UCLA is also now the most selective UC, that plays a factor in prestige. Selectivity goes hand in hand with prestige in the eyes of the average person.
People forget that Cal was already around for nearly 100 years with the most state funding and supporting going to it by the time UCLA became a research powerhouse on its own in the 60s, and not just a “satellite campus.” So it’s had a lot of catching up to do.
@ericbadmon no it doesn’t if you are applying to L&S
@10s4life right I was just double checking cuz it for sure makes a difference for transfer students… I’m pretty sure at least lol
@ericbadmon Some transfer majors require direct admission. Others you are still a pre major. However fulfilling ore reqs for your intended major is still very important
20 years ago was 1998. In the 1998 USNews rankings, USC was at #41, so it was already in the top 50 at that time. It was tied with UCD and UCI (also at 41), ahead of UCSB (at 47), and behind UCSD (33), UCLA (28), and UCB (23).
Fast-forward to the current rankings. USC has moved up by 20 places. The biggest movers among the UCs are UCSB (up 10), UCSD (down 9), and UCLA (up 7).
More specifically, since USC is private, they are free to recruit out-of-state students and offer them financial aid. It was historically difficult for USC to compete with the UCs for California residents, because of the UCs’ low in-state tuition. But now that USC draws most of its students from out-of-state, the tables have turned. For an out-of-stater, the cost of attending USC – after need-based and merit-based financial aid – is probably going to be lower than paying high out-of-state tuition at a UC that will offer zero financial aid.
Sorry, here are SC’s US News ranking from 1996, when it first made the list, to 2006: 44 43 41 41 42 35 34 31 30 30 30 27.
If this model is correct, then it might be possible for other private universities in California to leverage the “out-of-state advantage” in the same way that USC has, and to move up in the rankings relative to UCs.
Consider Pepperdine, for example. According to College Navigator, they have also gone majority OOS (57%). Now realistically, I don’t think that Pepperdine has the same broad appeal as USC (the chapel requirements alone probably keep many potential applicants away). So Pepperdine (unlike USC) is not going to approach Berkeley or UCLA in the “National University” rankings.
But – could Pepperdine catch up to mid-tier UCs in those rankings? Here are the latest numbers from USNews:
37 UC Santa Barbara
42 UC Irvine
42 UC Santa Barbara
46 Pepperdine
46 UC Davis
I think the answer is “yes”.
USC, UCB, and UCLA are all tied with year at No. 21, interestingly.
This is starting to get off the topic of the OP.
In reference to post #46, one thing different about Pepperdine in comparison with the top CA private schools (Stanford, USC, with CA Tech an exception) is that Stanford and USC are in a big time sports conference, the PAC 12. Also Stanford, USC and CA Tech are major research institutions, offering a comprehensive range of PhD’s and professional doctor degrees. Stanford, USC and Cal Tech are members in the prestigious Association of American Universities (AAU). The UC’s mentioned above are AAU members as well as offering a wide range of PhD’s and reseach. Most universities in the top 40 or top 50 fit at least one of these criterias.
Not to offend anyone, I don’t see Pepperdine fitting in this mold and I would be very surprised if Pepperdine moved up into the top 30 to 40.
You may well be right. But even if Pepperdine doesn’t gain any more ground, they’ve clearly advanced. As recently as the 2014 rankings, Pepperdine was not a Top 50 school, and was 21 spots behind UCD.
Something has worked to Pepperdine’s advantage. My guess is that they stepped up their recruitment and enrollment of OOS and international applicants. The UCs can’t compete at that game.
This is not to say that the UCs are doing the wrong thing. As a Californian myself, I fully accept that the UCs should prioritize state residents and limit OOS enrollment. However, it’s also clear that there is a lot of OOS demand for college education in California. The state schools in California are not in a position to meet that demand, which means that the private school competition (e.g. USC, Pepperdine) stands to benefit.
Correction: 18 spots behind, in the 2014 rankings.
39 UCD
39 UCSD
41 UCSB
47 UCI
57 Pepperdine
The point is Pepperdine is significantly closer as of 2018.
After UCLA/Berkeley, I predict UC Irvine will continue a steady climb up in the rankings. Would not be surprised if it is in top 30s in 15 years.
