I think UCSB is on the rise. I just talked to a couple people who picked UCSB over UC Berkeley. UCSB has gotten a lot more applications this year, more than ever, making it more selective than Davis and Irvine, and just below the top 3 UC’s. Sure, it’s a “party school”, but its academics are improving. It has 5 Nobel Laureates and an amazing physics institute. Its engineering, marine biology, and economics programs are rising! Not to mention, the College of Creative Studies is pretty cool.
Okay, maybe I’m biased because I am headed to UCSB this Fall. I’m doing Business Economics and I’m really excited. One of the professors for econ is a recent Nobel laureate, and he teaches undergrads!
What are colleges that you think are on the rise? Given a few years, they may become even more selective and gain more prestige…
<p>i totally agree. If you look past the party rep there is a lot offered at SB. With so many nobel prize winners on campus, admissions becoming increasingly competitive, and a lowering party scene, SB seems to be riding an undercurrent. I can definently vouch for the competitive admissions. I was rejected from SB but made Irv and Dav, as did so many of my friends. With such a more competitive applicant pool than irv/dav the freshmen class will definently be a higher caliber student. It makes you wonder how long it will be behind the ranks of dav/irv.</p>
<p>UCSB is on the rise. I talked to someone with a PhD in education from UCLA and he went as far as to say that UCSB can catch UCLA or UCSD in about 10 years. I don't think that will happen (but who knows?), but like ichiboy said, UCSB's new chancellor is definately trying to clean up the party rep and he's also concentrating on a few fields and bringing in Nobel-caliber profs into those fields so that there's more name recognition. It's a good combo strategy that will make UCSB a more serious academic competitor. Plus with not enough places at Berkeley and UCLA (and UCSD in the near future) for all of California's UC-qualified students, one school is going to rise up of the middle pack and become the clear 4th best UC. UCSB has what it takes to do that (although I think UCD and UCI do too).</p>
<p>I also think UC Santa Cruz and Santa Clara University are colleges on the rise. Both are beautiful campuses in beautiful locations, attracting more people.</p>
<p>15 years ago, UPenn was considered the least prestigious Ivy college and was less selective than Cornell. Now it's ranked #4 after Harvard, Princeton and Yale.<br>
Duke has achieved similar success over the past 15 years.</p>
<p>Wash U really shot up in the past 5 years, due to aggressive marketing and recruiting, increasing faculty pay and decreasing their freshman class size- and class sizes in general.</p>
<p>Emory, with its similarly large endowment and campus and faculty improvements, has achieved success too.</p>