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<p>It depends more on the major than the “brand-name schools”.</p>
<p>Example: People assume UC Berkeley is better than UC San Diego, but in reality, UCSD offers a better medical program than that offered at Berkeley.</p>
<p>Seeing as how your friends are from Hong Kong, they probably haven’t been able to visit the college campus themselves, and so a fallacy builds up.</p>
<p>Also, imo, UCLA and USC are equal overall, but there’s a lot of Trojan/Bruin Rivalry in California.</p>