<p>Now for some of the threads I've been reading UCSB is ranked higher overall than UCD and even UCI sometimes. Another trend is that UCI, UCD, and UCSB are all tied. On the US News rankings, which I despise greatly, UCSB ranks above Davis. I was wondering what in the world is causing all this. The original conceptions I had about UCSB was that it was the party school out of the UC system and in my 357 best colleges book by the Princeton Review someone from UCSB says, "UCSB is the only place where you can study buzzed and still ace an exam the next day." I'm wondering what the heck is going on? It seems UCD's rank keeps dropping and I'm wondering what's happening thats changing all this?</p>
<p>A) UCSB does have some great programs such as physics, and b) the "party school" rep may be helping it; upbeat social life = more applicants = more selective = higher rankings.</p>
<p>UCD abruptly dropped something like 15 or 20 places this year in one of the rankings (can't remember which one). But it was later shown that this was due to a misreporting of one of the factors and will be corrected in the next ranking.</p>
<p>Don't sweat it -- UCD, UCSB, and UCI are all fine schools.</p>
<p>Ratings fluctuate from year to year, but as far as I'm concerned, UCD, UCI, and UCSB are all at the same level of academic prestigiousness. Choosing between them is simply a matter of what you want to major in, what type of environment you're looking for, etc.</p>