<p>Why is UC Berkeley the best university in the world?
Many claim its way better than harvard, princeton, yale, and stanfurd</p>
<p>No, many people don’t. If someone does, that someone is CLEARLY in the minority.</p>
<p>It is, however, one of the top universities in the world.</p>
<p>Congrat. According to Washington monthlhy Berkeley is ranked first. Check the link out. This was just released today.</p>
<p>[The</a> Washington Monthly](<a href=“http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_09/019738.php]The”>http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_09/019738.php)</p>
<p>I’m a huge Berkeley fan and my I seriously think it’s a great institution. But I don’t think it’s the BEST university in the world. It’s however one of the top universities in the world being always in the forefront of cutting-edge research and producing scientists that later win Nobel, NAS, etc…</p>
<p>For hard sciences, Berkeley >> YP.</p>
<p>Berkerly top students are definitely better than Harvard or Stanford.</p>
<p>Cool story, Bro!</p>
<p>Interesting article I found regarding UC dominating Washington’s ranking.</p>
<p>Yudof: UC campuses dominate top 10 in Washington Monthly’s rankings
An Open Letter From President Mark G. Yudof:</p>
<p>This is a proud day for the University of California. This morning, UC campuses performed a full sweep, placing first, second and third in Washington Monthly’s annual college rankings. Six of our campuses were ranked among the top 25 universities in the nation. My congratulations to students, staff and faculty at UC Berkeley (ranked first), UC San Diego (2nd), UCLA (3rd), UC Davis (10th), UC Riverside (16th) and UC Santa Barbara (21st).</p>
<p>It is, of course, easy to be cynical about college rankings—too often they have been prone to manipulation or swayed by factors that do not reflect directly on the quality of education. These rankings are different. They reflect UC’s values. The magazine’s editors note as much in declaring their criteria for what makes a top-quality university. “In the information age we all depend on colleges and universities to produce groundbreaking research and new inventions, to serve as engines of social mobility for first-generation college students, and to mold the minds of future leaders.”</p>
<p>By these standards, the University of California stands out. Our campuses, the Washington Monthly editors note, “enroll unusually large numbers of low-income students while maintaining high graduation rates, generating billions of dollars in research funding, and sending a healthy number of students into service programs like the Peace Corps.” We are gratified that our public service priorities are so clearly valued. They offer, in the editors’ words, “a measure of not just what colleges can do for you, but what colleges are doing for the country.”</p>
<p>The article is noteworthy for another reason. It recognizes that UC’s future excellence is at risk due to the steep budget cuts resulting from California’s budget crisis. In the short term, we are coping with $813 million in cuts during the current fiscal year by instituting student fee increases, staff and faculty salary reductions, and cuts to vital programs. In the long run though, Californians will have to reset their priorities and ask their lawmakers to begin investing again in the university system that is—rightfully, and not just in our opinion—the pride not only of our state, but of the nation. Not because of rankings, but because it is the right thing to do.</p>
<p>With best wishes, I am,</p>
<p>Sincerely yours,</p>
<p>Mark G. Yudof</p>
<p>President</p>
<p>its just so… pleasant.</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>Berkeley is arguably the best public university in the world.</p>
<p>^^^ nahh UCLA is better :)</p>
<p>^ Yeaaah right…don’t get me started on fUCLA. ;)</p>
<p>lmao alright I won’t get you started but go BRUINSSS</p>
<p>^ Good luck, little 'ruin.</p>
<p>From the Washington Monthly article: “we rank schools based on what they are doing for the country – by improving social mobility, producing research, and promoting public service.”</p>
<p>Their ranking focuses on faculty non-classroom activity - providing access for a wide range of students and creating research and service. It has nothing to do with what students do, what they experience, or what they learn. By these measures, large public universities are inherently favored.</p>
<p>Incidentally, the latter two measures are reasons that students seeking LACs choose to steer clear of precisely the types of schools that this ranking favors.</p>
<p>It must have made Yudof’s year. All he’s been dealing with is crisis and the media constantly talking about the Schools’ decline.</p>
<p>Best University in the world???</p>
<p>For who?</p>
<p>For faculty members: maybe</p>
<p>For graduate students: a reasonable argument can be made</p>
<p>For undergraduate students: for the median student, not a chance</p>
<p>It’s not that UC Berkeley can’t be a great school as well for some undergrads, but one must understand that there are LOTS of great undergrad options around the USA. For top students looking at undergrad options, UCB is but one among many. </p>
<p>So which college is The Best in the USA???..probably that little farm school across the Bay. :)</p>
<p>I’m under the impression that the OP is starting at Berkeley this year, and he just wants some assurance that he isn’t going to a second-rate, not-prestigious school.</p>
<p>
That is pretty sad when you want a school to define you.
Sorry OP, doesn’t work like that. A school won’t make you something you are not.</p>
<p>Amen, Willmingtonwave, how wise you are. Incidentally, the motto of the “Great North State,” home to Wake Forest, is “esse quam videri,” which means “to be, rather than to seem.”</p>