<p>UCSD position in the USNEWS' annual ranking has steadily deceased each year while other UCs' have increased/maintained their status. </p>
<p>What do you think accounts for UCSD's steady deprovement over the years. Do you think that in the next few years it will be surpassed by UCD in this ranking?</p>
<p>Not “deprovement” but “deterioration”.</p>
<p>It has to do with the USNWR’s stupid arbitrary rankings. They aren’t based on how well the professors teach or how well prepared somebody would be to find a job or have internship experience. It’s based off of professor salaries, how much alumni donate and worst of all, high school counselor ratings. How could a high school counselor compare universities if they’ve have likely never attended more than 1 or 2? Counselors are like “well, I heard that one was good or something like that”. And then that gets reinforced by high schoolers themselves who believe it. Last time I checked, my experience at UCSD has nothing to do with what high school counselors think about this university. The professors will still be teaching the same. Rankings are arbitrary.</p>
<p>^ Oh, is that how it is? I have always wondered how you can measure these things, but if that is really the case then it is worse than I thought. That kind of ranking is not helpful in the slightest except if you are a professor looking for employment ._.</p>
<p>^Exactly. And this site is fueled by this stuff. High schoolers want to seem cool so they use these rankings to justify all sorts of magical things they think. Here’s their methodology.</p>
<p>[How</a> U.S. News Calculates Its Best Colleges Rankings - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/2012/09/11/how-us-news-calculates-its-best-colleges-rankings]How”>http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/2012/09/11/how-us-news-calculates-its-best-colleges-rankings)</p>
<p>The fact that some of their renowned faculty are leaving should also be of concern. It appears that because of the fiscal problems going on at the State level some are electing to leave as opportunities open up elsewhere. I am concerned that this will be a continuing problem at all of the UC campuses. </p>
<p>[Chemist</a> K.C. Nicolaou to join Rice U. faculty](<a href=“http://news.rice.edu/2012/09/20/chemist-k-c-nicolaou-to-join-rice-u-faculty-2/]Chemist”>http://news.rice.edu/2012/09/20/chemist-k-c-nicolaou-to-join-rice-u-faculty-2/)</p>
<p>Rankings are ordinal and therefore only meaningful when placed in context.</p>
<p>Even if UCSD is improving every year, if other schools are improving at a higher rate than UCSD, UCSD will drop in rankings. </p>
<p>Look to see what other schools (e.g., NYU, BC, Georgia Tech, Rochester, etc.) have been doing recently.</p>