<p>On the connection.naviance.com website, the stats show that UCLA’s average on the SAT and GPA are higher than UC Berkeley’s by a tiny bit. Would this make UCLA the top UC of all UCs now? I’m pretty sure it is only this year that UCLA appeared to be more selective than Cal.</p>
<p>I believe that Naviance shows the average GPA/SAT of the students at your school that have gotten into a particular school. So perhaps the scores of students who got into UCLA are slightly higher at your school, but I think that generally, Berkeley is considered the best UC. I believe Berkeley is ranked as the #1 public university in the US and UCLA is #2 or #3.</p>
<p>ohh that makes sense then, i didn’t know that about naviance. yeah that’s true, i think more ppl this year at my school got accepted to Cal than UCLA for some reason. k thx!</p>
<p>you do realize that admissions rates arent what ranks schools right?</p>
<p>you know, whenever I read posts like this I get a real smile. How could one school be “better” for all possible students, all possible majors, and all possible circumstances. It just reminds me of how black-and-white HS kids seem to see the world, missing entirely the shades of grey you learn to appreciate with maturity and experience.</p>
<p>If discussing pure rankings, UC Berkeley is usually ranked higher. </p>
<p>However, we all know that rankings are ********.</p>
<p>Thanks, precog.</p>
<p>UCLA and UC Berkeley are very, very well-respected institutions. To rank one as better than the other is splitting hairs.</p>
<p>ranking-wise, yes. but in all honesty, UCLA is getting much better than ucb in all areas: science, liberal arts, history, math, and DEFINITELY sports. ucb is definitely on a decline IMO. ucsd is beating it in science too.</p>
<p>Truffliepuff, I don’t even have to look up the rest because what you said is so incredibly false - the math here is incredible, and tier 1. It’s best compared with schools like UChicago, MIT, etc. UCLA has some stars in math, including Terence Tao, and people like Hida and Khare in arithmetic, and a generally more active number theory group, but in breadth and depth of mathematics, the Berkeley department simply has more, and I see no evidence of this changing. I am refraining from using the vague term “better.” </p>
<p>This sort of topic is bogus, unless people have real knowledge of the schools.</p>
<p>@Truffliepuff:
I don’t understand your argument at all. You say that rankings don’t really matter in your opinion, but you claim that UCSD is “beating” UCB in science this year. How did you come about to the conclusion that one school can “beat” another’s science program?</p>
<p>For the record, Cal Football went an abysmal 8-5 last year, but UCLA did even worse with a 7-6 record… They haven’t been at the top of the PacTen since nearly 12 years ago. They had a history of winning the conference title at least once every decade… until they failed to do so in the 2000’s. Cal reached the top of the conference in 2006. </p>
<p>At least Cal made it to the NCAA Tournament this year… where was UCLA with its less than .500 14-18 record? </p>
<p>I also love how you pulled a bunch of random subjects out of your ass to make your argument seem more valid. History? Honey, this isn’t high school anymore. We don’t have “History” class anymore. Your socal bias is showing.</p>
<p>Truffliepuff: UCLA science/engineering is nowhere close to Berkeley.</p>
<p>Berkeley will remain the #1 UC for a long time, the better question to ask is when will UCSD catch up to UCLA</p>
<p>Hmm yes I guess I should apologize for the UCLA assumptions.</p>
<p>But in fair honesty, ucsd IS getting better at science - particularly in the medical and biology field. Their research is getting really top notch and lately they have had more discoveries and published journals than UCB has…they’re even listed as one of the top schools in biomedical research.</p>
<p>I like how people seem to know so much about certain universities and departments without ever setting foot in one of their classes. If you haven’t, how can you have much of an opinion?</p>
<p>True, UCSD’s biomedical program is flourishing. However, to say it is better than Berkeley at science is ridiculous. Berkeley’s physics and engineering programs are world class and their chemistry program is top 3. Most people agree that overall, Berkeley’s biology program is still better than UCSDs. While UCSD is making great strides in neuroscience and biomedical research, Berkeley’s MCB program is said to be top 3.</p>
<p>afc10ns: Agreed.</p>
<p>Just some food for thought:
In most fields, UCLA and UCB offer better programs than UCSD. However, if you keep in mind the amount of time each university has been in existence for…UCSD is just turning 50 years old this year, while UCLA and UCB are much older. From this you can see that LA and B have had a much greater time to solidify their positions as top-ranking schools. In 50 years, UCSD has pulled itself up from nothingness into a distinguished institution, with an engineering school rank 11 in the nation, top-notch medical school, and other fields that continue to grow. While Berk and LA’s CURRENT rank is very high, It is pretty clear that UCSD’s RATE at which it is moving up the rankings surpasses both of theirs (seeing how they have both already capped out most of their fields’ rankings near the top), so 10-15 years from now , UCSD graduates will definitely start finding prestige value in their alma mater on par with UCLA, and through a slight reach, maybe even Berkeley.</p>
<p>^What does prestige value even mean? Once you get a job you get a job. After that, where you went to school doesn’t matter.</p>
<p>Though people like to say it isn’t, prestige is a small aspect of applying to graduate school.</p>
<p>^Ok sure but we seem to be splitting hairs here like Keilinger said. These schools are seemingly very similar. It’s not like we just pulled Western Wyoming Community College into the equation. And quite honestly I’m just really surprised how people know how good departments are compared to each other when they have never attended class at both (or in some cases none at all), have never talked to the professors or checked out the research opportunities. What happens is people find a website that have some arbitrary rankings and the some other people find another website with arbitrary rankings and they fight over how “their” website is the most correct.</p>
<p>Sure, all three universites can get you a job. However it is pretty widely understood that Berkeley is the best public school in the nation, which may help slightly in getting a job. The difference between the three isn’t huge, and in the long run it is most likely negligible, but it is still there.</p>
<p>^I’m not saying you’re necessarily wrong with that statement cause I would tend to agree, but just out of curiosity, what exactly makes you sure of it?</p>