Well I know USNWR college ranking is probably overrated but the reality is that it is the most widely followed college ranking. Right or wrong (more wrong I guess), many parents/students treat it like the bible, to the point where a few spots apart is a big deal in choosing a school. To that end many might have observed that UCSD has been dropping its place in the ranking for the last few years, from top 35 just 4-5 years back, and solidly the 3rd among UCs (with UCB/LA both in the 20ish), to now in the 40ish, toward the last of top 6 UCs (albeit the last 4 are very close). So what changed? I looked at USNWR scores in all sub-categories from the past few years and found that UCSD is clearly still the 3rd in UC on about all categories that we typically care about (peer academic assessment, selectivity…). Even the graduation rate is pretty decent. The one that really dragged UCSD down, and it seems to be getting worse, is faculty resource rank, which counts 20% of the ranking. In 2015 it ranked 99th and in 2016 it dropped more to 110th, a lot worse than the other 5 UCs indeed.
Assuming UCSD professors are not underpaid vs. other UCs, the main reasons behind it have to be worse faculty ratio, higher % of large class sizes, and lower % of full time faculty. This probably can all be attributed to over enrollment, perhaps even related to over-sized undeclared study body. Anyone knows if UCSD intended that way (why would they), or it’s just hard for school like UCSD, which always tries to recruit the same kids that UCB/LA are, to control/predict yield? In any case, over enrollment vs. given resource is not a good thing. I wonder if UCSD is doing anything to improve the situation.