<p>Hello!
I am a CCC student and have been accepted to UCSB, UCSD, Regents at UCI and have TAP with UCLA.</p>
<p>I am a Poli Sci major and am heavily interested in International Studies.</p>
<p>For graduate school I would like go to to SAIS at Johns Hopkins or SIPA at Columbia for advanced studies in International Relations.</p>
<p>Let's say I went to UCI... Would I have a chance at an ivy league for graduate school? I am so torn about this. I have a full ride at UCI and live very close to the campus, I could potentially do a UCDC internship in Washington because I will have more financial freedom, but if UCLA or UCSD will be a better way to get into my dream graduate school then I will pull out loans.</p>
<p>Thank you! I heard that getting letter of rec’s from well-known faculty such as UCLA will give leverage though? Is this true? UCI’s Political Science department is great but not as established as the others…</p>
<p>UCB
UCLA
UCSD
UCD
UCSB (this and UCD fluxtuate up and down, but i think UCD is better)
then UCSC, UCM, UCI all kinda of have the same rank.</p>
<p>Good news is they are generally considered top tier schools, for the most part. Honestly, however, your best bet is UCLA and CAL. UCSD is ranked pretty high as well and would look good to an Ivy. The most important thing however is your commitment to excellence. Excel at your school, get good recommendations, write good letters, score well on you GRE’s. Some say school doesn’t matter as much as these things, but my econ teacher said treat it like a job interview - if you have a choice between a 4.0 graduate at Chico State and a 4.0 at Cal - chance are the Cal grad is gonna look better from the start.</p>
<p>Its better to have an outstanding recommendation from a not so well known professor than an average letter from a nobel prize winner. By outstanding i mean: “This student is one of the best i’ve come across in years…” So goto the school where you think you can perform your best as well as making great connections through research/internships.</p>
<p>edit: are you seriously putting UCI at the same rank as UCM? Also, good luck getting a 4.0 at Cal.</p>
<p>Would it be better to go to a less competitive school like UCI and get the great GPA and internship opportunities or go to UCLA for the recognition and faculty?</p>
<p>some cases Irvine is above davis, but generally UCSB is above Irvine, and some cases UCD is above both. It depends on where you check and what criteria they are judging on.</p>
<p>That same website ranks upenn, duke, johns hopkins, wash U s.l. and northwestern below UCLA. That just shows it’s credibility. AKA its complete bullsh1t</p>
<p>Just to let you know, going to UCI instead of UCLA is not going to mean you’re more likely to get a higher GPA, since you’d be taking the same classes as undergrad requirements at either school. Splitting hairs on “ranking” is a bit naive, imo. I mean, if you had a 4.0 at Chico and a 4.0 from UCLA, then maybe it’d matter, but then again Graduate Admissions would also be comparing things such as GREs, letters of recommendation, research experience, etc. </p>
<p>Once you get into “Ivy League” status graduate programs you have to realize that EVERYONE whoo applies will pretty much have GPAs in the 3.7+ range, so it’ll have to be the other things that make you stand out. </p>
<p>Besides, pretty much all the UCs barring Merced are considered top tier, since Merced hasn’t been around long. Not wanting to graduate with too much debt, I decided to just go wherever would be cheapest, which was UCSC (roughly free). Since you have Regents at UCI I’m going to assume it’d be pretty cheap if you keep your grades up, so I’d go there. Especially in a field such as Poli Sci where the potential stipends in grad school won’t be as much, as far as I know.</p>
<p>there is an easier way to do this. Take all the rankings that you see on websites and throw them in the trash. If your plan is to go to grad school, look at the university your planning to attend and look at professors who teach courses regularly so you can take their classes and maybe get a recommendation if you work hard for it. Also, make sure the professor has extensive work in the field and the better the recommendation, the higher chance you have of getting into your university of choice. Most of the time, the professor might have went to that university your planning to go to or knows colleagues who have done extensive research in the field. Ask for more information from these professors. Keep this in mind when you transfer, but don’t choose a school because a professor goes there because sometimes the professor can be really cold to students as they are focused more on research. If you have a gpa showing you have academic expertise and understanding in the field, you should have a easier time with grad school admissions</p>
<p>UCI, UC Davis, and UC Irvine are all about equal. You have to be a little crazy (and I’ve seen two posters here already) to think any of the three significantly outrank each other overall (though for specific fields there might be significant differences). All 3 are tied on the US News rankings at #44 (#12 among publics only), and the GPA and SAT means among enrolled applicants are virtually identical between the 3 schools. Admission rates fluctuate, but selectivity itself does not tell you much about the school (Irvine might have a lower acceptance rate, but what if that’s due to more crappy applicants?, etc)</p>
<p>uhhh, USC IS better than UCI…easily-
Just look at recruiting for big firms. My dad works for one of the big 4 and they don’t even look at people from UCI, whereas they do look at people from USC, UCLA, and Berkely</p>