<p>Here's my ranking:
Cal=LA</p>
<h2>SD</h2>
<p>Davis=Irvine</p>
<h2>SB</h2>
<p>SC</p>
<h2>Riverside</h2>
<p>Merced (Does not have a rank yet. so its lower than Cal state)</p>
<p>I would place UCD MUCH higher up on the list. I think academics there are better than they are at UCSB</p>
<p>Ranked By Location</p>
<p>UCSB
UCSD
UCLA
UCI
UCSC
UCB
UCD
UCR
UCM</p>
<p>UCSD should be the best one in terms of location. La Jolla has the best beaches, cleaner air, beautiful parks, cute shops within walking distance. What can beat SD?</p>
<p>I hate to sound like such a "mom", but you kids make way to much out of these rankings. I believe that in the selectivity rankings of US News Cal Poly-POMONA ( not SLO) is more selective than Dartmouth, Cal Tech, UCLA and UCB? </p>
<p>As far as the UCs go, for many under grad majors, it doesn't make a whole lot of difference where you go. Grad schools look fairly favorably on all the UCs. I recall a post on CC previously where a parent had asked a Stanford prof about this topic and he said they don't largely differentiate between a top student from Berkeley and a top student from Davis.</p>
<p>Trudat anothercollegemom! What you said!</p>
<p>Here's a World Ranking:
World university rankings </p>
<p>A list compiled by Shanghai Jiao Tong University which is now widely quoted as a measure in the academic world.</p>
<p>Shanghai Jiao Tong's top 50 universities (last year's ranking in brackets):</p>
<p>1 (1) Harvard University USA
2 (3) University Cambridge UK
3 (2) Stanford University USA
4 (4) University California - Berkeley USA
5 (5) Massachusetts Inst Tech (MIT) USA
6 (6) California Inst Tech USA
7 (9) Columbia University USA
8 (7) Princeton University USA
9 (10) University Chicago USA
10 (8) University of Oxford UK
11 (11) Yale University USA
12 (12) Cornell University USA
13 (13) University California - San Diego USA
14 (16) University California - Los Angeles USA
15 (15) University Pennsylvania USA
16 (18) University Wisconsin - Madison USA
17 (20) University Washington - Seattle USA
18 (17) University California - San Francisco USA
19 (22) Johns Hopkins University USA
20 (14) Tokyo University Asia/Pac
21 (19) University Michigan - Ann Arbor USA
22 (21) Kyoto University Asia/Pac
23 (23) Imperial Coll London UK
24 (24) University Toronto USA
25 (25) University Illinois - Urbana Champaign USA
26 (25) University Coll London UK
27 (27) Swiss Fed Inst Tech - Zurich Switzerland
28 (28) Washington University - St. Louis USA
29 (32) New York University USA
30 (29) Rockefeller University USA
31 (30) Northwestern University USA
32 (31) Duke University USA
32 (33) University Minnesota - Twin Cities USA
34 (35) University California - Santa Barbara USA
35 (34) University Colorado - Boulder USA
36 (40) University Texas - Austin USA
37 (36) University British Columbia Canada
38 (36) University Texas Southwestern Med Center USA
39 (43) Pennsylvania State University - University Park USA
39 (38) Vanderbilt University USA
41 (42) University California - Davis USA
41 (39) University Utrecht Netherlands
43 (44) Rutgers State University - New Brunswick USA
43 (48) University Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh USA
45 (46) Karolinska Inst Stockholm Sweden
46 (41) University Paris 06 Europe
47 (55) University California - Irvine USA
47 (47) University Edinburgh Europe
47 (57) University Maryland - Coll Park USA</p>
<p>You'll notice San Diego is above LA, Davis is above Irvine, SB is above Davis.</p>
<p>Don't get too caught up in this stuff. Your field of study makes a big difference.</p>
<p>I notice that UC Riverside was not on the list.</p>
<p>Sure, but Irvine wasn't in the top 50 last year either. Maybe UCR will appear in 2007? Who knows ( I don't really know anything about UCR, but it is still considered one of the top 100 universities in the US, isn't it?)</p>
<p>I just encourage everyone to be grateful and happy that they are largely attending among the best schools in the country. </p>
<p>In terms of undergrad education, there is no point in quibbling about who's # 4 ,etc. They are all good.</p>
<p>anothercollegemom wrote:
"I hate to sound like such a "mom", but you kids make way to much out of these rankings. I believe that in the selectivity rankings of US News Cal Poly-POMONA ( not SLO) is more selective than Dartmouth, Cal Tech, UCLA and UCB?"</p>
<p>You posted a link to acceptance rates, not selectivity rankings. Measures of selectivity also include average GPA, SAT/test scores, class rank, in addition. Acceptance rate alone is an unreliable indicator of how competitive a school is because it does not control for the caliber of the applicants to each university or for the class size. For instance, all else being equal, if the College of the Ozarks in Missouri has a 13% acceptance rate, its class size is 20, and thousands of students with SAT's in the 25th percentile apply, you're still going to have that 13% acceptance rate -- does it mean the school is more selective/competitive/desirable than Columbia, which has the same acceptance rate? NO.</p>
