Ok, So it’s pretty clear the top 5 are UNC, UVA, UC Berkeley, UCLA, and Michigan. I was wondering how people at college confidential would rank them. I may be a bit biased but my ranking goes:
Why???
They are all great schools. They have distinct personalities. Their own top depts and their own star profs.
Why bother ranking them? It’s pretty useless IMHO
It depends on what you want. They all rank about the same in general…but if you want endineering or business…Michigan. Warm weather, not Michigan!
UNC is so lovely, I thought it was a beautiful place.
@Dustyfeathers Why not? lol
The best one has in-state tuition, somewhat matches your political orientation, earthquake, safety and snow tolerance, and does well in your favorite sport(s).
You are on a Michigan forum…of course Michigan is the best public university! 
Seriously, all five public universities that you listed are excellent…elite really. I would say Cal is the most prestigious by a small margin, but Michigan is the most well rounded. As far as I am concerned, those are the top two public universities in the nation.
UVa is excellent, but it is not as strong as Cal or Michigan in the STEM fields, UCLA lacks the resources and UNC both lacks the resources and is weaker in the STEM fields, although it is good in the life sciences.
Unbiased answers. You’ll get five different biased answers - haha
@Dustyfeathers How do you know if a certain college has star professors? I have been wondering about that. I apologize if it seems like a stupid question.
@Dalinar That’s a great question. Because “star” can be defined in various ways, this explanation is a little rambling and centers on how you can possibly pick the profs that are right for you.
I think your question is rather sophisticated, because most people in doing their research on colleges barely get past the USN&WR rankings to determine quality overall. That ranking system IMHO is so flawed as to be almost useless. For example, if you choose Ranked 1 School because you’re guessing that it will have the best department in X, without looking deeper, you might find that a) that school doesn’t have that department or it’s rudimentary. Or b) if it does, the department is run badly. Yes this does happen at the Ivies and elsewhere. There may be Famous Great Prof from 1948, legend in his (or her) time but who hasn’t produced any new research since then and may also be a terrible teacher. Rambling presentation. Still reading directly from notes on yellow pads, the whole thing. And the TAs are the ones really teaching the course. Often TAs are great, but the students are learning from grad students maybe two years ahead of them in studies, in reality . … they may be the “best” TAs in the world, but they would not likely be what you signed up for. You worked hard to be taught by Famous Great Professor who turned out to be not so great after all. Meanwhile in School Ranked #48 or #65 you may have Amazing Young Professor who’s tearing up your discipline of interest because she’s approaching things from outside of the norm. That lower ranked school may well be the best school for you.
If possible look at your department(s) of choice and look through the list of professors. See what their research topics are. Do any of those topics interest you?
Although hugely flawed, it’s not a terrible thing to look at Rank my Professor to see if the dept. profs trend down or up. Beware though becuase people ranking profs there are often the highly motivated, either highly motivated to punish profs or to reward profs, so it’s extremely inaccurate, but nonetheless can give SOME information.
Download the faculty CVs and see how active they are: Do they speak around the country/world often? On what topics? Does that sound rigorous (they’re being named to research posts in other countries or they are asked to give plenary addresses to the major conferences or they guest lecture often in places that seem to matter) or does it sound like they are attempting to become TV-level or Pop-culture level “public intellectuals” (which seems to be a trend in academics currently. They could be both! But sadly sometimes the most “famous” prof in the lay-person’s world can often not be that productive at a school and may not be a great teacher). Check to see when they published papers last. Are those the most rigorous peer-reviewed journals? Or are those journals some of the “we will publish anything if you pay” journals that are cropping up like mushrooms? Are the profs helping their students also publish (maybe that researcher’s name is at the end of 15 names on a paper (exaggeration). The last name is often the name of the funding researcher and they are allowing their students and other collaborating colleagues to publish using their data). Does the researcher have active labs? Has an active grant? Runs a “center” or “program”? How active is that Center or Program (has it hosted an event recently? What else does it do?)
Check to see when the last time Your Favorite Professors taught. Sometimes they have “bought out” of their teaching with grant money so that they could concentrate on their research. Small LACs have less of this (because while they do have research, teaching tends to be emphasized in LACs and in some borders on private tutorials, and in research Us the research takes precedence often over teaching) and I think the UCs have sometimes not allowed this to happen, but I don’t know the current rules. How big are those classes? Does that size suit you?
Some schools, like MIT and Yale, put entire classes online for free. Look at them and see if you like them. Check Coursera and other MOOCs to see if your school of choice offers classes. That is just one indication of many about quality.
Looking at these factors may help you determine the quality of a department and the slate of profs and may help you decide which school is best for you.
