Accepted at Umich, Rejected at UCLA, Waiting for Berkeley

College Search & Selection
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<p>applejack wrote: "UMich, by almost all standards, is far superior to UCLA in actual quality and reputation"</p>

<p>based upon what, applejack? They are ranked identically undergrad by USNWR. They are ranked within a place or two overall in the Ph.D. NRC rankings.</p>

<p>If ever there were two schools essentially interchangeable in terms of academic ranking and prestige, they would be UCLA and Michigan, with a slight edge to Michigan because of a longer history.</p>

<p>You wouldn't happen to be from the midwest? I am certain in the midwest Michigan is considered on par with (pause for a roll of the eyes) ... the venerable Berkeley... but nowhere else!</p>

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<p>Big edge to UCLA because of the weather. Ann Arbor in December or LA in December?</p>

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<p>I agree with applejack. UMich has a stronger business school, science and engineering programs. UCLA is comparatively weaker in these areas.</p>

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<p>UCBChemEGrad,</p>

<p>Here are the rankings I referenced:</p>

<p>USNWR Undergraduate Rankings: UCLA 25, Mich 25</p>

<p>NRC Ph.D. program rankings:
NRC Area 1 - Arts & Humanities: UCLA #11, Mich #12
NRC Area 2 - Biological Sciences: UCLA #16, Mich #17
NRC Area 3 - Engineering: Mich #8, UCLA #19
NRC Area 4 - Math & Physical Sciences: UCLA #13, Michigan #24
NRC Area 5 - Social & Behavioral Sciences: Mich #3, UCLA #7</p>

<p>3 professional schools:
Business School: Michigan #10, UCLA #12
Law School: Mich #10, UCLA #16
Medical School: UCLA #9, Mich #12</p>

<p>I don't see how any two schools could be more similar... it is uncanny how they appear to be identical twins whose performance only differs by one getting slightly more sleep on a given day.</p>

<p>Summary:</p>

<p>Undergrad: even
Ph.D. programs: slight edge to UCLA
Professional Schools: slight edge to Michigan</p>

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<p>USNWR delta = 0
NRC Area 1 delta = +1 UCLA
NRC Area 2 delta = +1 UCLA
NRC Area 3 delta = -11 UCLA
NRC Area 4 delta = +11 UCLA
NRC Area 5 delta = -4 UCLA
Business School delta = -2 UCLA
Law School delta = -6 UCLA
Medical School delta = +3 UCLA</p>

<p>Let's add some undergrad individual rankings:
Business School: UMich #3, UCLA no program
Engineering disciplines:
Aerospace: UMich #3, UCLA #16
Biomedical: UMich #9, UCLA unranked
Chemical: UMich #11, UCLA unranked
Civil: UMich #7, UCLA unranked
Computer: UMich #7, UCLA #15
Electrical: UMich #5, UCLA #15
Engineering Science: UMich #5, UCLA unranked
Environmental: UMich #3, UCLA unranked
Industrial: UMich #2, UCLA unranked
Materials: UMich #3, UCLA unranked
Mechanical: UMich #4, UCLA unranked</p>

<p>So, for undergrad, UMich > UCLA, but we won't credit those for this purpose...Therefore, if I add the deltas, UCLA is behind UMich by 7 ordinal ranking numbers...IMO, UMich exceeds UCLA in most respects.</p>

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<p>do you realize how anal it sounds to put weight on 7 ordinal numbers over 8 measures? That is less than one!</p>

<p>Less than one aggregated ranking place-- thank you for drilling down to demostrate my point. As I wrote, they are essentially interchangeable.</p>

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<p>^ LOL!...I was being facetious. I'm normally not that nitpicky. :)</p>

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<p>I love these comparisons :)</p>