<p>I live on the east coast so im not really sure, cause i hear people always saying like "chance me for UC's" but I never actually knew what they are. </p>
<p>UC’s are 9 Public universities in California: UC Berkley, UCLA, UC San Diego, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz, UC Riverside and UC Merced. They are found in near cities/towns around the state.</p>
<p>If you live on the East Coast, you may know about New York’s SUNY system. It’s essentially the same thing for California. </p>
<p>^ Though generally better known because they have a couple of big sports schools vs. the SUNYs.</p>
<p>@Gumbymom @Ranza123 @ErinsDad thankyou all </p>
<p>There are two state university systems in California. The UCs are more prestigious and well known. There is a larger system of California State University campuses (Cal State) which have less rigorous admission requirements but cater to a different type of student than the UC schools.</p>
<p>UC=University of California @ ________________
CSU=California State University,@______________</p>
<p>@NoVADad99 @"aunt bea" thankyou </p>
<p>In UC Berkeley (aka “Cal”) and UCLA, you have two of the top public universities in the country. </p>
<p>@arc918 okay, so in a way the UC’s are kinda like the Ivy leagues of the West Coast? </p>
<p>The UCs are no where near being the Ivy League of the west coast. But they are very good public schools. They compete with the UNC- Chapel Hill’s and the UVA’s of the world. </p>
<p>Stanford is more like your west coast Ivy. </p>
<p>Cal & UCLA are top tier public universities along with the likes of Michigan, Virginia and North Carolina. </p>
<p>Well, I wouldn’t compare them to the Ivies, but I wouldn’t compare them to the SUNYs, either. They’re unlike the Ivies because they’re big, public, and don’t give much (if any) financial aid to out-of-state students. They’re unlike the SUNYs because the UC system is academically much stronger than the SUNY system. Most people would say UC Berkeley is the best public university in the country; many, not only in this country, would say it’s one of the very best universities in the world, and UCLA is not that far behind. No school in the SUNY system comes close to that standard, though some are quite good in their own right and may represent a good value, especially for New York residents.</p>
<p>Ok thanks everyone </p>
<p>At the graduate school level, I would rate UC Berkeley and UCLA (and other UCs for selected programs) as equivalent to the Ivies. That wouldn’t hold at the undergraduate level, though.</p>
<p>@simba9 ok thanks! </p>