UCB v.s. UCLA v.s. USC

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
1

<p>So I was fortunate to get into all of them. PLEASE HELP ME DECIDE!!!! I am an undecided major, but I am going to go into the political sciences.</p>

2

<p>I would loves some help, rather than some views. I know there has to be debaters here. CONVINCE ME</p>

3

<p>My son is a computer science major who was also offered admission to Cal, UCLA and USC last spring. He was offered a president’s scholarship (half off tuition) at USC and up until about April 28th, that was where he was going to accept. At the last minute he decided to do an overnight at USC, and sit in on some classes. He found the students to be unenthused, and the classes not too challenging. So he did the same overnight trip to Cal, and it was a no-brainer decision. Cal students are sharp and passionate, and the school is more intellectually stimulating. Berkeley is a much better college town than L.A. He is thriving at Berkeley and knows he made the right decision. If you consider yourself to be mature and self-motivated, Cal offers you both a good education and great life-skill lessons as well.</p>

4

<p>BERKELEY </p>

<p>go with the best.</p>

5

<p>Berkeley is better than both of those schools for poli sci. At UCLA for example, people consider the poli sci major to be a joke (just look at Alexandra Wallace). IDK about USC though, but I don’t hear good things about it.</p>

<p>UCSD also has a really good poli sci program. It’s only slightly worse than Berkeley. But yeah, I’d chose Berk if I was you.</p>

6

<p>Thanks for the advice guys! What about as far as overall experience goes & opportunities later in life??</p>

<p>And are the professors at Berkeley really that much better?</p>

7

<p>Basically every Berkeley professor has an insane list of accomplishments and publications. It’s nice having textbooks written by your professors themselves and getting lectures from people who are getting interviewed every day by the media for expert opinions (I’m taking classes with Christina Romer and Barry Eichengreen right now and Robert Reich next year). A well known professor as your thesis adviser or rec letter writer is going to make getting into grad school or whatever you want much easier so yes I think it will give you better opportunities later in life.</p>

8

<p>USC is incredibly overrated in California and by US News. In terms of academics, it doesn’t compare to even UCLA, let alone UCB. Both UCLA and UCB are world-renowned universities and UCB especially is looked up to as one of the best universities by people around the world. Honestly, USC is known only in CA and that’s mainly because of its sports, traditions, whatnot.</p>

9

<p>Visit each college. Your gut feeling will tell you the rest.</p>

10

<p>^ if he does that he’ll go straight to USC.
rich, gorgeous girls… ZING. (spring break in socal is where it’s at u_u)</p>

11

<p>not to be an ******* but you’re in a berkeley forum… if you want unbiased opinions you should post in an unbiased forum :slight_smile: that is unless you’re looking for opinions from the inside of each school and are posting on all 3 schools.</p>

12

<p>^ probably the smarter thing to do if you’re actually trying to be convinced (i think you know deep down inside where you want to go)</p>

13

<p>Hey, I’m just taking all the feedback I can get. Just b/c this is a berkeley forum doesn’t mean there aren’t USC or UCLA kids on here JUST LIKE ME.</p>

14

<p>going with the trend of everyone arguing for their biases, i’d say go with UCLA. The luskins donated several millions to the school of public policy to fund its programs, so it will be very well funded + have top academics (yes i know that it’s a professional school but iirc it’s going to fund professorships/stipends for GSIs). </p>

<p>The staff at all schools are pretty much on the same par. The only advantage you’d get from Cal/USC is that you’d get to go on semesters, so you’d get more time. Other than that, all schools are pretty much equal.</p>

15

<p>Do you think you’ll be invited to the Playboy Mansion much? If so, it’s a short walk from UCLA, and a long plane ride from Berkeley.</p>

16

<p>

</p>

<p>Yes.</p>

<p>There are two Political Science faculties that stand apart: Berkeley and Harvard.</p>

<p>There are another three that are almost at that level: Columbia, Stanford, Michigan</p>

<p>UCLA is in the 10-15 range.</p>

<p>The above is from the 2010 NRC rankings. In the 1993 NRC rankings, UCLA was #8 and USC was #62, while Berkeley was #2. I would assume that USC has moved up, but faculties change very slowly and I would be shocked if USC had a top 30 faculty even now. 25 years from now, different story. USC will eventually use its money to attract top faculties in areas in which it is now an also-ran (which is most Ph.D. areas).</p>

<p>As you can see USC is not in that league. Los Angeles is a bit of a political backwater, which would make it quite inconvenient for a top PoliSci researcher to access Sacramento, Washington DC, or NYC.</p>

17

<p>Just b/c this is a berkeley forum doesn’t mean there aren’t USC or UCLA kids on here JUST LIKE ME. </p>

<p>uhm. What?</p>

<p>Oh and
<a href=“http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-humanities-schools/political-science-rankings[/url]”>http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-humanities-schools/political-science-rankings&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Ranked in 2009 I know. But if you want to use grad school indications as a possibility that undergrad may be good, you may as well consider UCSD instead of USC.
Point being, the schools are going to be close academically. Yeah, you might get your famous professors, but if they can’t teach worth a damn, then that’s not gonna help you in the long run.</p>