I’m curious why UCSB has leapfrogged uci, UCSD, and UCD when it was behind all of them not too long ago. UCSD was supposed to be the third best for decades why did it’s suddenly drop so much? Any thoughts?
@10s4life I’m not surprised to see UCSB rising in the rankings at all. They’ve been able to attract many leading professors (Nobel award winning caliber), who choose UCSB over other incredible institutions because at the end of the day the collaborative environment, location and weather is tough to beat. Also, the alumni giving tends to outperform other mid-tier UC’s— happy alumni = happy givers. UCSB has also benefited from their incapacity to grow at the same rate as other UC’s, so their acceptance rates have dropped relative to others. Lastly, I think tools such as LinkedIn have made it so easy for graduates to connect with other alumni that having a strong alumni network is increasingly important for job placement, and UCSB’s alumni network is very strong, especially as it relates to other mid-tier UC’s. Now all that being said, I don’t think one mid-tier UC will necessarily open more doors (or less), than another, so I’d really advise students to focus on college fit vs rankings (especially those so similarly ranked).
@10s4life From what I know, I’d agree with what @BayAreaRecruiter stated. Our kid is in engineering there and works very had and really enjoys the school. The UCSB alumni we meet tend to be a happy, positive group. There are some knuckleheads there, but there are a lot of really good kids too. Students seem much happier there as you walk around campus than some of the other UCs. UCLA has a good energy too in that regard.
Hi,
My first post in CC. I have learned so much from the website since my daughter application in 2 years ago. I found some hidden patterns from college administrators, explained why they rejected and accepted some in some cases, all thanks to CC.
2 years ago, UCLA number of application surpassed 100k for the first time and my daughter was accepted to both UCB and UCLA so we visited both campus. UCB campus is much bigger (because of the football stadium on campus), very nice. The only weird thing was the buildings has different architectural styles right next to each other. The neighbor was nice, or at least not as bad as I thought. UCLA campus is beautiful too with beautiful brick façade buildings, and no football on campus (I think it’s a plus, because of all the locomotion from football games. I am from UWisconsin and I remembered the noise, rowdiness the games caused to the outside neighbor) My daughter leaned toward UCB, I was on the fence, but her mom wanted UCLA due to the fact that it’s local. I was on the fence because I felt UCB more prestige overall, but I could see UCLA was catching up fast. It’s about 50 years younger than UCB. Kudo to them. In 2 years, UCLA jumped from 3rd (or 4th) to 1 (ties) for public universities in USWorld News ranking (we take it for whatever it worth), number of application jumped to 120k, 20k in 2 years and I believe the ranking has something to do with the huge increase.
My daughter attended UCLA, joined Dragon Boat. Looking back, we are so glad she did, we could not ask for more, well…except one thing: They have to figure out how to beat UCB Dragon Boat team 
Best to both schools.
Note that these four schools are actually much closer in the USNews rankings than it appears on first glance. Look at the “Overall Scores”, instead of the “Rank”:
67 UCSB
65 UCI
65 UCSD
64 UCD
So the four mid-tier UCs are separated by only 3 points, where 1 point is the smallest difference that USNews claims to discern (for comparison, UCB and UCLA are well ahead with 78 points, UCSC is well behind with 54 points). In terms of “Rank”, the differences are greater, but that’s only because there are lots of other schools that are tied with similar scores. So a small, one-point difference in score can translate to a much larger difference in rank.
UCSD is still #3 for selectivity, according to USNews. But they also consider factors other than selectivity. Based on the rankings, it looks like UCSB provides more small classes and a significantly higher alumni giving rate than UCSD, which are also factors that USNews also likes to see.
Here are some alumni giving numbers from the latest USNews rankings:
16% UCSB
12% UCB
8% UCLA
7% UCD
5% UCSD
5% UCI
So yes, UCSB is getting a boost here (although the big winner is USC: 41%).
Good point.
Per UCLA Admissions Twitter account: “16,000+” accepted out of “over 113,000” applicants = 14% acceptance rate for UCLA c/o 2022. Congrats to the very lucky few!
Most selective public institution in the nation.