<p>Hello-
I was wondering if anyone could tell me how UCLA is viewed on the East Coast of the U.S. I know here in the west, UCLA is viewed as pretty prestigious. Does the same hold true on the east? I'm just curious..</p>
<p>My boss is from the NY/NJ area. She earned her MBA from Columbia. When I told her I was transferring to UCLA she said “wow, UCLA and Berkeley are the Ivy’s of the West.”</p>
<p>UCLA is not recognized in the East of the United States at all. The only people that will probably know anything about it are basketball fans, but no one will recognize it for anything academic. In fact, coming here would probably hurt, not help, your career aspirations in the East coast because you’d be going to a school not many people have ever heard of over there. Most people think the only schools in LA are USC (because of football) and Cal State Los Angeles (prestigious accounting department).</p>
<p>East coasters tend to look down on public education.</p>
<p>^ that’s true, but that’s mainly due to public education on the east coast not being very high. I read someone say that the east-coast version of UCLA is Binghamton, which is SEVERAL notches below UCLA.</p>
<p>I heard that UVa and Michigan are looked upon favorably in the east coast, and i’m fairly certain UCLA and Berkeley are as well.</p>
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<p>Actually, I’m from southern California (not LA though) and I’ve known about UCLA since I was very very little, but I didn’t even know that USC existed until high school, nor did I know that CSULA existed until I moved to LA.</p>
<p>I can tell you that in the deep south people don’t know about UCLA. Don’t know about East Coast though.</p>
<p>“UCLA is not recognized in the East of the United States at all. The only people that will probably know anything about it are basketball fans, but no one will recognize it for anything academic. In fact, coming here would probably hurt, not help, your career aspirations in the East coast because you’d be going to a school not many people have ever heard of over there. Most people think the only schools in LA are USC (because of football) and Cal State Los Angeles (prestigious accounting department).”</p>
<p>^ TITCR</p>
<p>Nobody gives a crap about UCLA in the east coast. They have a bunch of other schools that are way better.</p>
<p>“I can tell you that in the deep south people don’t know about UCLA. Don’t know about East Coast though.”</p>
<p>Tennesseans know about UCLA, bahahahaha!</p>
<p>I find this all very hard to believe. I have family in France and Lebanon, and they have all heard of UCLA. In fact, the logo is something of a small international brand. My dad told me that he saw someone wearing a UCLA (he pronounced it “oocla” back then) sweater in Paris 30 years ago, and I ran into a British woman in Rome wearing the UCLA sweater, and was very much aware of its existence as an academic institution rather than a basketball team. Sure, this is all anecdotal, and from a very small sample. But I think that if you go into a certain field that is well known at UCLA, you will be recognized by the people to whom it would matter. So, if you want to go into finance on the east coast, UCLA might not be for you (though it could definitely work). But if you want to go into electrical engineering, I’m pretty sure that people to whom it would matter all over the world would know that you went to one of the very best schools in the field.</p>
<p>The “UCLA” letters – constitute the most internationally-recognized college insignia, supposedly.</p>
<p>Outside of California, the gap between Berkeley and UCLA - in terms of academic recognition tends to be wider.</p>
<p>UCLA isn’t prestigious in the East Coast, from what I’ve gathered.</p>
<p>I’m not sure about the East Coast, but I know in TX, they definitely know about UCLA and think of it as a prestigious school. In fact, a lot of people see it over UCB, calling it the “liberal hippie school” haha.</p>
<p>To OP: It may not matter much, if you intend to stay in the West Coast, post completion of your studies. If you are expecting any advantage, in the East Coast, due to the brand equity of UCLA, then you will be disappointed! UCLA is almost an ‘unknown commodity’ and the public universities like Berkeley,Michigan, and UVa have much better pull in the Wall Street!</p>
<p>UCLA is one of the most prestigious universities in the world. Obviously it’s not Harvard or MIT, but it’s pretty damn prestigious. People from all 50 us states come here.</p>
<p>it’s international prestige is much greater than it’s national prestige, but it isn’t uncommon for UCLA and Berkeley to be known as “the ivies of the west” by east coasters. Most of UCLA’s alumni reside in California (they don’t want to leave!) but there are plenty of alumni all over the world.</p>
<p>Berkeley, in general, is more prestigious (in the THE rankings, the gap is wide) but that shouldn’t dissuade you from picking one over the other. In all relevent respects, the gap is negligible. </p>
