University of California-Merced

The University of California, Merced (UC Merced or colloquially, UCM) is a public land-grant research university in Merced County, California, United States. Established in 2005, UC Merced is the tenth and newest campus in the University of California (UC) system. The main campus is around 810 acres (330 hectares) in size and located around 5 miles (8.0 km) north of the city of Merced and sits adjacent to Lake Yosemite. The campus is adjacent to large swaths of protected natural grasslands and vernal pools, which have shaped its development, capital planning, and research. UC Merced offers over 60 undergraduate degrees and 18 graduate and professional degrees, with 8,372 undergraduates and 738 graduate students enrolled as of fall 2024. In 2025 the university was classified as an R1 Carnegie research institution becoming the only R1 institution in the Central Valley and one of the youngest universities ever to attain the designation.