<p>My daughter was admitted to UCSB. We're from out of state. My guess is that UCSB ranks somewhere just below Berkeley and UCLA but it would be good to hear what Californians think. When I was applying to college Berkeley was at the top and UCLA was somewhere in the middle but it seems that the quality/rankings/etc. have reshuffled.</p>
<p>on the usnews rankings its like this:
UCB
UCLA
UCSD
UCI
UCD and UCSB tied
UCSC
UCR
UCMerced</p>
<p>obviously her interests and other preferences come into play just as much as the rankings, but they aren't a bad place to start</p>
<p>Most people agree that the UC system has three "tiers" of academic quality/prestige.</p>
<p>Tier 1:
UCB
UCLA
UCSD</p>
<p>Tier 2:
UCSB
UCD
UCI</p>
<p>Tier 3:
UCSC
UCR
UCM</p>
<p>Hmmm. I'm really out of the loop. I hadn't realized that UCSD had moved so far up over the years. It used to be considered a party school.</p>
<p>I'm not looking so much for official rankings but what you in California think - based upon kids/classmates, what schools they're choosing, etc.</p>
<p>yes, as far as us news rankings in Tier 2:
44 UCI
47 UCD and UCSB (tied)</p>
<p>fwiw</p>
<p>I don't remember UCSD ever being considered a party school, but UCSB has..they are trying to overcome that, but I'm not convinced they have succeeded...</p>
<p>I guess you could put UCSD in tier 1.5 or thereabouts; I don't think it has the same national recognition as UCB or UCLA, not sure about the academics as I haven't seen UCSD myself. As for UCSD being a party school, I don't recall ever hearing that, but I'm sure almost every school has been called bad things at one point or another.</p>
<p>The three tiers are pretty much what most people who follow college admissions think. I personally clump UCSB/UCD/UCI together in terms of ranking. From what I've seen at my school, outgoing social people who are smart want to attend UCSB.</p>
<p>I didn't mean to imply that party school was necessarily bad. I went to Dartmouth - and it was a huge party school. Playboy ranked the top party schools back then and excluded Dartmouth from the list - due to professionalism.</p>
<p>Thanks for your thoughts here.</p>
<p>The three tier ranking of the UC's I believe is pretty much universally accepted by us Californians as a true potrayal of the UC Campuses at the undergraduate level. Of course, the 2nd Tier schools are currently taking significant steps (UCSB for example) to narrowing the gap between them and the 1st tier UC's.</p>
<p>I think there was a mix up between San Diego State and UCSD. San Diego State is the party school</p>
<p>^ That could be it.</p>
<p>I constantly hear of UCSD as being "that party school."</p>
<p>Seriously, I've read stories about this place in the 70s and 80s, and it sounds nothing like a party school. It sounds more like "Oh jeez I wish I had gone to SDSU...the party school."</p>
<p>But anyway, UCSD is somewhere right behind UCLA in terms of PhD program strength, but still well behind UCLA in terms of name recognition and (arguably) the quality of its undergrad program. Cal is better than both in most respects.</p>
<p>UCSB is an excellent school, but it suffers from "image issues"-- namely, people think it's just a party school. Some of that is truth, most is not. If you want to study physics, for example, UCSB is incredible.</p>
<p>relentless: i don't think people consider ucsd to be ranked in the same tier as cal or ucla... look at the overall rankings of ucsd; it doesn't come close!</p>
<p>I generally believed the tiers as Relentless355 stated... Our guidance counselor mentioned that as well. Although it may not be up there in rankings, when splitting up the UC's, that's the top three.</p>
<p>in the larger scheme of things will going to a school like UCSB instead of ucla look worse when applying to graduate programs at certain colleges? or are recs experience and things of that nature more significant that where you attended?</p>
<p>Well, if you can pull a 3.8 GPA at UCSB, and only a 2.8 at UCLA, I think it's better to go to UCSB (barring of course the engineering school). What going to UCLA would do is it would probably level the playing field and allow a UCLA student to have a lower GPA and still be admitted to a graduate program, although if you're referring to Pre-Med, I've heard of people who would go to Irvine/SB etc. over UCLA/Cal because medical schools will look solely on your GPA, regardless of your school/undergraduate study.</p>
<p>I hear this question a lot, and it always makes me shake my head.</p>
<p>Don't go to a school with your eye toward grad school alone. Go to a school because you think that, in the long run, it will serve all of your interests best. See which campus "feels" best to you, and go there. Your career plans will almost definitely change from now until 4-5 years from now. You DO NOT want to be at a campus you hate just because you thought one would "get you into grad school" while the other one would not.</p>
<p>Instead of doing it by tiers, I'll do it by a point system. 1-10 with 1 being the best. Tiers don't really explain the difference between LA and SD or SC and Riverside. Here's what I think:</p>
<p>1 - Berkeley
2 - LA
4 - SD (huge gap from LA)
7 - Irvine (huge gap from SD)
7.5 - Davis/SB
8.25 - SC
9.75 - Riverside (huge gap from SC)
10 - Merced</p>
<p>Kind of had to go into decimals but I didn't want to make it 1-20. There should be a bigger difference between SC and Riverside, but oh well. Of course, let me remind you that this is how I feel about the schools overall, not by program. SD definitely has better programs than LA in some cases, but acceptance rate wise, SD is much easier to get into than LA. A huge part into my ranking is definitely how difficult it is to get accepted to the schools.</p>
<p>Sorry in advance if this offends anyone.</p>
<p>i think your point system is off. I think that listing davis and sb at a 7.5 is wrong. they are both ranked in the 40's nationally (dont know off the top of my head) but your close approximation to ucsc puzzles me. you have to break these schools in the middle (SD, UCI, Davis, and SB) down by what major you choose. Personally I think that SB looks way better than UCI or Davis but that does add overall quality of life. But your listing makes some of those schools seem really bad. Basically UCB, UCLA, UCSD, UCSB = good education personally uci seems just wierd, been there for soccer tourny's and its pretty lame. Davis i don't know much about but just boring area and if your into agriculture then go there.</p>
<p>Well, if you compare it to other schools in the nation of course it's a completely different story. I agree that UCs are good schools, but this is how I would rank them if I were to compare solely UCs. The reason that I put UCI slightly higher than Davis/SB is because that is the cut-off of most of the people I know that aim for Berkeley or LA. Irvine tends to be a popular safety, and most people I know that fit into the Berkeley/LA/SD range apply to Irvine just in case. </p>
<p>Keep in mind that this is a ranking for overall, with difficulty of getting in being a large part. I'm sure SB may be better than Irvine or even SD in some departments, that's a no brainer. It's the same with LA being better than Berkeley or SD being better than LA for specific majors. On top of that, there are also plenty of arguments that would show Davis as a better school than Irvine/SB. My point is, I basically rated it on how people view the schools, difficulty of getting accepted, and some pros/cons that come with each school. I did not consider specific majors at all.</p>
<p>I'm not sure by what you mean when you say my close approximation to SC puzzles you. If you mean why did I put it as 8.25 (going into decimals), then it is because I felt that it is not necessarily good enough to be an 8, but it's also not as bad as 8.5 would make it seem. Thus, 8.25.</p>
<p>Most of the people I know rank this order (so what our opinions are both invalid) therefore your point system is ridiculous.
1. Cal
2. UCLA
3. UCSD
4. UCD
5. UCSB
6. UCI
7. UCSC
8. UCR
9. UCM</p>