<p>UCSD is an amazing university and I often promote it here on CC, but it is not going to be on par with Berkeley in 10 to 15 years. However, I do believe it is on the heels of UCLA and will eventually pass it for the top UC is So Cal within the next 5 to 10 years.</p>
<p>Let me give you an example. SDSU students on average have better stats than University of Arizona students yet UA is superior to SDSU. Heck, SDSU is not even a ranked school while UA is in the top 105 schools in the country according to US News Rankings. Just because a school has students with higher GPAs or test scores doesn’t mean it’s better.</p>
<p>@BayBoi10</p>
<p>What makes you so sure UCSD will not be “on par” with Berkeley in 10 to 15 years? What is it about Berkeley that makes it better than UCSD?</p>
<p>I chose UCLA over UCB and SD even though I’ll admit, I think UCB is the best UC there is :). UCSD in my eyes is probably a little behind UCLA. UCLA is the liberal arts college(however it’s good in med, comp sci, and other majors) UCSD is prob better than UCLA in the bio majors so if I was doing a bio major, i would prob go to SD over LA and maybe UCB.</p>
<p>@kingsElite</p>
<p>Well, on the other hand, what evidence is there to validate an opinion that UCSD will be “on par” with Berkeley in the next 10 to 15 years? Berkeley has and almost surely always will be California’s flagship. I will agree that UCSD is quickly rising in ranks and is already a great university, but the reputation that Berkeley has accumulated over the past 100+ years will enable it to remain at the top of the UCs.</p>
<p>Cali Trumpet said it best</p>
<p>Even more overrated than UCLA, although not a UC, is USC. USC is perhaps the most overrated school in the country.</p>
<p>Other than reputation, I can’t see how anybody on here could have any opinion between two universities without attending them both, talking to professors from both, checking out the research opportunities from both, trying to get a job with a degree from both. How do people acquire this information? How do people know what’s going to happen in 10-15 years? That’s all I’m wondering.</p>
<p>^
Usually by rankings, prestige, or what other people have to say. I’ve talk to my dad about it and the business that he works in, it definitely matters where you get your degree from. Obviously a degree from Stanford will always be better and more sought after than a degree from Chico State, you don’t really need to do any research to know that.</p>
<p>^I can perfectly understand how a degree from Stanford is more sought after than one from Chico State, but I feel with UCLA, UCSD, and Berkeley, that we’re kind of splitting hairs sometimes. How do we really know what programs are better? I was talking to a girl from UCR and we were discussing the same Intro to American Politics we were taking and that class there was WAY harder than ours and they learned a lot more. Is UCR better than UCSD?</p>
<p>I chose UCLA over UCB and UCSD, because I had a scholarship of 35k from UCLA >.< with nothing from B and SD :(, plus I have a family friend who is a professor at UCLA 
for my major department :). Though if I didnt have the scholarship, I’d prob choose UCB T.T. I still think UCB is better than UCLA 
for pretty much all major except maybe a select few like med(yes for grad) <em>since UCLA DOES have a hospital</em></p>
<p>^
Wow, nice. Why did they give you a scholarship, based on merit? And i don’t think UCB is that much better than UCLA, they have been getting more equal through the years. But I would definitely say UCLA is more prestigious than UCSD.</p>
<p>My good friend Ross said it best,</p>
<p>“UCLA is a great school but Berkeley is in a whole different league. Like best in the world. And I don’t mean best public university. I mean best period. It is misleading to say best public university because outside the USA all the great universities are public including Cambridge and Oxford. It is useful to know that US News does not consider the quality of the faculty at the undergraduate level. At certain schools including a highly esteemed ivy league university, the star faculty do not teach undergraduate classes, or if they are listed as the instructor, they might only lecture the first two weeks and the last week and a half, with the course conducted in discussion sections by GSI’s(graduate student instructors)the rest of the semester. The star professor does not hold office hours at all. Instead a junior untenured faculty member is in charge of the GSI’s and holds office hours. Not ranking faculty might be relevant under this type of scenario, but not in terms of Berkeley or the other UC’s, because the same faculty that teach graduate classes will teach large undergraduate classes and will show up and lecture all semester long not just 3.5 week of a 15 week long semester. At Berkeley, even in large lecture classes professors hold regular office hours and are very welcoming when students come by, at least in my experience. It is surprising how few students do. Aside from popular perceptions, I believe most professors at Berkeley enjoy teaching undergraduates including large undergraduate lecture classes. The university awards professors for being the best teacher in every department and holds a public ceremony each year where the professors winning are presented with their awards, and those who win take pride in that.
