Top Three UCs in History and Philosophy

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Please try to include as much info as possible.</p>

2

<p>bump ten characters</p>

3

<p>At the undergrad level if you can get into Cal or UCLA you go.</p>

4

<p>For History and Philosophy, Cal and UCLA are top. I myself attended the latter for history and I found most of the professors to be superb (esp. for Euro history). But I should also add that I found the American history professors and classes to be just awful, so if this is your area of interest, Cal would be a far better option (the USNWR rankings confirm this). If you are into Euro or Asian history, you will be fine going to either school. Base your decision on which environment suits you more. I should add that USNWR ranks Cal first in history (tied with Yale, Princeton and Stanford) and UCLA ninth. But in my opinion, the two departments are more or less equal (except for US History). </p>

<p>As for third place, it is not so clear. For history, USNWR ranks UCD in the top 25, although I don’t think UCSD and UC-Irvine are far behind. Between these three, location and atmosphere should again be your primary considerations. I can’t say much about philosophy.</p>

5

<p>In philosophy the Philosophical Gourmet ranks Berkeley and UCLA tied at #9, followed by UCSD at #21, UCI at #23, UCR at #30, UCD at #36, and UCSB at #41. Given the overall strengths of each school I’d put UCSD a solid #3 behind Berkeley and UCLA. What’s most impressive to me is the degree to which the UCs as a group continue to value philosophy, with 7 UCs ranked in the top 41 departments in this field.</p>

<p>As an overall combination of philosophy + history + overall standing of the school, I’d say:

  1. Berkeley
  2. UCLA
  3. (tie) UCSD, UC Davis</p>
6

<p>I think you should definitely take more into consideration the classes and courses offered by each campus. I will tell you that as a person entering UCLA Philosophy, they’re course offering is not as interesting to me as Berkeley’s or UCI’s or even USC’s. UCLA’s department is oriented towards Language and Logic and extremely analytical.
You should take a look at this:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-los-angeles/113998-how-philosophy-major-ucla.html?highlight=philosophy[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-los-angeles/113998-how-philosophy-major-ucla.html?highlight=philosophy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>I don’t know what your intentions are with a major in History or Philosophy, but if its simply to learn you might as well go for the UC campus that offers the most diverse classes. i
f you’re using it as preparation for law school, you can’t go wrong with UCLA. If you’re family is not extremely wealthy, or if you have extremely high stats, I would say do USC instead of a third UC, or do it in addition to the 3 UCs. I think you’ll have a much easier time keeping up a high gpa at USC, which is necessary for entering a top law school, than you would at a UCSD or possibly UCI.</p>

7

<p>FOR HISTORY:</p>

<p>I can’t say much for undergraduate, but for graduate, Berekely isn’t just one of the best UCs for history, it’s one of the best (if not THE best) in the country. UCLA also has a great program but comes after (at least in graduate studies) Berkeley. Again, this is just for history.</p>