<p>if you had to split the UCs into two tiers, which would be on each tier?</p>
<p>Another random Q,
is it better to attend: PITT or UCSB
(in terms of academics)</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>
- Berkeley</p>
<ol>
<li>UCLA/UCSD/UCD/UCSB/UCI/UCR/UCM</li>
</ol>
<p>
UCSB has a better academic reputation than Pitt.</p>
<p>Here are the UC Admissions rates for 2008. You can decide on where to draw the line. To me, it looks like there are 3 tiers rather than 2.</p>
<p>[UC</a> California freshman admissions for Fall 2008 - University of California Office of the President](<a href=“http://www.ucop.edu/news/factsheets/fall2008adm.html]UC”>http://www.ucop.edu/news/factsheets/fall2008adm.html)</p>
<p>Berkeley 22.2%
UCLA 22.1%
San Diego 40.2%
Santa Barbara 49.7%
Irvine 49.0%
Davis 52.4%
Santa Cruz 74.3%
Merced 76.7%
Riverside 76.9%</p>
<p>I agree with UCLA Band Mom – except that UC Santa Cruz tests similarly to students at Davis and Irvine… the higher % acceptance rate has to do with the perception that it is not academically rigorous – this perception was true probably in the 1970s at which time they did not issue letter grades, but rather pass/fail with descriptive performance notes.</p>
<p>The nine campus UC system really has four tiers:</p>
<p>I’m listing here certain stats I find relevant to school quality that show I think why UCSC does not belong with UCR and UCM:</p>
<p>School, USNWR rank, X-admit rank (national), midpoint SAT</p>
<p>UC S Diego 38 91 1250
UCSB 44 75 1190<br>
UCI 44 nr 1210
UC Davis 42 nr 1155
UCSC 79 89 1145</p>
<p>UC Riverside 96 nr 1040</p>
<p>My ranking is therefore in three tiers:</p>
<p>UCB
UCLA</p>
<p>UCSD</p>
<p>UCSB
UCD
UCI
UCSC</p>
<p>UCR
UCM</p>
<p>UCSC students score a full hundred points higher than UCR students do… you just cannot group two schools with such differently scoring students.</p>
<p>I agree with DunninLA.</p>
<p>I would put them into 3 tiers based on incoming GPA:
Berkeley 4.18
UCLA 4.16
UCSD 4.06</p>
<p>UCD 3.94
UCI 3.94
UCSB 3.94</p>
<p>UCSC 3.69
UCR 3.59
UCM 3.51</p>
<p>UCSC’s average GPA is a whopping 0.25 points lower than the next tier, so I wouldn’t say it belongs there. Last year, the averages were UCSC 3.65, UCR 3.60, and UCM 3.56, so the difference there was even smaller.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.ucop.edu/news/factsheets/2008/freshman_admit_profile_2008.pdf[/url]”>http://www.ucop.edu/news/factsheets/2008/freshman_admit_profile_2008.pdf</a></p>
<p>im_blue – as a student, I’m more interested that my fellow students be “testing smart” than grade smart. I think that is a bias I have. For my bias, the testing difference between UCSC students and those at UCR and UCM is too wide a gap to group together. I’ve seen how easy it is for underperforming students to get the grades they need by doing extra credit projects, bringing in school room supplies, etc. Grades don’t mean much to me… though in the context of class rank they do.</p>
<p>Academics would rank them like this (according to USNWR Peer Assessment Score):</p>
<p>Berkeley - 4.8</p>
<p>UCLA - 4.2</p>
<p>UCSD, UCD - 3.8</p>
<p>UCI - 3.6
UCSB - 3.5</p>
<p>UCSC - 3.2
UCR - 3.1</p>
<p>UCM - no ranking</p>
<p>UCB, I 
at your ranking. Too much comedy for one day. I need to seriously get back to work.</p>
<p>if you had to split the UCs into two tiers, which would be on each tier?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I think UCSC tends to attracts students like this, who didn’t earn high grades in high school for whatever reason, but still are “smart” and interested in learning.</p>
<p>Two tiers is easy.</p>
<p>Tier 1: UCB/UCLA/UCSD</p>
<p>Tier 2: The rest</p>
<p>^^ My answer is in post #2. </p>
<p><em>It’s my unbiased opinion</em></p>
<p>If it helps, UCSC can have its own tier, but it’s not in the same league as the middle 3.</p>
<p>Two tiers is easy: Berkeley / UCLA / UCSD, and the rest.</p>
<p>Average SAT:
Berkeley 2014
UCLA 1988
UCSD 1935</p>
<p>UCD 1851
UCSB 1845
UCI 1834</p>
<p>UCSC 1760</p>
<p>UCR 1654
UCM 1620</p>
<p>A 74-91 point gap is not “testing similarly to Davis and Irvine.” That’s the same as the gap between UCSD and the middle 3.</p>
<p>1851 and 1935 are very close…</p>
<p>^ Yep, that’s why academics have UCSD and Davis on the same level.</p>
<p>
It’s the largest SAT gap between schools except for UCSC and UCR. Are you saying you want to draw the line there?</p>
<p>No. I’m saying those two schools are about equal academically.</p>
<p>im_blue –</p>
<p>Not sure where you get your data. I got mine from the Common Data set, midpoint between 25th and 75th % SAT scores (forgetting the writing component which is irrelevant):</p>
<p>UCI 1210
UCD 1155
UCSB 1190
UCSC 1145</p>
<p>UCR 1040</p>
<p>Which UC school is your preference?</p>
<p><a href=“forgetting%20the%20writing%20component%20which%20is%20irrelevant”>quote</a>:
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Not to UCs. The sole reason the SAT writing was added is for UCs.</p>
<p>columbia_student: I think that is true, but we still know it is a futile attempt to measure writing ability… boiled down to an a. b. c. silly forumula for the structure of an essay – stating the theme, supplying supporting sentences, and a concluding paragraph which summarizes what was already written… pure rubbish and not worthy of discussion here! 90% of colleges, and all elite ones, ignore that score, as do I.</p>