When evaluating a college I consider a few really practical things. What percent of kids who start…graduate? That’s huge to me. Schools that have high graduation rates have good programs, good support, and select for students who prioritize their studies to their social lives. If my kid is going to go into debt, I want them to have something to show for it. Post-graduation employment rates are pretty important to me, too. All of these schools have graduation rates in the 90% range. (some at five years…but hey, if it’s a big major, a super-senior year can be standard…but the important thing is that students are supported to graduate!) All of these schools have extremely high post graduation employment rates. I like schools with good international reputations. Lots of research opportunities. Lots of opportunities to network with industry leaders and lots of helpful mentors. All of these schools fit the bill in my book. My kiddo picked Michigan because we’re in state and it’s an excellent school. She loves it there. But as one poster pointed out…liking snow helps. LOL:)
@Dustyfeathers Thank you so much for your insightful and informative response!
Btw my ranking goes:
Not sure where UMA Amherst fits, but its Honors college is pretty awesome.
For us it is:
@OldManJenkins One word of caution: budget cuts are hitting University of California hard. I’ve spoken to many students who take longer than 4 years to graduate because they simply cannot fulfil their requirements earlier.
@Alexandre “Prestige” is an interesting concept. It is often confused with “famous”. I’m never certain what it is meant to connote in any case.
UC Berkeley and UCLA may find themselves with lowering prestige as they become less appealing to OOS (cutting OOS financial aid, while their non-California “top public” peers do the opposite).
@KneeDeepClunge @yikesyikesyikes The UCs have never provided good financial aid for OOS students, but I agree they have not literally closed their doors to anyone from out of state without money. That said, it is impacted majors and the fact that a growing number of students need five years to graduate that is really hurting them.
The word “best” has little meaning here. Universities have several functions, including research, undergraduate education, and graduate education. Ideally, they will support the local community in various ways and support the arts and other cultural activities. For each individual applicant, the answer may be very different when seeking the “best.” All of these schools are great at research and graduate education. I’m not sure any of them are ideal for the undergraduate, other than the fact that the degree is prestigious. The introductory classes are huge, there is little personal interaction with the professors in these large classes, and due to their size, these schools cannot provide the type of individual support that smaller schools do. 3rd and 4th year classes are smaller, but undergrads are seldom first in line for research opportunities. If an undergraduate student is very assertive and persistent, I suppose it is possible to get a superb undergraduate experience. I know a bunch of kids who have gone to Cal (I live a mile from the campus), and they uniformly complain about the lack of personal attention there.
I know that my daughter’s school, one of the top (defining top is again a problem, but most publications rank it between 1 and 4) liberal arts schools in the country, is providing an undergraduate education that cannot be matched by these monster schools. Her average class size is about 8, she knows every professor personally, she can email her professors regarding her homework at midnight and get immediate feedback, the class usually has dinner at the professors’ homes 2 or 3 times a semester, and there are no teaching assistants. The research opportunities for undergraduates are unlimited, and the chief of the department for her major takes a personal interest in her academic progress. He even intervened to be sure she was admitted to the best possible study abroad program for her particular interests, and let her know that the college wants to support her in applying for a Fulbright, which she hadn’t serious considered previously. That type of support isn’t likely to occur at a college with 25,000 undergraduates. On the other hand, if she decides to get a doctorate, she plans to apply to some of these larger schools. Berkeley and Michigan are among the top grad schools for her major, and the resources for research are immense for grad students.
My son is waiting to see if he will be admitted to UM. He is actually a recruited athlete, and UM is his first choice. He does not have the stats that are thrown around on the UM threads here, which is not unusual for recruited D1 athletes I suppose. I do worry about how he would do at UM, since he is not at the same level of scholarship and maturity that my daughter had at 18. I’m afraid he will get lost, in an academic sense, in such a large school. On the other hand, he might not be admitted, so I may be worrying needlessly. His other options are frankly less academically challenging schools. In his case, UM may not be the BEST school.
@akiddoc I agree with much of what you write except when you refer in your second paragraph to “monster” schools. A frequent mistake is to equate the overall size of the university to the undergraduate experience or size of classes. Many of the very large universities are broken down into much smaller “colleges” which can be the size of LACs (i.e. Michigan’s Residential College, UCSD’s colleges). Class sizes in these units are often very small.
The same goes for the “monster” Ivy League universities. Several (Columbia, Penn, Harvard) have 30,000+ students. But that isn’t the size of their undergraduate colleges. I’ve had family members attend Columbia and Harvard, and class sizes are frequently 8-10.
From the many people I have known, you can feel just as lost in a college of 1,500 as one of 25,000 (and possibly even more alienated). And some students react very badly to small(er) environments. So as many people have stated, it is a matter of personal choice.