Berkeley US News 2013 rankings predictions

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
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<p>Berkeley is an amazing university, and is far and away the best of the UC’s. UCLA is also very good, and UCSD is rising rapidly and is probably incredibly underrated, but Berkeley’s research puts it head and shoulders above the rest in my opinion. I highly disagree with the notion that Davis and Santa Barbara will overtake it; these are niche schools with specific strengths which, while respectable, compare quite poorly to Berkeley’s programs. It would take much longer than 25 years for either school to match Berkeley’s accomplishments and fame. </p>

<p>However, I will say that I don’t necessarily think that Berkeley is underranked by US News. Given the US News criteria, it is probably exactly where it should be. And yes, the US News criteria are flawed, but it’s a stretch to say that they’re purposefully biased against publics. My own theory is that public schools are inherently inferior for the purpose of undergraduate education due to their size. There is simply a limit to how big a university can be while still maintaining some semblance of intimacy, and most publics exceed this limit. They’re undoubtedly a lot of bang for your buck, and they offer myriad research opportunities, but they’re zoos by comparison. Advising is worse, majors are impacted, and in the case of the UC’s, diversity is absent. Berkeley, Michigan, and other top publics are renowned for their research and graduate programs, which have little relevance to corresponding undergraduate programs. Quality of undergraduate instruction, a measure at which Berkeley actually excels, is far more important. But if even Berkeley suffers from some of the other aforementioned problems…US News might not be too wrong in ranking it below USC.</p>

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<p>Neither are measured by USNews</p>

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<p>And Harvard and Stanford are not? :D</p>

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<p>And this is where you lose all credibility</p>

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<p>And this is not instrumental to my point. I’m merely pointing out what people commonly state as problems with public schools. The only reason I referenced US News was because that’s the topic of the thread; I could care less about US News, I’m just making my own point. The fact that US News rankings coincide with my argument indirectly lends myself credence. </p>

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<p>Again, you’re either not reading into what I said, or you’re just not capable of inference. My point was that top publics are renowned for their research and graduate programs, and ONLY their research and graduate programs. Their undergraduate departments are utilitarian by design and by function. The student bodies of Harvard and Stanford are each 1/4th the size of the student body at a place like Berkeley or Michigan. </p>

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<p>Maybe I should’ve clarified here, but it still shouldn’t have been hard to think about what I could have meant by an absence of diversity. Economically, yes, the UC’s have fantastic diversity; they bring in both the rich and the poor, and they don’t squeeze out the middle class like some top privates. In terms of racial diversity, however, they’re lacking. In 2010, Berkeley, UCLA, and UCSD were each approximately 40% Asian/Pacific Islander. African Americans/Blacks made up 4% of Berkeley, 1% of UCLA, and 2% of UCSD. I rest my case.</p>

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<p>Except you started your paragraph referencing USNews and ended it with a reference to USNews. </p>

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<p>Including UVa (#3 public)?</p>

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<p>My point is that even at xx % the size of a UC, H is not exactly known for its undergrad teaching. Neither is Stanford. Neither is MIT. (All highly ranked by USNews.)</p>

<p>fwiw: I beleive many top privates offer a better value than a UC, but the fact is that USNews uses ranking criteria that favor colleges with wealthy student bodies, i.e., private colleges. The only ranking criteria that is not private-focused is the (much maligned) PA. But perhaps we’ll have to agree to disagree on this point.</p>

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<p>I think that it’s also important to consider the ranking from other international rankings such as Academic Ranking of World Universities and Times Higher. These rankings have consistently ranked Berkeley in the top 10. At one point, Berkeley was #2 right behind Harvard. I would guess the ranking of Berkeley from these rankings might go down a touch in view of the budget cut but it’ll be unlikely to drop off the top 10. Even according to the U.S. News World Unversity Ranking, Berkeley has 62 subjects ranked top 5 out of 82 subjects. This is second to none. I guess the next closest should be Harvard.</p>

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<p>Most accurate and objective rankings OVERALL:</p>

<h1>1. Harvard, MIT, Caltech</h1>

<h1>2. Princeton, Yale, Stanford</h1>

<h1>3. Columbia, UPenn, U Chicago</h1>

<h1>4. Cornell, Brown, Berkeley, Dartmouth</h1>

<h1>5. Northwestern, Washington, Georgetown, Duke, Johns Hopkins</h1>

<p>Electrical Engineering:</p>

<h1>1. MIT, Stanford, Berkeley</h1>

<h1>2. Caltech, Cornell, Columbia, CMU</h1>

<p>Business:</p>

<h1>1. Upenn</h1>

<h1>2. Berkeley, Cornell</h1>

<p>Computer Science</p>

<h1>1. MIT, Stanford, Berkeley</h1>

<h1>2. CMU</h1>

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<p>BearFacts, Caltech better than Princeton? Berkeley better than Duke?</p>

<p>You need to get out of California sometime LOL.</p>

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<p>Regardless, Cal should be ranked higher than it is now.</p>

<p>For business, one should note that not all top universities have undergrad business schools. So the ranking there isn’t as important.</p>

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<p>@goldenboy8784
yes, caltech>princeton. YES, Berkeley>>>duke.
And don’t be kidding… I traveled around the country and the world.</p>