<p>If you’re talking about Wallstreet, i think that has a lot less to due with prestige, and more to do with east coast bias. I don’t think it’s the surprise that Wallstreet is filled with east coast grads from top universities (HYP) and top LACS (williams, amherst, etc.) The only west coast university that seriously would make the cut is stanford, which is geenrally considered to be in the same field as HYP.</p>
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I’ve never run into anyone who referred to either as such. </p>
<p>Berkeley and UCLA are known for being pretty good state schools in California. Nothing more, nothing less. UCLA’s name recognition is boosted through athletics, and Berkeley’s name recognition is boosted through its association with protesters, hippies, and the 60s. Along with Stanford and to a lesser extent UDub, they are the only colleges on the west coast that have widespread recognition on the east coast. Caltech is good but too small and specialized to attract much attention, and USC is still primarily known for football.</p>
<p>I’m really not sure what the point of this thread is. If you’re asking about the average man on the street, then yes, UCLA is reasonably well-known and respected on the east coast - which stretches from Maine to Florida, by the way. Certainly he’s more likely to have heard of UCLA than Dartmouth or Brown. Few people can name all or even most of the Ivies.</p>
<p>If you’re asking about employers, scholars, etc., they will be familiar with UCLA. They’re usually familiar with colleges that are much less well-known than UCLA (e.g. W&L for business).</p>
<p>Put in simplest terms, most east coasters you’d meet will have heard of UCLA and will at least vaguely know of it as a good school. It won’t have the oomph of Harvard, but few schools do.</p>
<p>I attended an elite private high school in California and spent summers abroad at programs in places like Oxford with people who attended top New England boarding schools etc…</p>
<p>I am also a UCLA alum and many of the people I met at those programs attended ivies and the like…but I vividly remember our pre-admission college discussions. So here’s my insight:</p>
<p>Stanford, UC Berkeley, and UCLA are highly regarded – however while the first two are more known for their “smart nerd”/academic allure – UCLA has the “Hollywood/Beverly Hills/moviestar/pretty beaches/pretty people” allure. So it’s considered a “glamorous” school more than anything…It was around this time shows like “The O.C.” and “Laguna Beach” were gaining steam so people were gaga over the idyllic setting LA and southern California represented.</p>
<p>UCLA is especially regarded highly by elites in the medical sciences and the arts. UCLA’s medical center gets constant press for its high end research–not to mention the celebities who are treated there. The campus also serves as a center for arts and culture in Los Angeles: serving as host to the world’s premier artists -so those well versed in dance, theater, music, and film especially hold a high view of UCLA, its alumni, its professors, and programs. </p>
<p>Plus: Being a state school, UCLA is far more selective than USC if you are an out of state student–so east coasters realize it is very difficult to get into. </p>
<p>UCLA by virtue of being the most prestigious school in the global metropolis that is LA and having LA in its name is as world renown as Harvard. It certainly has more international name recognition than say, Dartmouth or even Princeton.</p>
<p>It is known as a prestigious school in the East. I have heard many people from the east refer to it as one of the “ivies of the west.” People do not know just how hard it is to get in, but they know it is not at all easy. </p>
<p>Some of the uninformed masses just think of it as another college. Intelligent people and employers should/will know how great the education is.</p>
<p>Overall, it really doesn’t matter what people perceive it as.</p>
<p>I find that the closer you live to a school, the less prestigious it seems to you. I don’t think UCLA is overly prestigious because I lived minutes away from it for all of high school and TONS of people got into UCLA from my high school. </p>
<p>However, my friend who’s an out-of-state student said that he was incredibly proud of getting into UCLA because not many people got into the school from his area (his stats are up there with the best of them). Same with my friends in the Valley area.</p>
<p>Also, my friend who lived next to Princeton throughout high school doesn’t find the school to be very prestigious either, even though the school is very prestigious in other areas. </p>
<p>When it comes to comparing the top schools in the U.S, a university is just a damn university. They’re mostly on equal playing field in terms of quality, but some names stand out to different employers in different areas.</p>