<p>Any predictions about where Berkeley will rank for 2013? </p>
<p>Also, why isn't Berkeley ranked in the top 10. How does Berkeley compare to other public schools like UCLA, the University of Michigan, UNC Chapel Hill?</p>
<p>US News rankings are extremely biased towards private universities. Berkeley will be ranked ahead of all the other publics, but will be lower than a lot of privates for no good reason. Wouldn’t be surprised if they go so far as to rank USC ahead this time.</p>
<p>My prediction for USNWR: #21. </p>
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Depends on the methodology. A lot of rankings have Berkeley within Top 10.</p>
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They are academic peers. But I would say Cal has arguably stronger physical science and engineering programs.</p>
<p>^^Indeed, Chapel Hill only has one Eng program (enviro), since NCState has the instate focus on tech stuff.</p>
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<p>The “reason” is in your first clause: USNews’ criteria favors private unis.</p>
<p>how about berkeley vs michigan or berkeley vs uiuc in the department of engineering? ieor? mechanical?</p>
<p>UNC is awesome always, what are you talking about.</p>
<p>Anyway, the reason why we’re ranked low is because we score poorly on some areas like big class size and relatively low freshman retention rate. We also have relatively lower average SAT scores for the incoming freshmans and we accept a large percent of applicants. (about 25% for Cal unlike 5~10% you see in Ivies) - I’m not sure if any of those are an indication of a good/bad university, but I guess they think those aspects are important.</p>
<p>They have their methodologies here starting at page 3 ([How</a> U.S. News Calculates the College Rankings - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/2011/09/12/how-us-news-calculates-the-college-rankings-2012]How”>http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/2011/09/12/how-us-news-calculates-the-college-rankings-2012)) and I’m actually surprised we still managed to be in Top 25.</p>
<p>Anyway, I realized this US News ranking system is a joke ever since USC surpassed UCLA. USC beats UCLA in football any day, anytime, anywhere, but ranking its undergraduate program above UCLA is nonsense.</p>
<p>President Sample has turned USC’s academics around ever since he’s taken office. UCLA’s a great school but their academics have been slipping a little bit in the last decade whereas USC’s programs have risen. I wouldn’t be surprised to see UCSD start challenging UCLA’s ranking within the next few years.</p>
<p>^^Exactly. 'SC (and WashU) have been rocketing up the rankings by buying better students. Lostsa merit money will do that. In contrast, the UCs don’t much believe in merit.</p>
<p>Many Bruins believe that they will surpass Berkeley in the rankings.</p>
<p>If it were simply a matter of “buying” better students, the University of Oklahoma would be highly ranked. USC has certainly done a lot to recruit top students, but it is more than that.</p>
<p>UCLA won’t pass Cal this year…UCLA has been going down and Cal most recently went up.</p>
<p>UpMagic, have you looked at the admissions stats for freshmen at USC compared to UCLA lately?</p>
<p>Just a comment from a UC Davis student here. Don’t worry, I’m not here to claim UCD beats UC Berkeley, but…</p>
<p>Decades ago, Berkeley was top-shelf for a number of reasons. Berkeley had the best professors by a number of measures, the best facilities, a great location, the brightest students, the most vibrant cultural/political scene, great diversity, and many top-rated programs. </p>
<p>In my opinion, things have changed. You still have the best professors and some of the brightest students, but everything else in the preceding paragraph has slipped. The campus feels almost monolithically Asian, which is no better or worse than if it were monolithically White, but the vibrant diversity is gone. The campus atmosphere has gone from the being the center of American Left Wing political activism to being…what…a middle-of-the-road political wasteland. Take this Berkeley CC board, for example. Can you even find a political thread? Nope. Just a ton of people wanting to know how they can get into Haas. Laughably, I think even Davis has a more vibrant cultural/political scene.</p>
<p>Programs. Yes, Berkeley has some incredible programs. But the fact is that UC is pouring its money elsewhere, and grant money is surging into UCSD, UCSB, and UCD. The graduate school ratings of many departments at these other UC’s have correctly been on the rise, along with the number of published papers and patents. In many cases, the undergraduate departments are the beneficiaries of the graduate departments’ success.</p>
