UC National and Global Prestige

Transfer Students UC Transfers
1

<p>I know that Cal and UCLA rank among the top in prestige and popularity, but what about the other UCs on a national and even global level? If I don't end up going to UCLA or Cal and end up at a "mid tier" UC like Santa Barbara or Davis are employers and professional affiliates across the nation going to even respect my undergrad degree? Let's be honest, no one except us and our parents read the US News Top Colleges rankings. Sure most people know that the UC is a great system, but I feel like the people on this board are tomorrows elite and if I don't end up at Cal or UCLA I will just be another average college graduate. </p>

<p>I guess all in all I'm debating on another quarter or even year at CC to hopefully end up at Cal or UCLA because I feel like the general public has no clue how legitimate the other UCs because of how great Cal and UCLA are. Feel free to agree with me or hopefully call me stupid and that my undergrad degree won't matter much when I graduate from Grad school and life and my career depend more on the person I am rather than my degree from UCSD or UCSB or UCD or UCI.</p>

2

<p>Oh and as far as Global Prestige, I see all these rankings of Global Universities and I see SD, SB, Davis, and Irvine scattered throughout these as some of the top universities in the world along with Cal and UCLA, yet to Californians I'm a walking party crashing STD if I go to SB.</p>

3

<p>UCB is the number one public school in the nation. Number 21, according to US News & World Report, 2008 Edition of America's Best Colleges.</p>

<p>1) Princeton University
2) Harvard University
3) Yale University
4) Stanford University
5) Cal Tech
5) UPenn (sharing w/ Cal Tech)
7) (where's 6? I dunno) MIT
8) Duke
9) Columbia
10) U of Chicago
11) Dartmouth
12) Cornell
12) WashU in St Louis
14) Brown
14) Johns Hopkins
17) Emory
17) Rice
19) Notre Dame
19) Vanderbilt
21) U of Berkeley (CAL)*
22) Carnegie Mellon
23) Georgetown
23) U of Virginia*
25) UCLA*
25) U of Michigan -- Ann Arbor*
27) USC</p>

<p>etc etc</p>

<p>NYU is 24. UCSD is 38. UCD is 42. UCI is 44. UCSB is 44 as well.</p>

<p>yeah, it's a huge ass list, not gonna put it up. But you can tell that UCB is among the best. If you're Korean and you have family in Korea, they know about UCB and UCLA. But to them, UCB is just as good as Stanford or Yale (it's not really, but it means a lot to them).
* means it's public.</p>

4

<p>Mykris202: I'm confused. Do you care what other people in the world think, or what other Californian's think? I think that most Californian's would rank any of the UC schools above a lot of other public schools. There are threads on CC regarding UC ranking in which there is no contention that UCB and UCLA are the top two, and not much contention on the bottom two, but much contention as to the common "ranking" of the middle UCs.</p>

<p>If you care about what people around the world think, well, yeah, Berkeley and UCLA are known around the world, whether from movies, sports, or whatever, they know these schools and probably consider them to be quite prestigious. But, I don't know how much it really matters where you get your undergrad degree. A friend of mine graduated from SF State and was able to find a very good job in Italy, and just recently moved up the ladder to a higher paying job in London.</p>

5

<p>
[QUOTE]
Oh and as far as Global Prestige, I see all these rankings of Global Universities and I see SD, SB, Davis, and Irvine scattered throughout these as some of the top universities in the world along with Cal and UCLA, yet to Californians I'm a walking party crashing STD if I go to SB.

[/QUOTE]

Well, most of these "global" rankings are graduate rankings and are based on published research/peer review, so they have nothing to do with undergrad education. For example, most people have not doubt that Berkeley is one of the finest, if not the not finest, graduate institution in the world, easily on par with Harvard/Stanford/MIT/etc. However, for undergrad. Berkeley is mostly not on their level. Similar things are true for other UCs. Some of their grad. programs may be top-notch (=high ranking), but when you go their as an undergrad you'll be the "walking party crashing STD".</p>

<p>Regarding global recognition:
I'm originally from Europe. The average employer won't know the difference between, let's say, SFState and UCSD. Most employers won't even know about UCLA and some not about Berkeley. They'd think that UCLA sounds like a good/big name, but they have no idea about the actual rankings. One of the reasons for this is that "rankings" are not really that popular in Europe and/or are not considered meaningful. Now this is obviously not true anymore if you talk about American or big global companies in different countries. They will surely know the difference. And, of course, it's not true for Asia either. Cal and UCLA are pretty big over there and American Degrees are usually considered rather prestigious in general (opposite to Europe). </p>

<p>
[QUOTE]
that my undergrad degree won't matter much when I graduate from Grad school and life and my career depend more on the person I am rather than my degree from UCSD or UCSB or UCD or UCI.

[/QUOTE]

exactly ; )</p>

<p>
[QUOTE]
I guess all in all I'm debating on another quarter or even year at CC to hopefully end up at Cal or UCLA because I feel like the general public has no clue how legitimate the other UCs because of how great Cal and UCLA are.

[/QUOTE]

Well, personally, I'd always take the CC route. It's rather "easy" (compared to freshman or oos) to get into UCLA/Cal from a CC, plus you save tons of money. The only downside of spending more time at a CC is that you're missing out on some of the college experience, but how important is that really?</p>

6

<p>the UC system is fairly prestigious in general, and even if you goto some of the mid-tiered UCs, SD/I/SB/D, you will have no trouble finding a job. These campuses are all world reknown research centers. Although you might have an edge going to LA or B in the short term, "who" you are and "what" you do in your professional life is much, much more important than "where" you went to school, a trivial thing in the long run. No one cares if you graduated from Harvard if you can't perform.</p>

7

<p>My friend recently received employment from Lockheed Martin. They flew him and other possibly employment candidates to interview, and though the other candidates had Ivy League degrees my friend got the job even though he graduated from SDSU. The reason? The degree gets you the interview, and your personality gets you the job. My friend said Lockheed took them all out to dinner and the Ivy League candidates were so socially inept with no personality. My friend however, was relaxed and is so easy-going - they offered him the 60k job with benefits and a relocation stipend.</p>

<p>Lesson: You can be utterly brilliant, but if you can't be a competent team-player who can communicate goals succinctly in this fast-paced global economy, you will not be able to land a job even though you have an impressive degree.</p>

8

<p>amen to that.</p>

9

<p>I would go to your favorite UC, no matter what rank it is. Do well, enjoy your time there, kick butt and get into a good grad school. Forget the prestige issue; you need to get into places.</p>