<p>By the way, since I’m complaining about other people’s rankings, here’s my own based on the complete college experience which includes academics and social factors:</p>
<p>1) UCLA
World renowned, strong sports community, active entertainment options in LA<br>
None</p>
<p>2) UC Berkeley
World renowned, strong sports community, college town that serves students
Berkeley area can be kind of ghetto, parties more limited compared to other campuses</p>
<p>3) UCSB (full disclosure: my school)
Incredible social atmosphere, the ultimate student oriented town, respectable program
Party school reputation, isolated location means limited options for shopping, etc</p>
<p>4) UC Davis
College town atmosphere, decent sports following, respectable programs and professional schools
“Davis can be boring”, very hot summers, many students go home on weekends</p>
<p>TIE 5) UCSD
Highly renowned program, coastal location, amenities of San Diego
Lack of centralized student community, reputation of commuter campus, Division II athletics</p>
<p>TIE 5) UC Irvine
Very strong program, next to many OC attractions
Commuter campus, lack of student community, set in a family community (terrible for students)</p>
<p>TIE 5) UC Santa Cruz
Good program, beautiful campus
Division III athletics, reputation as “pot smoker’s” campus, not as strong as other UCs academically</p>
<p>8) UC Riverside
Respectable program
Low sports attendance, lack of student community, location of Riverside</p>
<p>9) UC Merced
It’s in the UC system</p>
<h2>- Town of Merced, campus is unestablished, lack of entertainment options of students.</h2>
<p>If I got into all the UCs, this is basically the order in which I would have selected a campus.</p>
<p>I guess they are already ranked by us news, but this is what I think</p>
<p>1.UC Berkeley-the best public school in the country
2.UCLA - probably one of the best locations for a college theres a lot to do and its beautiful
3.UCSD - groundbreaking research, although it is a little boring from what ive heard
4.UCI - great facilities and programs and beautiful campus
5.UCD - great programs but its in a rural area and theres not as much to do as UCLA/UCI
6.UCSB - nice location and programs, no medical school or law school and lacks prestige
7.UCSC - similar to UCSB, has some great programs but isnt presitgious overall
8.UCR - in Riverside and doesnt have that great of a reputation but excels in some fields
9.UCM - really new, idk</p>
<p>RC251, i agree with you on most of your rankings… except for the no Cons for UCLA… and how Ghetto leads to limited parties at UCB… I’m not too sure about this, but I thought having a ghetto surrounding and super active environment would mean more parties? o_O</p>
<p>Yeah, that wasn’t exactly one leading to the other. I’ve been to Berkeley many times (my older brother got his pHD there), and I guess the ghetto comment is just the overall impression I got from some of the surrounding areas. As for parties, this is anecdotal (just like the rest of my list), but I’ve heard that the cutthroat educational environment leads to a situation where students are constantly stressed and there are less social outlets. UCLA seemed to have a lot more of that “good time Socal” feeling. I could be totally off base but those are just the impressions I got. </p>
<p>And just a note, I’ve been to every UC campus (including Merced) except for Riverside. I do think UCLA as a whole is the most complete campus, combining an excellent academic environment with a lively social experience (as much as I hate to say that being a UCSB grad). I guess maybe having a car really helps to get around, but outside of Berkeley (with BART being so convenient) that’s really true at all UCs.</p>
<p>SC has often been placed as one of the lower-tier UCs. However, over the years, it has been making a name for itself in several departments, and its selectivity has increased tremendously (from around 80% a couple of years ago to 63% this year), as well as the stats necessary to gain admission. </p>
<p>You are NOT guaranteed admission to UCSC if you’re UC eligible (the 63% acceptance rate is clearly evidence for that), but you’re usually guaranteed admission to UCR if you fulfill minimum requirements (at least, that’s what it said on the postcard I got from UCR last year).</p>
<p>I want to know what I can classify as a safety. </p>
<p>I see SC has a review process as well. I don’t get how they hand out scores though. What does it mean examination 2,400 points, shouldn’t be out of 4000, if Subjects are included? Whats there cut off?</p>
<p>It seems like most of the earlier posters are putting irvine at roughly the same level as santabarbara and Davis. I was under the opinion that Irvine was worse than these two. what makes irvine that good?</p>
<p>Radiance - I like the gaps… definitely adds value! :)</p>
<p>But I would put Berkeley and UCLA on top… then a gap… Although San Diego has a professor in Pharmacology, Roger Tsien, who just received the nobel price</p>
<p>* It seems like most of the earlier posters are putting irvine at roughly the same level as santabarbara and Davis. I was under the opinion that Irvine was worse than these two. what makes irvine that good? *</p>
<p>It’s ranked the same in US News as the other two. The quality of enrolled students is just about identical. It has many strong programs as well. It’s about the same as Davis and Santa Barbara.</p>
<p>Irvine and Davis are probably ranked the same in terms of their reputation, and UCSB slightlly below them, but all 3 are about the same. UCB is definitely more prestigious than UCLA.
The “Top 400 World Universities” really isn’t a legitimate ranking system. It uses student to teacher ratio and how specific students “feel” about the school and then somehow finds a numerical equivalent.
USNWR does have a really good ranking system with the “Top National Universities”</p>
<p>Forbes magazine publishes a list of Americas best colleges based on :
1)the quality of education they provide and
2)how much their students achieve.
Under these criteria, the UCs are ranked thusly:</p>
<p>1)UCB
2)UCLA
3)UCSB
4)UCR
5)UCSC
6)UCSD
7)UCI
8)UCD
9) Cal Poly SLO (just as a matter of interest)</p>