<p>Stanford
USC
Cal
UCLA</p>
<p>???</p>
<p>Is that the right order, you think?</p>
<p>hahahah are you kidding me?</p>
<p>OVERALL BEST SCHOOLS:</p>
<ol>
<li> Cal Tech-Stanford</li>
<li> Berkeley</li>
<li> UCLA</li>
<li> UCSD-USC</li>
</ol>
<p>Liberal arts schools would include the claremont schools somewhere around or just ahead of ucsd/usc, maybe equivalent to ucla. Also look at your department and its strenghts. any one of these schools could be stronger than another in one area of study.</p>
<p>Asking for rankings of the "best schools in california" is much too broad a question to answer accurately. Are you looking for a liberal arts school or a major university? Big school or small school? Any specific major in mind?</p>
<p>For me, the ranking is this way"</p>
<ol>
<li>CalTech</li>
<li>Stanford/Berkeley</li>
<li>Berkeley/Stanford</li>
<li>UCLA/USC</li>
<li>USC/UCLA</li>
</ol>
<p>I'll expand to a Top-10 because California has a ton of good schools. It's funny that any school in the Top 10-15 in California would be the BEST school in a number of states.</p>
<ol>
<li>Cal Tech</li>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li>Berkeley</li>
<li>UCLA</li>
<li>UCSD</li>
<li>USC</li>
<li>UC Davis</li>
<li>UCSB</li>
<li>USD</li>
<li>Pepperdine</li>
</ol>
<p>you really do need to consider the questions like those posed by seniorSC. some programs are better than others at some schools, the academic experience different, etc. CalTech probably wouldn't be the best school for, say, political science...eh, do they even offer it there? heh</p>
<p>My perception:</p>
<ol>
<li>Stanford/Caltech</li>
<li>Berkeley</li>
<li>UCLA/USC</li>
<li>UCSD</li>
</ol>
<p>Anything which has Pepperdine or USD above Pomona College, Harvey Mudd College, Claremont McKenna College, and even Pitzer College, Scripps College, and Occidental college is not right in my book.</p>
<p>As someone has mentioned, this is too broad. Overall, I think Stanford and Berkeley are the best schools, with Stanford being the best given its having a med school (instead of just ties to one), having a better business school, having a better law school, and having a somewhat better undergraduate program. Caltech is a technical institute, and not a fully fledged school in my eyes. Absolutely amazing at what it does, but vert narrowly focused.</p>
<p>Hey! Despite that, their poli sci program is top notch!</p>
<p>"My perception:</p>
<ol>
<li>Stanford/Caltech</li>
<li>Berkeley</li>
<li>UCLA/USC</li>
<li>UCSD"</li>
</ol>
<p>agree, but yes, remember caltech is a specialty school and i question it even being in the USNWR ranking of national universities</p>
<p>Wait...</p>
<p>How is it any different from MIT then?</p>
<p>Both schools, despite people's not knowing it, have some top notch social science programs.</p>
<p>MIT is less narrow. It has Harvard and Wellesley for cross-registration, anthropology, business, architecture, econ, poli sci, phil, linguistics, history, music, and did I mention all of Harvard? All of it.</p>
<p>Yeah? Well...CalTech has some programs with UCLA. So nyah!</p>
<p>I definitely think that MIT is a better rounded school, but questioning its placement on the national university chart seems a bit silly to me.</p>
<p>w00t. A handful of graduate programs really shows the close ties!</p>
<p>:rolleyes:</p>
<p>Hey, I never said "close ties." :(</p>
<p>occidental is not on there?</p>
<p>LAC's would be a seperate list.... something like....</p>
<ol>
<li>Pomona</li>
<li>Claremont Mckenna</li>
<li>Harvey Mudd</li>
<li>Scripps</li>
<li>Occidental</li>
</ol>
<p>More like...</p>
<ol>
<li>Harvey Mudd</li>
<li>Pomona</li>
<li>CMC</li>
<li>Scripps</li>
<li>Occidental</li>
</ol>
<p>i love the 5-C rivalry. </p>
<p>So, the gist of the argument is that if you want to go to one of the best private schools in California, you'll be going to one of the Claremont Colleges.</p>
<p>Where is Pomona? It's next after Caltech/Stanford. And CMC, IMO, is better than USC and much better that the mid tier UCs.</p>