<p>Excluding UCLA and UC Berkeley How do people outside of California view schools like UC Irvine, UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara, and UC San Diego?</p>
<p>You might want to also post your question on the Search & Selection forum since it’s about the schools in general rather than transfer specific.</p>
<p>I’m curious about this as well. I grew up in California and don’t know outside perceptions of UC’s that well =P</p>
<p>no respect otehr than berkeley and ucla</p>
<p>More responses here –> <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1030068-what-your-perceptions-uc-schools.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1030068-what-your-perceptions-uc-schools.html</a></p>
<p>From Maryland: </p>
<p>top state school: UC Berkeley</p>
<p>Okay state schools: UCLA, UC Irvine, UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara, and UC San Diego </p>
<p>The names really don’t mean that much to me. UC Berkeley is definitely the best public university, but I wouldn’t know how to rank the other schools.</p>
<p>Knowledgeable people about US universities know that UCB, UCLA and UCSD are top of the top (UCB being “first among equals”). They know that many/most of the other UC’s are top publics as well but not as highly ranked as the above. Some people are aware that Davis is a top vet school and also enology.</p>
<p>Man on the street <em>probably</em> knows that UCB is a top school and probably associates UCLA with Kareem Abdul Jabbar, lol. UCSD? They never heard of it, might get it mixed up with SDSU. </p>
<p>What probably matters most, from the POV of your own education and career choices, is what grad school admissions and employers in your field think of the various UC’s in your major. So you need to research that.</p>
<p>Disclaimer: I lived and was educated in the East Coast, went to Cal and Stanford for grad school and then moved back East. So I think I have a good sense of what the rest-of-world thinks of the California schools. But there is no one right answer to this perception question.</p>
<p>Growing up in the midwest, ALL the UCs were one giant blurred name. I attended a top-50 LAC in the midwest as well.</p>
<p>I have lived in Cali for a couple decades now, and BEFORE my kids were on the college hunt, I was more aware that Berkeley and UCLA were top-tier among the UCs with all the rest of the UCs about the same.</p>
<p>Since the college selection of my kids forced me to <em>really</em> look at the colleges, the perception didn’t change much. Berk and UCLA on top, a bunch in the middle, probably Riverside and Merced at the bottom. My son is at Berkeley, my daughter at SCU. To be honest, I wouldn’t have cared if they ended up at <em>any</em> of the UCs if they were happy with it. Many of the CSUs would have been practical as well, but they were not inspired, probably because what is pounded into them by their peers and a lot of opinionated adults who just parrot back what they heard somewhere or anoither (which is that the UCs are “automatically” better than the CSUs).The reality is that for some majors, a CSU might be a better fit. My son wouldn’t even consider SLO Cal Poly because of the “CSU” label. BUT note that all of these finely made distinctions only happened because I had two kids on the college hunt here in California.</p>
<p>Outside of California in non-academic circles, a UC is a UC is a UC (with Berk and UCLA slightly more glittery, but in a vague sort of way).</p>