<p>"As far as the UCs go, for many under grad majors, it doesn't make a whole lot of difference where you go."</p>
<p>I beg to differ. Why would a top company want to hire a graduate from UC Riverside or UC Merced, when there are hundreds of outstanding candidates graduating simultaneously from UC Berkeley and UCLA?? I mean, please. Let's be real here.</p>
<p>"Grad schools look fairly favorably on all the UCs. I recall a post on CC previously where a parent had asked a Stanford prof about this topic and he said they don't largely differentiate between a top student from Berkeley and a top student from Davis."</p>
<p>If you graduate at the top of your class from ANY UC, you're probably on equal footing. However, specifically for med school, your GPA is weighted based on the perceived competitiveness of your undergrad school. A 3.7 at UC Berkeley is NOT weighted the same as a 3.7 at UC Riverside. I'm sure it's the same for law school, and other competitive professional schools. </p>
<p>UCRiverbed</p>
<p>The ranking lists schools in order of most competitive admissions. ( Most competitive , you would think, would allow them to be highly selective)>I only posted this to illustrate the problems with rankings. So, I don't think we are in disagreement on this. I don't believe a lot of folks would think that Cal Poly Pomona would rank as more competitive than Dartmouth, but if they went purely from this ranking ( which states that it is a ranking of how competitive admission is), they might be mislead as to the quality of the school. I stand by my point that you should caution against making too much of rankings.</p>
<p>Your point about med school is valid, which is why I said for " many undergrad majors" ( i.e. not all under grad majors) and stressed the importance of looking at your particular field. So we are not in disagreement about that point either.</p>
<p>For certain majors this will be an issue. For many other majors...not so much. So, these rankings should not be a point of fixation for many students.</p>
<p>anothercollegemom wrote:
"The ranking lists schools in order of most competitive admissions. ( Most competitive , you would think, would allow them to be highly selective)"</p>
<p>Again, you posted a list of schools ranked based on ACCEPTANCE RATE. This is what you provided: <a href="http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/brief/webex/lowacc_brief.php%5B/url%5D">http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/brief/webex/lowacc_brief.php</a>
Again, SELECTIVITY or COMPETITIVENESS is based on MORE than ACCEPTANCE RATE. ACCEPTANCE rate is a COMPONENT of SELECTIVITY/COMPETITIVENESS. Again, acceptance rate in the absence of other considerations (GPA/SAT, class rank, etc.) is NOT a useful indicator of selectivity/competitiveness of a school. When US News provides a "SELECTIVITY RANK" in it's America's Best Colleges issue, it explains what components make up selectivity, only one of which is acceptance rate. </p>
<br>
<p>I only posted this to illustrate the problems with rankings. So, I don't think we are in disagreement on this."</p>
<br>
<p>OVERALL RANKINGS are based on MUCH MORE than just "ACCEPTANCE RATE" which is the list you posted. Please refer to the US News methodology of how rankings are determined here: <a href="http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/about/06rank.php%5B/url%5D">http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/about/06rank.php</a></p>
<p>"I stand by my point that you should caution against making too much of rankings."</p>
<p>But to say that "all UC's are equal" is just plain delusional.</p>
<p>UCRiverbed</p>
<p>Again , I think you misunderstand my point, and I certainly never said all UCs are equal. Most of academia find these ranking systems to be somewhat flawed. As with all statistical tools, they can be misleading. Students should not become overwrought with concern about rankings.</p>
<p>Two of my closest friends and professional colleages both went to Columbia grad school. One was a Berkeley undergrad , the other a Davis undergrad.
At the time, programs in California for our field of study were extremely impacted, so they ended up in New York. The out-of-state schools, in general, tended to be kinder to the California applicants than were the California schools. </p>
<p>I, on the other hand, had better luck and was accepted at UCSF and a private school in California. I presume this was because of my high GPA, high GRE scores and strong field experience. My undergrad school wasn't even in the top 100 schools at all. </p>
<p>I also had the opportunity to listen in on an admissions committee meeting during my tenure. I specifically heard them debating about the issue of GPA at Columbia or Cornell vs. GPA at Cal State Whatever.
