<p>i dunno if education at cal and ucla is that much better -- i think people just tend to follow the ranking too much -- a bit of a herd feeling: you gotta run towards whatever cliff everyone's heading for -- now i've discovered something very important going through 4 years at ucsd and having friends at cal and ucla who i kept in touch with -- and it goes:
-->Rankings will not tell you how good of an education you'll get.<--</p>
<p>if you look at what US News bases its raking on, do any of these factors sound synonymous to "good education"?: number of people per class? % full-time professors? SAT scores? graduation rates??? -- ok say i'm heading a college, and i hire all these full-time profs, and make small classes, and pick students with high SAT scores, and then make nearly all of them graduate -- does that tell you what i'm going to be doing with these students meanwhile while they are attending my college? will i be giving them a good education?</p>
<p>another very important thing to realize is:
--> For professional success, attending a graduate/professional school matters a lot more than undergraduate education. <--</p>
<p>I think everyone would agree that getting any degree beyond bachelor's makes you not only better in your specific field but also results in higher salary.</p>
<p>in 2005, UCSD reported that 40% of its graduates went to professional or graduate school, with over half pursuing doctorate degrees.
(39% in 2003, 36% in 2001, 27% in 2000)</p>
<p>in 2004, UCB reported that 23% of its graduates decided to attend professional or graduate school.
(22% in 2002, 18% in 2000)</p>
<p>-- now i do not know how accurate these percentages are -- survey methods were pretty much the same i am guessing, but there might be other factors i'm not accounting for in comparing these two schools -- still, nearly twice the amount of people sent into grad or professional school than Cal has to be a positive moment of going to UCSD</p>
<p>Don't be so quick to call me lucky, Nieck.
By going to a religiously-affiliated high school, California's Leonard Law does not protect freedom of speech at Pres (my school basically ignores the first amendment all together). I'm editor for the school newspaper and three of my articles have been censored, and the upper-division of the administration hates me for my seemingly leftist views (even though I'm not an extremist). In fact, they didn't even allow our staff to use a clipart graphic of briefs for our "In-Briefs" section because they thought it was too vulgar.
Religiously-affiliated high schools have the right to look through your lockers without your permission, the right to suspend you for your myspace account (i.e. if you were wearing your uniform in one picture and participated in underage drinking in another), the right to give you detention after school as long as you are on campus, and the right to censor you. These are only a few instances where the administration can exercise their control over their students. </p>
<p>Oh well. I'll stop whining because I at least received a pretty good education from it.</p>
<p>you're right. each have their advantages and disadvantages. my friend at notre dame gets detention all the time for the stupidest things. but anyway, you ARE lucky to be going to ucsd. there are many reasons:
1. (you will especially appreciate this) freedom
2. excellent education
3. many more.</p>
<p>i come from a tiny school, 150 kids, but my town only has 3000 so yeah...low performing school...only 2 seniors are going to a UC school, including myself...i was actually accepted into UCLA..i am the only person from our school to EVER be accepted there, but i chose UCSD cus i kinda thought the competition at UCLA would be worse...anyhoo, UCSD it is</p>