<p>many colleges either fit into the category of all party school(San Diego State) or socially dead boring nerd school(Berkeley) but UCLA seems to be in that perfect equilibrium of both cool and smart,not to mention that ucla has good looking people . anyone else agree?</p>
<p>Troll post?</p>
<p>Berkeley is not a "socially dead boring nerd school"--if it is, then so is UCLA.</p>
<p>(The two are more alike than people think. What you know is nothing but stereotypes.)</p>
<p>seriously? well this is anecdotal evidence from people who i know that attend berkeley and LA. my cousin told me most of the kids at berkeley just hang out in their dorms</p>
<p>But did your cousin tell you what happens in those dorms?! hehe!</p>
<p>yes, he said the asians just eat ramen and play computer games and the white kids do drugs</p>
<p>If anything, in college I think the white kids eat ramen as they think it tastes good, is cheap, and is easy to make. Whereas the asian kids make more elaborate dishes (including rice cookers to make rice) and other vegetable/meat dishes. </p>
<p>But the playing computer games part is pretty accurate...</p>
<p>good looking is subjective.</p>
<p>Of the top 20 schools, Vanderbilt is the one that fits "that perfect equilibrium".</p>
<p>that reminds me.. how is vanderbilt ranked higher than berkeley? how is it even ranked top 30?</p>
<p>^I'd like to ask the same concerning Emory.</p>
<p>Cal not being a top 20 university does not prevent Vanderbilt from being a top 20 school. Just because Cal gets shafted does not mean Vanderbilt shouldn't be ranked fairly. Emory, Georgetown, Notre Dame, Rice, Vanderbilt and WUSTL are all worthy top 20 universities. Cal should be ranked ahead of those schools if you ask me, but even if it were, those schools should still be ranked in or around the top 20.</p>
<p>Georgetown isn't top 20.</p>
<p>And I think UVa has that perfect equilibrium, but I'm pretty bias I guess.</p>
<p>Berkeley's selectivity is less than Vandy's due to its obligation to serve the citizens of its own state. That's what keeps all the publics out of the USNWR Top 20.</p>
<p>The four-year old edition of the Fiske Guide in our house gave only three schools five stars each for "academics" and "social life" - Brown, Stanford and U.Va. (the '08 edition may have changed). UCLA got five starts for academics and three for soical.</p>
<p>UCLA and Berkeley are both such large schools (25000+ undergraduates) that assigning any qualities to them regarding social life etc. is ultimately futile. Both schools attract smart kids, anti-social kids, social kids - in fact the whole spectrum.</p>
<p>Correction - Stanford, Brown and U.Va. got five stars each for academics and quality of life. There's only one school that got five stars for both academics and social - Dartmouth.</p>
<p>Depends on what you mean by social.</p>
<p>There is the eating club social at Princeton.</p>
<p>There is the fraternity/sorority centered drinking social at many schools.</p>
<p>There is the NCAA athletics social comraderie at many schools.</p>
<p>UCLA <em>is</em> cool, because of, in no particular order -- </p>
<ul>
<li>located in an uber-nice area of LA with some $100M+ homes (compounds :) ) within a mile, and close to the coast</li>
<li>enjoying great weather</li>
<li>attracting Hollywood/entertainment aspirants, who tend to be good looking and good partiers, due to its proximity to the Studios and Hollywood</li>
<li>Athletics -- #1 in NCAA team titles with 103 and counting (this spring, W. Waterpolo, W. Tennis, and Men's Golf were added). Having at least four teams with the all-time record in NCAA titles: M. Volleyball, Softball, W. Waterpolo, and of course M. Basketball. All these are 'cool' sports that evoke the image of southern california.</li>
</ul>
<p>Balancing all this with being Top 15 in NRC Ph.D. program rankings, top 15 in the Law/MBA/Med schools, and Top 25 in undergraduate rankings.</p>
<p>Stanford is equally cool but misses on the good looks and Bel-Air, Brentwood, Westwood, Holmby Hills, Beverly Hills and ocean aspects.</p>
<p>So yeah, UCLA is cool.</p>
<p>I think that Fiske guide got it wrong. UCLA 3* for social???</p>
<p>UCLA is probably 4* for academic, and definitely 5* for social.</p>
<p>I went to both Stanford and UCLA, and how Stanford can get a 5* for social, and UCLA 3* is beyond me.</p>