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[quote]
We're talking worldwide prestige here, not actual school quality(which is obviously debatable). I would certainly include Berkeley in the Top 3 most prestigious schools (worldwide).
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<p>I am not talking about school quality either, not on this thread. I am talking about prestige. Is Berkeley a prestigious school? Sure. Is Berkeley more prestigious than MIT, Stanford, or Yale? That's a very dubious claim.</p>
<p>In places outside the U.S., yes, Berkeley commonly dominates people's lists of 'most prestigious schools', particularly in Asia (which is a very populated region, btw).</p>
<p>I don't get how (or why?) a school with lower school quality could have greater prestige. Just doesn't seem right.</p>
<p>The problem is that it is hard to measure a qualitative factor quantitatively.</p>
<p>At least in europe and Brazil it would be Harvard MIT stanford</p>
<p>I've spent a decent amount of time in Europe and in Asia. </p>
<p>From my experiences, there is no way that Cal is more highly regarded than Yale, Princeton, MIT and Stanford (in any combination of any of those schools nor individually).</p>
<p>again, as i've said before, there is a subtle yet distinct difference between "familiarity" and "prestige".</p>
<p>for instance, non-Americans are largely familiar with America's largest cities - the most famous cities - New York and LA for instance, even though they may never have set foot in the US... subsequently, by sheer virtue of the widespread name recognition / awareness of those cities, schools such as NYU and UCLA get a major boost in overall international recognition (i.e. familiarity)... and not to knock NYU or UCLA in particular, but they probably enjoy a greater degree of international brand awareness (vs. their peers) for doing nothing more than just being based in NY and LA - and I have no problem with that, more power to them - but let's not confuse that recognition (i.e. familiarity) with "prestige".</p>
<p>more people will have heard of NYC vs., say, Greenwich, CT - but make no mistake that Greenwich is one of the most prestigious neighborhoods one can call "home" and is easily one of the top 5 most expensive housing markets in the US.</p>
<p>the point? yeah, plenty of people may have "heard" of Cal (but even that claim seems to be way over-exaggerated - people paint such a rosy picture as to place Cal's name recognition on par with the likes of Harvard and Oxford - no school can credibly make such claims) - but i digress - so, yeah, Cal may be very "familiar" with a decent amount of non-Americans, but does it conjure up images of such a jaw dropping academic juggernaut which puts Yale, Princeton, Stanford and MIT to shame? </p>
<p>again, not in my international experience, and frankly, its far from it.</p>
<p>2006 World university rank according to the London Times Higher Education Supplement</p>
<p><a href="http://www.thes.co.uk/worldrankings/%5B/url%5D">http://www.thes.co.uk/worldrankings/</a></p>
<p>Appears Yale and MIT were able to finally climb above Berkeley from the 2004 rankings (in 2004, Harvard, Berkeley, and MIT were #s 1,2, and 3) Looks like Yale may be beginning to be recognized to be somewhat on par with Berkeley in the rest of the world. Will be interesting to see what the NRC thinks.</p>
<p>*1. Harvard
2. Cambridge
3. Oxford
*4. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
*5. Yale
*6. Stanford
*7. California Institute of Technology
*8. University of California, Berkeley
9. Imperial College London
*10. Princeton</p>
<ul>
<li>US</li>
</ul>
<p>I posted that back in post #8. :rolleyes: As for the new NRC rankings, they will be out in December 2007 (new and improved, with many new fields added), and I agree that it should be interesting.</p>
<p>I can't believe no one said "Harvard, Yale, Stanford."</p>
<p>I am as big of an advocate of Berkeley as anyone, but I also have trouble placing Berkeley above Yale, Stanford, or MIT. Possibly Princeton...but not those three.</p>
<p>Harvard, Oxford, and MIT
Probably everyone in the world knows these 3, as for stanford, caltech and yale well these are very well known but not as much as the first 3...I mean ask taxi driver in this little country town in the south and he'll probably what they are lol :P</p>
<p>
[quote]
From my experiences, there is no way that Cal is more highly regarded than Yale, Princeton, MIT and Stanford (in any combination of any of those schools nor individually)...again, as i've said before, there is a subtle yet distinct difference between "familiarity" and "prestige".
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Really? I guess you don't consider the London Times Higher Education ranking a ranking of "prestige"? Up untill last year, Cal was ranked higher than Yale and Princeton.</p>
<p>The majority of Cal's grad programs, in my opinion, are held in higher esteem than Stanfords. At the undergraduate level i would argue for Stanford, but as an overall national university, i believe Berkeley is internationally regarded as more prestigious (thanks mostly to its excellent graduate programs) than Stanford. Again, I emphasize internationally.</p>
<p>Andover
Exeter
Thomas Jefferson</p>
<p>In my country Harvard, Yale, and Columbia are the most prestigious US schools.</p>
<p>harvard-yale-stanford</p>
<p>
You're as full of it as a Christmas turkey. The NRC rankings place MIT above Berkeley in the average of nonzero scores, and Stanford places above Berkeley in the average of all 41 scores.</p>
<p>Perhaps Berkeley is perceived to be better because they brag more?</p>
<p>ucchris is pretty biased</p>
<p>It's so ridiculous that Cal fans keep telling others Berkeley is better than Stanford. Give me a break! I am from Hong Kong and Stanford is definitely more prestigious. The whole Silicon Valley bloom is much more related to Stanford than Berkeley. Everyone knows Yahoo (to less extent HP founders) are from Stanford!</p>
<p>Stanford's law and business schools are in a whole different league above Berkeley. These are programs that carry more name recognition in the (business) world than something like chemical engineering.</p>
<p>One more observation:
it's usaully the Cal students/alums that put Cal above Stanford and claim that's how "others" perceive it; yet, pretty much all of the "others" (not Stanford students) put Stanford ahead. ;)</p>
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carry more name recognition in the (business) world than something like chemical engineering.
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<p>Prandtl would roll over in his grave, if he could hear your blasphemy.</p>