My point being, that it was a topic of debate. It certainly wasn't their policy or practice to automatically accept applicants from the IVY league over students from lesser ranked schools ( much, much lesser in this case).</p>
<p>Yes, this information is only anecdotal and not statistical, but such situations are not uncommon.</p>
<p>Am i saying that Berkeley isn't the top grad school in the country for certain fields of study? Or that UC something else is? Of course not.</p>
<p>I just know that for undergrad majors of various other fields, the particular UC you attend isn't going to make or break you. So don't let that ranking # mean more to you than it needs to.</p>
<p>Again, I just want to encourage students not to be overly concerned with this ranking business. I am not discounting rankings completely. Of course there is a basis for them.</p>
<p>I understand where you're coming from and the message you are trying to convey. However, I do want to emphasize that "rankings" should not be dismissed completely. Your undergrad school IS a component of your application/resume, and it IS taken into consideration when applying for a job or a graduate program. The difference between Berkeley and UCLA may not be that great, but the difference between Berkeley and UCR/UCM <em>IS</em> significant, and the latter WILL have an impact on where you stand as a candidate for just about anything. Unfortunately, just as many students here place heavy emphasis on rankings, so does the rest of the "real world." This includes adcoms, employers, friends, colleagues, family, and anybody else who can pop open that annual issue of USNews and find XYZ school on the list. You can always criticize the methodology of ANY rank list, but the truth is that most people won't -- most people couldn't even tell you how USNews comes up with its order, but they can "ballpark" what tier a school belongs to. Rankings ARE important, but they're obviously not the end-all predictor of future success/achievement.</p>
<p>UCRiverbed</p>
<p>Hi UCRiverbed,
Speaking of rankings, I was just noticing that UCD is ranked more than 10 places ( ? I think) higher on the US News list for med schools/primary medicine. Isn't UCD higher than Harvard for primary too?<br>
Of course the UC ranks are reversed for research medicine.</p>
<p>May I ask a personal question? What does the name UCRiverbed come from? I am guessing it is not related to being a student at UCR?</p>
<p>"Speaking of rankings, I was just noticing that UCD is ranked more than 10 places ( ? I think) higher on the US News list for med schools/primary medicine. Isn't UCD higher than Harvard for primary too? Of course the UC ranks are reversed for research medicine."</p>
<p>I don't give much weight to the primary care listings for med schools. National reputation tends to follow the "research" rankings much better. If students are interested in primary care (i.e. internal medicine, family practice, pediatrics), then they may give some merit to the primary care list, but that being said, 50% of medical students will change their original specialties anyway sometime during med school. If you examine the methodology, USNews gives heavier weight to the percentage of students entering primary care specialties from med school. However, the traditional "top" medical schools tend to churn out students who apply for the higher-paying highly-competitive residencies such as orthopedics, neurosurgery, ophthalmology, radiology, dermatology, etc. There was a bit emphasis on primary care a decade ago due to the threat of declining specialty reimbursement, but that never panned out, and it's not really an issue right now. In summary, I pay far more attention to the "research" rankings than to the "primary care" list.</p>
<p>May I ask a personal question? What does the name UCRiverbed come from? I am guessing it is not related to being a student at UCR?</p>
<p>UCR stands for "UC Riverside," not "UC Riverbed." However, "Riverbed" would be far more accurate, since the river in Riverside dried up many moons ago, leaving a desert wasteland. That's all I will say about this topic.</p>
<p>UCRiverbed</p>
<p>Initially, I thought perhaps the name UCRiverbed was a play on words related to some relationship you had with UCR. Was only asking out of curiosity, no intent to offend.</p>
<p>"Unfortunately, just as many students here place heavy emphasis on rankings, so does the rest of the "real world." This includes adcoms, employers, friends, colleagues, family, and anybody else who can pop open that annual issue of USNews and find XYZ school on the list."</p>
<p>I GREATLY disagree. Think about this for a second. If you go up to most employers and ask them, which school do you think is ranked higher? UC Davis or University of Texas? They'll think the University of Texas...you know why?! Because of their athletics. What if Gonzaga had no basketball team, who the heck would be checkin for Gonzaga on the academic radar? No one. Contrary to popular belief most people don't hear about a job candidate's school and say, "Hmm lemme pick up the US News and find its school and see where its ranked. I like them, I liked their interview, I like their work experience, I like their attitude, but OH DARN they went to SoAndSo University and its ranked 80th, NEH THEY SUCK. I'm not going to hire them." Yeah right. That would be an extreme waste of time. I'd rather see a great GPA and great work experience. Look at some of those high ranked schools. Emory? Tufts? No offense, but before I went on this board, I've never heard of Emory or Tufts University. </p>
<p>Most employers just go off word of mouth. Most employers aren't sitting at the newstands waiting for the latest US News Rankings saying "I'm going to only employ people who came out of the top 30." They have MUCH better things to do with their time.</p>
<p>i'm assuming those rankings put tons of weight on strength in a school's science programs, seeing that SD was ranked so high compared to its US News rank</p>