<p>1.Stanford
2.Cal Tech
3. Claremont Colleges (I’ll just put them collectively to avoid conflict here)
4. UCB
5.UCLA
6.UCSD/USC</p>
<p>USC was my dream school for awhile, but it just seems so overrated for what it’s made out to be.</p>
<p>Yeah, I was going to apply to USC but I get really turned off by the stuck up people that go there and the attitude of the school… oh yeah and the $50k/year ticket :)</p>
<p>My friend trasnferred from Caly Poly SLO to USC and says that both schools are essentially the same except that USC attracts richer kids. Besides, I lean towards LACs :).</p>
<p>cal poly slo isnt a lac…</p>
<p>I know that Cal Poly SLO isn’t an LAC. What I was trying to say is that CMC is better than USC because USC is like Cal Poly SLO.</p>
<p>ahh i see… even though im not a big trojan fan, i have to admit, usc is much better tha cal poly</p>
<p>I agree with audioslavery, except that I would place UCSD below USC.</p>
<ol>
<li>Heald College</li>
<li>Devry University</li>
<li>Western Career college</li>
<li>Academy of the Arts</li>
<li>ITT Tech</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li>UCB</li>
<li>Cal Tech</li>
<li>Harvey Mudd</li>
<li><p>UCSD</p></li>
<li><p>Cal Poly SLO/UCLA</p></li>
</ol>
<p>According to Washington Monthly, Forbes and US News and World Report overall College Rankings 2010:</p>
<ol>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li>CalTech</li>
<li>Claremont McKenna</li>
<li>UC Berkeley</li>
<li>UCLA</li>
<li>USC</li>
<li>Pomona</li>
<li>UCSD</li>
<li>Harvey Mudd</li>
<li>Pepperdine</li>
</ol>
<p>People you need to compare apples to apples. Not apples to oranges. The following list is my opinion, based on being a native Californian. The schools are only ranked by their undergraduate programs. </p>
<p>Top 5 Research Universities
- Stanford (Top overall)
1.5. Cal-Tech (Top speciality school) - UC Berkeley (prestige, top programs and faculty, but lacks quality UG resources and has too many large classes.)
- USC (slightly less prestige, but has great professional programs, great UG services, small classes, and a very strong alumni network)
3.5. UCLA (slightly less prestige than Berkeley, but same as USC. UCLA is known for poor UG resources, horrible professors, and very large classes. However, they produce great research and have a few Nobels. I found that UCLA students are often recruiters second choice in CA. If they go up north they lose to Cal and Stanford grads and down south, USC dominates. Again, these are my opinions.) - UCSD (great school and I have a lot of faith in it.)
- There is a large gap between UCSD and the next top Uni. </p>
<p>Top 5 LACs
(No one in California really talks or knows about them. My personal opinion is that LACs are more of an east coast thing. People tend to go to CA for research.)
- Pomona College (top for humanities)
- Claremont McKenna College (top for social sciences)
- Harvey Mudd College (top for engineering and for hard, physical, and biological sciences.)
- Scripps College (great womans college, but I find that element to be limiting)
- Occidental College (they have a great columbia-occidental and caltech-occidental programs, but they lack academic rigor and prestige.)</p>
<p>^^^ urs is the most accurate. except i would place ucla over usc. and harvey mudd is better than claremont mckenna imo</p>
<p>Top 5 Research Universities
- Stanford
1.5. Cal-Tech - UC Berkeley
- UCLa
3.5. USC
4.UCSD/UCI/UCSB</p>
<p>iambeowulf710, I believe that those three Claremont Colleges are tops in their own fields. While, you may value engineering more than social sciences, that is not the case for everyone. A politician would view CMC superior to Mudd. </p>
<p>In regards to USC v UCLA, they are virtually equals in my eye. By having a sister who attends USC, I was really exposed to how great USC really is. It has excelled greatly in the past 20 years. Winning college of the year in 2000, producing as many billionaires as Berkeley, offering large financial aid packages, larger SAT scores than Berkeley and UCLA, their professional schools and engineering programs are practically all top 10, the list can go on. Although, I believe UCLA is a great school in terms of Arts and Sciences, I believe UC Berkeley does it better. Where as, USC is its own breed. Which is why I ranked it slightly higher. Again, UCLA, in my opinion, offers great programs, but there is a clear-cut superior school in the same fields, which is Berkeley. USC is not a LAS type of school. Anyone who knows academia well know this. Comparable schools would be Cornell and UPenn, because of their professional school emphasis.</p>
<p>I understand their is an incredible amount of controversy within these lists, but I thought this was an interesting one: [World’s</a> Best Universities: Top 400 - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/worlds-best-universities/2010/02/25/worlds-best-universities-top-400.html]World’s”>http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/worlds-best-universities/2010/02/25/worlds-best-universities-top-400.html)</p>
<p>bayboi: I think that the only thing usc is far superior than ucla at is the alumni connections. Everything else, ucla is at par or better than.</p>
<p>UCLA </p>
<p>College of Letters and Science (Overall UG level) #24
School of the Arts and Architecture
-Arch N/A
-Fine Arts #7*
School of Engineering and Applied Science #14
School of Theater, Film, and Television
-Theater #3*
-Film & TV #3*
School of Education and Information Studies
-Education #5*
-Info Studies #14
Anderson School of Management #14
School of Public Affairs & Health #14
School of Law #15
David Geffen School of Medicine #11
School of Nursing #12
School of Dentistry #6* </p>
<p>USC </p>
<p>Letters, Arts, & Sciences (Overall UG level) #26
Leventhal School of Accounting #6*
School of Architecture #10*
Marshall School of Business #20
School of Cinematic Arts #1**
Annenberg School for Communication #2* (Sister School to UPenn)
Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry #16
Rossier School of Education #22
Viterbi School of Engineering #7*
Roski School of Fine Arts #37
Davis School of Gerontology #1**
Gould School of Law #18
Keck School of Medicine #39
Thornton School of Music #12
School of Pharmacy #15
School of Policy, Planning, and Development #7*
School of Social Work #8*
School of Theatre N/A
Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy #1**
Occupational Therapy #3* </p>
<p>3 #1 Schools and 10 Top-10 Schools.</p>
<p>And for good measure, here is Berkeley.</p>
<p>Letters & Science #21 (Overall UG)
Business, Haas School of #7
Chemistry, College of #1
Education, Graduate School of #7
Engineering, College of #3
Environmental Design, College of #6
Information, School of N/A
Journalism, Graduate School of #4
Law, School of #6
Natural Resources, College of #6
Optometry, School of (can’t find)
Public Health, School of #5
Public Policy, Richard & Rhoda Goldman School of #2
Social Welfare, School of #6</p>
<p>^^^ sure, usc has some schools ranked #1, but ucla has many more schools ranked above usc (law, business, med)</p>
<p>@ predicthisflick wow that world ranking places UCLA very high, as a student it’s nice to see but I’m a little surprised. Well thanks world report! lol</p>
<p>This will be my last post on the USC v UCLA, because it’s not worth it. My main point is that USC and UCLA aren’t that comparable as you make them out to be, because they have different academic focuses. As you can tell by the list of schools, USC is more entrepreneurial than UCLA. In my opinion, I believe that USC is slightly better than UCLA, because of that. UCLA and UCB are comparable, and more often UCB wins. That’s it. </p>
<p>We are all entitled to our opinion. The difference between you and I, is that I use objective data to support how I feel. Where, you only state your opinion and do not back it up with anything substantial, which is fine. Again, we are all entitled to our opinion.</p>