<p>What are your opinions? When I see websites Davis and SD are pretty close so I just wanted to know your opinions.</p>
<p>LOL. This question is so subjective that there isn’t really a definitive way to answer it. Honestly, it depends on what kind of locale you want, what major you’re looking at, whether you want a sports-minded campus or not, how far away from home you want, how much you care about prestige, selectivity etc. </p>
<p>Why exactly do you want to know what the “best” UC is? Is there a certain program or location or other criteria you’re looking for?</p>
<p>My opinion:</p>
<p>Top:
Berkeley
UCLA</p>
<p>Middle:
Davis
Irvine
San Diego</p>
<p>Lower:
UCSB
UCSC</p>
<p>Bottom:
UCR
UCM</p>
<p>Really though, they are all great schools. The best to you depends on location, major, fit, etc.</p>
<p>Sent from my SGH-T589 using CC</p>
<p>I always thought of it this way:</p>
<p>Top : UCLA, Berkley, UCSD
Middle : UC Davis, UCSB, UC Irvine
Bottom : UCSC, UC Riverside, UC Merced</p>
<p>I just got into Davis with a major in the biological sciences department!
(Neurobiology, physiology, and behavior)</p>
<p>Best UC for what, exactly?</p>
<p>For example, by ratings in nationally circulated publications, e.g., US News and World Report, Kiplingers, Princeton Review, etc…
Or by graduation rates in 4,5,6 years?
Percentage of students:
Going to graduate schools? ’
Getting jobs within 6 months/ 1 year of graduation? </p>
<p>Salary potential upon graduation? This maybe more major dependent than school specific.</p>
<p>Focus on undergrads or graduate/ post doctoral students? At certain UC’s, the focus is definitely on the graduate student - undergrads are the lowest rung on the ladder as far as attention and resources go. This isn’t to say the undergrads are thrown to the wolves, but at the more research intensive UC’s, the percentage of graduate/post graduate students is far higher, and are the main focus for professors.
This also seems to also be a main criteria for judging an entire school in many of the above mentioned publications.</p>
<p>The list is almost endless as to what criteria you use and
depending on the school you choose, the strengths and weaknesses will be different also.
Just as an aside, I was accepted into the PhD. programs in Molecular Biology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Northwestern , Michigan, and the U of Washington, and my wife went to UCLA medical school - not bad for two graduates of the lowest rated UC’s, using Buttafly13’s criteria…(I graduated from UCSC, she from UC Riverside)…</p>
<p>Ultimately, you can go as far as you want with any of the UC’s. Its what you put into your college experience that really counts, not someone else’s opinion.</p>
<p>Dudeyes: thank you for your post</p>
<p>Frankly the question about which is the ‘best’ UC gets so old and tiresome. I think what people are looking for is which one has the best prestige for name dropping purposes</p>
<p>All of the UCs are great schools. It is definitely about what you put in that matters</p>
<p>I believe all the UC’s are great institutions and can get you anywhere you want if you work hard, so I think it’s unnecessary to rank the UC’s from best to worst. All of the UC’s are special and unique from one another. :)</p>
<p>I agree with crizello. It also depends on what you study/do. I know in one family, the one that went to UCI is making 7-figure(not a mistake) a year and the one that graduated from UCLA has been unemployed for years.</p>
<p>This topic gets beat to death. It’s completely subjective. Like the other posters said, there are way too many variables. Weather, location, campus quality, social life, class size(or student/teacher ratio), on-campus recruiting, major availability, graduation rate, research opportunities, professor quality, etc. The list is really long.</p>
<p>In terms of undergrad selectivity, from most to least
Cal/LA
UCSD
UCI/UCD/UCSB
UCSC
UCR
UCM</p>