Introduction

The University of California, Riverside (UCR or UC Riverside), is a public research university and one of the 10 general campuses of the University of California system. Founded in 1907 as the UC Citrus Experiment Station, Riverside pioneered research in biological pest control and the use of growth regulators responsible for extending the citrus growing season in California from four to nine months. Some of the world's most important research collections on citrus diversity and entomology, as well as science fiction and photography, are located at Riverside.

UCR is consistently ranked as one of the most ethnically and economically diverse universities in the United States. The 2016 U.S. News World Report Best Colleges rankings places UCR tied for 58th among top public universities, tied for 121st nationwide and ranks 16+ graduate school programs including the Graduate School of Education and the Bourns College of Engineering based on peer assessment, student selectivity, financial resources, and other factors.

Academics

UCR is organized into four academic colleges, two professional schools, and several interdisciplinary divisions. UCR's liberal arts college, the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, was founded in 1954, and began accepting graduate students in 1960. 

The College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, founded in 1960, incorporated the CES as part of the first research-oriented institution at UCR; it eventually also incorporated the natural science departments formerly associated with the liberal arts college to form its present structure in 1974.

The Bourns College of Engineering was founded in 1989. Graduate School of Education, founded in 1968, and the UCR School of Business Administration, founded in 1970.

These units collectively provide 81 majors and 52 minors, 48 master's degree programs, and 42 Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) programs. UCR is the only UC campus to offer undergraduate degrees in creative writing and public policy and one of three UCs (along with Berkeley and Irvine) to offer an undergraduate degree in business administration.

Notable alumni

Dr. Richard R. Schrock, Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and winner of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Steve Breen, Editorial cartoonist and two time Pulitzer Prize winner (1998 and 2009)

Billy Collins, The 11th U.S. Poet Laureate

Tim D. White, Paleoanthropologist ndash; named one of Time Magazine's "100 Most Influential People of 2010" for his work with Lucy, one of the oldest known Hominin

Charles E. Young, UCR's first student body president, later became Chancellor of UCLA