In its first year US News did include quality of faculty in its rankings at the undergraduate level and the rankings were very different. Berkeley was in first place with Stanford in second and Harvard in third. The next year they changed the ranking factors and no longer considered the quality of the faculty and instead favored a host of factors that have a built in bias towards private institutions such as level of alumni giving. This dropped Berkeley to around the #20 spot where it has hovered ever since. A quarter century of these rankings has caused a “private is better simply because it is private mind set” that previously did not exist and does not exist outside the USA. Before US News there was what was referred to as the Big 6-Berkeley, Chicago. Columbia, Harvard, Michigan, Yale, and by the early 1960’s Berkley was considered to be the best of this group. An alternative international ranking to US News that does consider the quality of the faculty is available here.
<a href=“http://www.arwu.org/rank2008/Top500_EN(b…%5B/url%5D”>http://www.arwu.org/rank2008/Top500_EN(b…</a>
Harvard and Stanford outrank Berkeley partly due to their having Medical Schools. Around 1960 the UC Medical School, was named a separate campus, UCSF, but it is only 12 miles away and some programs have first year students taking classes on the Berkeley campus. Cornell’s Medical School is located in New York City, not Ithaca, but considered part of Cornell. UC Davis’ Medical School is located 15 miles away in Sacramento but not known as UC Sacramento and is included in UC Davis rankings. If the UC medical school had not been named a separate campus, Berkeley would probably have the top spot in these rankings.
Berkeley and UCLA are completely different experiences. UCLA is much more a commuter school. There is practically a freeway entering the campus and racing for the mutilevel parking structures. Even though UCLA is in Westwood it is separated from the town. It is not like Berkeley where a student can walk out of class and across Bancroft and into a coffeeshop. It is not quite as isolated as Stanford or the rest of the suburban UC campuses but there is not nearly the meeting of town and gown as at Berkeley. Because UCLA is bordered by Bel Air and Holmby Hills, and does not have sufficient university owned housing, many students have to live a distance from the campus, much more so than at Berkeley. The campus is essentially completely disconnected from the neighborhoods on the north and east. Berkeley is unique in that a student can walk one block off campus on the west side and board a subway and be in downtown San Francisco in 20 minutes. On the east side of the small built up part of the campus, a student can proceed up past Memorial Stadium into Strawberry Canyon and run a 6.8 mile fire trail with spectacular views through a nature preserve, all on the campus. This trail then interconnects with miles of trails through a series of parklands that ring the bay. A mile and a half from the university is the Berkeley Marina and windsurfing and sailing are available. Skiing is available in the Sierra and Marin County and San Mateo County Beaches are about a 40 minute drive. Apartments are usually less than the overpriced university residence halls even if very near the campus, and the greek houses are also quite a bit less. The Berkeley student co-ops are about half the cost. Berkeley is much more a residential campus than UCLA. Berkeley is on the semester system which is a more relaxed pace than the quarter system. The main problem with quarter system UC’s is it isn’t always as simple as registering for classes and then getting into a routine from day 1 of a quarter or semester. Often a student has to petition in to popular classes that are major prerequisites, especially during freshman and sophomore years. When this happens, it usually is not till the 3rd week when a student knows which classes he has been admitted to. He has had to attend 6 classes to hope to get 4. This happens at Berkeley and UCLA and other UC’s. However in the quarter system UC’s, by the end of the 3rd week, the semester is 30% over and usually the first mid term is taking place or will take place in the 4th week. At Berkeley, the first mid term is usually in the 6th week so there is time to catch up. It can be very challenging in quarter system UC’s. In addition the situation with finals also presents problems in quarter system UC’s. At Berkeley it usually happens that there is effectively about a week from the last class till the first final, so there is time to catch up. In quarter system UC’s the semester can end, one dead day and finals start. There is no effective dead period in which to catch up or