<p>Science:</p>

<h1>1. MIT, Caltech, Harvard, Princeton</h1>

<h1>2. U Chicago, Berkeley, Stanford, Yale</h1>

<p>Engineering (excluding EE): </p>

<h1>1. MIT, Stanford, Caltech, Berkeley</h1>

<p>Liberal arts:</p>

<h1>1. Harvard, Yale, Princeton</h1>

<h1>2. Columbia, U Penn, Stanford, U Chicago</h1>

<p>Football:
Who really cares?</p>

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<p>We definitely deserve a spot in the liberal arts too. I think our English, History, and Psychology are seriously legit. A lot of theories and social sciences are developed in Berkeley so these professors must be doing something that other people will recognize.</p>

<p>Football…</p>

<p>Eh, I believe we will come back some day. Some of the schools above don’t even have a football program. I heard there is one other school that never fills up the stadium no matter how much the media hypes about it and the team is top 5 in the nation.</p>

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<p>As someone who went to private school back east and has a lot of friends tere now I can say with certainty that berkeleys liberal arts are head and shoulders above upenn and chicago</p>

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<p>Honestly, if the ranking is focused on the average “quality” of admitted students and the average “quality” of graduates, Berkeley’s ranking should blow pretty hard. When thousands of high school graduates enter a school every year along with thousands of <em>transfers from community colleges</em>, it’s difficult to ensure that they’re all at a certain academic standard. Around 20 among “national universities” seems reasonable. Still, it would be a crime to rank Berkeley below any other UC or USC. Absolute crime.</p>

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<p>Liberal arts:</p>

<h1>1. Harvard, Yale, Princeton</h1>

<h1>2. Columbia, U Penn, Stanford, U Chicago</h1>

<h1>3. Brown, Cornell, Berkeley</h1>

<p>Math:</p>

<h1>1. Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Caltech, Berkeley</h1>

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<p>Rankings are ********e. All the iveys, top privates, MIT, CalTech, and top UCs are pretty much the same. At that point, you’re just splitting hairs. GO WHERE YOU WILL BE HAPPY AND WHAT SCHOOL IS THE BEST FIT FOR YOU. </p>

<p>They’re all great schools, no one is going to the University of Phoenix. </p>

<p>Sorry to go on a rant here, but College rankings are a huge scam and are actually damaging the recruiting structure of our best universities.</p>

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<p>^i couldn’t agree more. just for fun though…</p>

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<p>Lol!</p>

<p><a href=“http://i.imgur.com/DPavP.jpg[/url]”>http://i.imgur.com/DPavP.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>I agree that UCSD is underrated, but that doesn’t mean UCLA is overrated. UCSD <em>might</em> have been able to surpass UCLA if public funding hadn’t been pulled; since it has, UCSD had some MAJOR talent leave its campus and has been forced to shut down some of its libraries. The situation’s probably worse at UCD/UCSB since they don’t have the strong prestige to draw the international/OOS students that UCLA and Berkeley do. </p>

<p>In addition, professors care about many things when choosing a university. These include prestige, location, quality of students and faculty pay. So although UCD has the ability to expand, it arguably does poorer in all categories than UCLA and Berkeley; and UCSB arguably does poorer in all categories except location.</p>

<p>Also, i’m pretty sure Berkeley and UCLA have similar major projects underway (e.g. google ‘wasserman at UCLA.’)</p>

<p>The only UC that has ANY chance of surpassing UC Berkeley, at this point, is UCLA. Only time will tell, however, if that will be the case.</p>

<p>Yes, Berkeley has better graduate programs than UCLA. But UCLA has the best hospital in the west coast; better than UCSF’s and better than Stanford’s (who recently recruited one of our hospital’s faculty members to head their hospital.)</p>

<p>I don’t see Berkeley’s rank slipping anytime soon, however. Especially when their faculty continue to win Nobel prizes.</p>

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<p>Under the U.S. News ranking, it’s possible the Berkeley can slip below other UCs. However, under other international rankings such as Times Higher and ARWU where Berkeley has been consistently ranked in the top 10 and top 5, it looks highly unlikely.</p>

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<p>actually, beyphy, a beautiful location like LaJolla and SB can be a detriment to faculty recruiting. It is just too expensive for a up-and-coming faculty member to live in those communities, without a housing subsidy. (Not saying Westwood is cheap, either, but Albany is a whole lot cheaper than say, Santa Monica.)</p>

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<p>Perhaps true, perhaps not, but in any case irrelevant. UCSF is the higher ranked med school, which means that UCSF has what is considered the more prestigious faculty and research (at least for now).</p>

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<p>It’s hardly going to change for public universities. USNews’ criteria heavily favors private institutions so publics get the shaft.</p>

<p>Pubs:
<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/top-public[/url]”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/top-public&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>That being said UCB will probably stay where it has been for the past several years
(21,21,21,21,22,21)
UCLA
(26,25,25,24,25,25)
UCSD
(38,38,35,35,39,37)</p>

<p>College rankings are completely worthless anyways. Reminds me of power rankings in football.</p>

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<p>UCLA will not, for the foreseeable future, surpass Cal in either domestic or international rankings. </p>

<p>Cal will remain the #1 public for quite some time.</p>