<p>Location. Looking at Google Maps only, Berkeley is in a premier location with great weather. But the area surrounding campus leaves something to be desired, and it’s been getting worse for decades. Frankly, it is comparatively unsafe off campus, and unfortunately, that detracts from its appeal.</p>
<p>Facilities. A lot has deteriorated at Berkeley. Other UC’s have newer facilities, and the room to expand. This is particularly true of UCSD and UCD. Want to build the first and largest LEED platinum net-energy-waste-self-sufficient community in the nation? It would be great to build it at Berkeley with all their talent. But UCD says we’ve got 400 acres right on the other side of that pasture; let’s do it. Voila!</p>
<p>Brightest students? Berkeley has some of them, whereas it used to have all of them. For all the reasons above, some of the brightest bypass or turn down Berkeley for some better programs, atmosphere, or money elsewhere. </p>
<p>Is Berkeley still the best of the UC’s? Yes. Is its lead shrinking? Yes. Will Berkeley be surpassed by other UC’s? Probably, in 25 years. People have cited US News rankings. I will posit that in 2050, the rankings will be UCSD, UCSB/UCD, UCLA, Berkeley. Of course, just my opinion 32 years in advance.</p>
<p>How will all the big publics do compared with the big privates? I think the privates will gain on the publics as public money continues to be problematic.</p>
<p>UCSF isn’t counted as part of Cal, so how does that reflect in the rankings?</p>
<p>And increasing voter apathy appears to be a nationwide trend. Cal hasn’t been immune to this.</p>
<p>Regardless, I think Cal still has a long way to go before losing the #1 spot. I know they’re doing construction on campus (not sure what it is…a new building?) and they’re also opening a brand new career center.</p>
<p>Berkeley has worldwide acclaim that will keep them highly ranked for the foreseeable future. There are people I know from Europe and Asia who tell me that when US schools are considered, the top 3 mentioned are usually Harvard, Stanford and Berkeley in that order. Now because US News puts so much importance on endowments doesn’t mean that Berkeley’s brand name has diminished at all worldwide.</p>
<p>Saying UCSD will be #1 in 35 years is a pretty bold statement but I definitely believe they have the potential to leapfrog UCLA for the #2 spot. UCSD has an issue with retaining top faculty that they have to remedy.</p>
<p>I disagree about facilities degrading at Berkeley. There have been a ton of projects and new infrastructure built with a lot still in the development/planning stages.</p>
<p>I find it very hard to believe the guy that suggested other UCs might surpass Berkeley. The main criteria for the “greatness” of all these top universities are still based on the high quality and top level research going on at Berkeley flanked by top research labs like LNBL etc and not based on whether berkeley has better restaurants/downtown area surrounding it or whether you have equal percentage of students from each racial group that contribute to diversity or if their student population is left,right or center. With dwindling state funding, Cal will always be a step ahead of other UCs just because of the strong foundation and reputation in which their individual academic departments are built, based on the level of research that is going on. Unless something catastrophic happens, it is really hard to see Cal falling behind other UCs (it might fall behind other top universities but if Cal goes down, I believe other UCs will not be better off because of it)</p>
<p>With all due respect it’s rather difficult to judge campus culture without attending the campus you’re commenting on. After her first day in Berkeley my mom couldn’t stop talking about how she had seen people “of every color, every shape, and every culture” while walking around. Hilariously, she commented that “a lot of gingers go to this school” while saying nothing about the Asians. </p>
<p>As for the other UC’s grad programs being on the rise… Berkeley’s can’t be on the rise as many already occupy the #1-5 spots. </p>
<p>As someone who was at UCSD two weeks ago, I think our facilities at Cal are much better and as someone who has spent her entire life out at UCSB I know Cal’s facilities are better. Keep dreaming that Davis will be ranked higher than LA/Cal someday, but you’re going to have to go to an alternative universe for it to actually materialize.</p>
<p>Hey, Cal has a nice new athletics facility, I saw it on YouTube!</p>
<p>How can I get into Haas?</p>