Is UC Berkeley or the University of Michigan harder to get into?

UC Berkeley is harder to get into overall. For most applicants, especially out-of-state students, Berkeley tends to be the more selective admit. It draws an enormous applicant pool, has especially intense competition in many majors, and the UC system’s application setup makes Berkeley one of the most heavily applied-to campuses in the country.

A big differentiator is applicant volume and demand by program. Berkeley gets extremely high interest across engineering, computer science, business-related pathways, and biological sciences, and some colleges within Berkeley are notably tougher than the campus as a whole. That means the level of competition is not just high in general, but often sharpens further depending on what you apply for.

Michigan is also very selective, but its admissions landscape is a little different because in-state applicants get a meaningful advantage as a public flagship. Out-of-state admission to Michigan can still be very difficult, especially for popular schools like Engineering or Ross, but Berkeley is more often viewed as the tougher overall admit when you compare campus-wide selectivity.

Another reason people see mixed answers online is that residency and major matter a lot at both schools. A California resident applying to Berkeley and a Michigan resident applying to Michigan are not facing the same odds as an out-of-state applicant at either school. But if the question is simply which university is generally harder to get into across the full applicant pool, Berkeley is the one most students would consider more selective.