Click here to go to the NEW College Discussion Forum

What are the rankings of the UC's in order from best to worst

By Thedad (Thedad) on Sunday, March 23, 2003 - 01:14 am: Edit

Depends on major/department.

Bekeley, UCLA, UCSD are generally the top three.


Riverside is generally tail-end Charlie with Santa Cruz above it.

The others are very arguable depending on exact interests...Santa Barbara, Davis, Irvine.

By Crackcorn (Crackcorn) on Monday, March 24, 2003 - 10:34 pm: Edit

Don't forget the new jewel in the crown - UC Merced! LOL!

By Erin (Erin) on Tuesday, March 25, 2003 - 11:39 pm: Edit

If I had to rank them (and this is totally based on my own perceptions):

Berkeley/UCLA tie (Berkeley might have the edge)

UCSD

UC Santa Barbara

UC Irvine/UC Santa Cruz tie

UC Riverside

Oh right...and uh...UC Merced. Home of the Golden Bobcat I believe?

By Erin (Erin) on Tuesday, March 25, 2003 - 11:40 pm: Edit

Whoops. Davis would be probably tied with Santa Barbara.

By Bestballa (Bestballa) on Tuesday, March 25, 2003 - 11:51 pm: Edit

Among Santa Barbara, Davis,and Riverside which school is good on science?

By Theasrhs (Theasrhs) on Wednesday, March 26, 2003 - 10:30 am: Edit

Probably Davis since it has one of the best vet schools in the country.

By Erin (Erin) on Wednesday, March 26, 2003 - 01:50 pm: Edit

Davis is definitely the best out of those for biological sciences; Santa Barbara has a pretty good engineering program though I think. Riverside is definitely the worst of the three.

By L76 (L76) on Wednesday, March 26, 2003 - 03:20 pm: Edit

Among the bottom 5 (UCD/UCSB/UCI/UCSC/UCR), can you rank them for their humanities departments: (i.e. literature/history/French)...

By Kow (Kow) on Wednesday, March 26, 2003 - 07:25 pm: Edit

who's better?
UC Davis or UC Irvine, for economics

By Ucstudent (Ucstudent) on Wednesday, June 04, 2003 - 04:22 pm: Edit

It appears that most of these posts are from future undergrads or their parents. Attempting to rank the UC's is really quite problematic, so you shouldn't try to rank them because any ranking is subjective (i.e., beauty is in the eye of the beholder). While US News publishes rankings, people who are serious about education take them with a grain of salt because the rankings change each year and there are so many factors that affect a university's place in the rank. It is also important to point out that these rankings aren't highly correlated with undergraduate academic quality. Unfortunately, this is part and parcel of American culture, so you can't be blamed for this -- but you should try to overcome it. Obviously, name recognition will help you go places -- in the most competitive careers (like investment banking, or law), or in higher education (PhD) at the most prestigious universities, but if you choose to go to a "less prestigious" school, this does not mean you're going to be any less successful at at getting into the law school, business school, or med school which you would like to attend. It is really quite amusing to hear high school students rank the UC's when they've never taken a course at a UC before. It's pretty na?ve. When you look at a school, look at its academic strengths in the context of what kind of environment you want. Also, don't fall into the mode of stereotyping schools -- as Santa Cruz as a hippy school, Santa Barbara as a party school, Davis as a cow town -- because while there is certainly some truth to these stereotypes, that is all they are, ultimately. Look at a school in terms of what you want to study, and what its surrounding environment can offer you. Don't assume that a school is easy because its ranking is lower. This is often assumed of Davis, for example, yet 95% of Davis students were in the top 10% of their high school classes and Davis is an incredibly competitive environment, especially depending on your major (more COMPETITIVE majors include biological sciences, engineering, mathematics, economics). That said, don't assume that because a major is not competitive, that it is easy. For example, history and political science may not be as competitive, but that does not imply easiness. Probably one of the most important things, even more important than rank, is to look at the surrounding environment. This will ultimately determine your happiness and will contribute to your academic success. If you don't want to live in an extremely urban environment, don't go to Berkeley. If you don't like traffic, exorbitant rents, and smog, don't go to UCLA. If you don't like coastal weather (who doesn't!), don't go to SD, SC, or SB. If you don't like small, upper middle class yuppy towns, don't go to Davis or Stanford. The point is, once again, choose a school based on how much you feel like you could succeed at that school, not based on some ranking written by some magazine three thousand miles away from the West.

By Ucrla (Ucrla) on Wednesday, June 25, 2003 - 05:26 pm: Edit

I completely agree with UCstudent above. Unfortunately, all those rankings have serious flaws with them. Don't base your perception of a university on what a magazine says or even the popular opinion of people who never attended a given school. I have attended 3 UC schools- one supposedly at the top tier, one in the middle tier, and the other on the bottom tier. I got my BS at UCLA in Neuroscience, took summer classes at UCI, and am currently working toward a PhD in Neuroscience at UCR. And let me tell you, people's perceptions of UCR are totally wrong. At UCLA, you will get absolutely no attention from professors, most of whom look down on undergrads (I'm NOT speaking of any personal experiences). Teaching is definitely not a priority there. The competition at UCLA is fierce, and I have heard of several students getting kicked out for cheating. I had a friend renting a studio apartment in Westwood for $1200/ month! A studio! Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVED my experience there and wouldn't trade it for ANYTHING. At UC Riverside, there's no big name, but that's changing, and changing quickly. Teaching is much more of a priority there and you are more likely to learn. I've seen the undergrad classes at both schools and there is no difference in the difficulty between the two. As more and more people realize this, UCR's reputation is likely to grow. Indeed, my neighbor is a computer science professor there and told me of a discussion he had with a UCI computer science professor, who told my neighbor that within 3 years, UCR will surpass UCI. So to all of you reading this, the quality of education is pretty much the same between all tiers of the UC. The only difference is the name. Although, a bigger name school like UCLA, SD or Berkeley will likely have more options for majors of study, simply because they have the population base to support it. As UCR expands, as it is aggressively doing, admission will become more and more competitive as it runs out of room to grow. This is what happened with LA and Berkeley. They couldn't build more, so they couldn't admit more students. As a result, only the top applicants could be admitted. In summary, just about any UC will give you a great education. Pay no attention to subjective surveys like US News. One possible source to look at is a 1997 book called "The Rise of American Research Universities". Its rankings are based purely on hard facts, not public perception. Spread the word.

By Ethan177 (Ethan177) on Friday, November 14, 2003 - 08:02 pm: Edit

I currently have applied to UC Santa Barbara and UC Santa Cruz, due to the fact that they are the only schools (excluding berkeley) that have the "Legal Studies" major as preperation for law school. I know I can't make it into Berkeley, so could someone explain why UCSB is considered better then UCSD if I'm going to law school anyway?? If i'm an undergrad will it even make a difference? Why is UC Santa Cruz considered so bad (besides the whole pass/fail thing of the past, but I obviously would be receving letter grades)?