<p>Although I'm not feeling the sensationalist approach of Rabban's post, I can see the 'conscience' point about Berkeley. In studying for the APUSH exam / subject test (which is tomorrow and I'm cramming for it, hahaha), I've seen multiple sources--textbooks, review books--glorify Berkeley for the beginning of the Free Speech Movement, asserting that it brought forth an accumulation of past tension over civil rights (women's, blacks', etc.), spanning as far back as the Imperialist stage of America (Spanish-American War and the like) to the Seneca Falls Convention beginning the women's movement to the Progressive Era's intentional ignorance to blacks' problems. In this sense, the FSM did encompass America's conscience.</p>
<p>You might also look at the Washington Monthly's ranking of colleges, placing Berkeley second as one of the country's centers of social mobility, research, and service. Though then, of course, you'd see that MIT is ranked number one. =p</p>
<p>One might also find publics to be more "in tune" with the nation's conscience, as they are, ideally, for the people, not the elite, who are usually associated with the expensive private schools.</p>
<p>At any rate, many top schools now reflect the nation's conscience.</p>