review. The finals at Berkeley and UCLA are both 3 hours long and for the most part they can be completed in about 2.5 hours. At Davis, Irvine and Riverside the Finals are 2 hours and can involve a race with the clock. I believe this contributes to Davis having the lowest freshman year GPA in the UC system, around 2.8 range and Berkeley having the highest, usually around 3.4, which is a heck of a difference. At Berkeley there are plenty of opportunities to work in Professor’s labs for majors in the biological sciences and I assume that is the case at UCLA. There are also relevant majors in the College of Natural Resources where the classes and majors are much smaller. It is nice to be able to go home and recharge whenever one wishes but it can also be difficult if parents expect frequent visits and don’t understand the workload of a uc and how much time is at a premium. I guess the living situation one is in would be a prime consideration between Berkeley and UCLA. It can be very difficult to study in a dorm setting and this then means studying in libraries. If a person is comfortable with this then probably either school. But I don’t think UCLA can guarantee housing beyond Sophomore year and this might then involve living a distance from campus. At Berkeley, it is more likely to find housing near campus that is less than residence halls, so I think it is a better overall situation in this regard.”</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V0g3MD9WLI[/url]”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V0g3MD9WLI</a></p>
<p>^That doesn’t prove the Berkeley is better than UCLA at all, and at UCSD I get absolutely horrible class registration times because I didn’t come in with many units but I’m still able to get all the classes I need.</p>
<p>^^Wow. Where to begin. Just a few observations. UCLA is seperated from “the town?” Ridiculous. You certainly can walk across the street to get to coffee shops, etc. A commuter school? Any stats on that? Both are situated in the middle of huge metropolitan areas–undoubtedly more townies than, say, Dartmouth. Berkeley greater in the 60s than now? Duh. All of California was greater in the 60s than now. These schools are very close, certainly at the undergrad level.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-los-angeles/770864-deterioration-ucla.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-los-angeles/770864-deterioration-ucla.html</a></p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Berkeley is unarguably the best public school in the nation, but UCLA certainly doesn’t top Michigan in that regard. And there’s UVA, and UNC. It’s top 5, but not #2.</p>
<p>Whether or not its number 2 or 5 or w.e in the top 5, it doesnt matter, because you’re still going to the best public schools in the nation -.-. We should just be happy that we have the privilege to go to UCB or UCLA, which is hard to get in :). Besides most people would be happy if they got either one anyways :D. but EVERY1 knows UCLA>UCB XD (BIAS <em>alert</em>)</p>
<p>lol nah bro.
UCB > UCLA
i was rejected at berkeley, but got into LA, that’s not saying much though.
quick question, whats the financial state of UC schools nowadays?</p>
<p>BayBoi10, just wanted to share some thoughts regarding the schools’ campus environments. While I do attend UCLA, I grew up within the 20 minute BART trip to Berkeley that Ross mentioned.</p>
<p>UCLA is anything but a commuter school. The dormitories accomodate about 10k students and they’re still building to guarantee housing to ALL students. Not to mention, UCLA owns several apartments in nearby Westwood that students can easily move into after being in the dorms. The only “commute” I’ve heard of is the mile-long bus ride up Westwood Blvd for people living south of Wilshire, where apartments are considerably cheaper. I know only one person who ever commuted from beyond Westwood, and I’m in my fourth year already.</p>
<p>And as for the coffee shop comparison, Westwood Blvd. is to UCLA as Bancroft or Shattuck are to Berkeley. He’s right, the north and east borders of campus are all residential, but the west and south sides are all Westwood Village, which is about as much “town” as is Berkeley. A short half mile walk to Wilshire can put you on a bus to anywhere in greater Los Angeles, and the subway line is being extended to Westwood to further connect the neighborhood to “the city.”</p>
<p>To add my own two cents - I wasn’t too wild about Cal’s off-campus dorms. I’ve stayed overnight in Unit 3 several times and found myself walking through the town of Berkeley just to get a meal. What I liked about UCLA’s “Hill” is that all of the dorms are located in close proximity on the west side of campus.</p>