest major at every school," and Berkeley's own data is proof the second claim doesn't hold universally. Business and Public Health draw applicant pools that are smaller and more concentrated -- students who are specifically targeting a business or public-health career, not a broader pool that includes many students who'd be satisfied with a related major instead -- against a similarly fixed number of seats, which is enough to push their admit rates below CS's.
This is part of a broader pattern across the UC system
Berkeley isn't an isolated case -- it's one data point in a larger pattern visible across multiple UC campuses, where a competitive major's gap from its own campus's overall rate scales with how selective that campus already is. See our full breakdown of the UC "major penalty," from a near-zero gap at UC Merced to a 36-times gap at UC Irvine's Nursing major for the complete cross-campus picture Berkeley's Business and Public Health numbers fit into.
What this means for you
- Don't assume Computer Science is automatically the hardest major at every school you're considering. Check the specific school's own published by-major data -- at Berkeley, Business and Public Health are both harder.
- A smaller, more concentrated applicant pool can produce a lower admit rate than a larger, more famous one. Business and Public Health at Berkeley prove a major doesn't need CS's reputation to be genuinely harder to get into.
- Arts & Humanities' 25% admit rate at Berkeley is real too -- more than four times easier than Public Health, in case you're weighing a less "prestige-coded" major at a school this selective overall.
- This is Berkeley-specific data, not a universal ranking. The same major can rank completely differently at a different UC campus -- always check the individual school's own numbers rather than assuming one campus's pattern generalizes.
- Remember the UC system runs on entirely different mechanics than the rest of your list. No Common App, no ED/EA/RD, no letters of recommendation -- see how UC admissions actually works if Berkeley is the first UC campus you're seriously researching.