As a work of history, John Douglass' Setting the Conditions of Undergraduate Admissions contains a number of surprising facts regarding the university, among them the following.
In 1900, most eastern colleges were all-male, but at the University California 46 percent of the students were women. Through a system of social norms, however, the Regents and faculty at Berkeley restricted the classes women enrolled in; professional training for women was limited largely to elementary school teaching and a few other fields.
By 1910, the University of California had not only the largest enrollment of any higher education institution in the nation, but was also ranked as one of the top ten research universities in the country.
In 1961, BOARS recommended requiring the SAT for all entering
UC freshman; the Senate's Universitywide Assembly turned down
the proposal that year, however, and continued to do so year after
year, on grounds that high-school GPA was a much better predictor
of university performance. It was not until 1968 that all freshman
applicants were required to submit SAT scores.