<p>Everyone I know says UCLA is way better and has smarter people, but USC is higher in the rankings. It makes no sense if you ask me.</p>
<p>Because it is, or at least has been for the longest time. Yes, I did just say that. Yes, I am a USC student. No, I don’t care that I didn’t unconditionally take my own school’s side. And before I go on, yes, yes, there are definitely things that USC is better than UCLA at and vice versa, but I’m speaking from a general standpoint. </p>
<p>I’m going to assume you’re referring to the US News and World Report rankings. US News takes into account how much alumni donate to the school (as a sign of their satisfaction) when they make the rankings. This probably gives USC a significant boost vs UCLA in their rankings. </p>
<p>However, if you look at other prominent and less… controversial rankings, such as the QS World University rankings, you’ll see that UCLA is ranked higher, and significantly so; in the case of the QS rankings, 34 vs 113. UCLA has a far longer, more significant tradition of academic excellence than USC as it is only recently that USC has really started to pick up the slack. I’m sure you’re well aware that USC was a big party school years ago, more so than it is today, and it’s a stereotype that lingers to this day in the eyes of many. We have a lot of work to do before we can shed our long-held reputation of being the University of Spoiled Children and be looked up to not just in the US, but also globally. </p>
<p>Bottom line is that even though we think USC is better than UCLA, from a global standpoint, most would disagree. Don’t get me wrong, though, things are looking very good. We’ve been steadily climbing up the ranks, and the administration has been really good about getting great new faculty and such. Certainly doesn’t hurt that Ahnuld screwed the UCs over (pretty much) during his tenure as govern(at)or (not that I enjoy watching others’ downfall). If we can continue this chain of progress, we’re set.</p>
<p>Is it? I don’t get the impression that UCLA is thought of as better from any of the parents, teachers, or students I know – and especially now that budget cuts are looming. S1 is in Cinematic Arts and S2 committed to BArch though, which are both superior programs, so I admit to bias. (Also, when referring to rankings, I think most are looking at US News…)</p>
<p>I see both USC and UCLA as excellent universities, and either could be the “best” choice for an individual student depending on the needs and wants of that particular student. Students who choose either based on their relative rankings are being, IMHO, silly.</p>
<p>I think *in *California among California students who have expected contributions of more than $30,000, the in-state discount of approximately $25,000 offered by UCLA often does make it the better choice. If there is not a significant price difference, then a student accepted to both has a wonderful, if very difficult, choice. I feel they cannot go wrong either way.</p>
<p>USC was never really considered that much of a prestigious school until starting 2 or 3 decades ago. UCLA has had worldwide respect and prestige for ages - far longer than SC. Particularly worldwide, UCLA is more known amongst international folk than SC - and this is coming from an international student. But with USC higher ranked than UCLA on USNews, many people who worship rankings are now taking SC more seriously, and our prestige and respect in the international community is definitely on the rise.</p>
<p>because ucla has history, but usc is moving up</p>
<p>it will also be hard for ucla & the regent system to keep up when alumni are constantly donating $200m+/yr to sc</p>
<p>because we are better than usc [YouTube</a> - Ucla Fight Song](<a href=“Ucla Fight Song - YouTube”>Ucla Fight Song - YouTube)</p>
<p>It takes a while to build a reputation. From what I can tell, outside of California both USC and UCLA are well-respected, but neither are “prestigious,” and both are still primarily known for athletics rather than academics.</p>
<p>You know a school is prestigious when it stops trying to convince everyone how prestigious it is.</p>
<p>UCLA’s been a very respected university since the 1960s; USC, maybe since the 1990s? UCLA’s grad program and research make it the extremely prestigious. Also, USC is just jumping into research and that goes into the prestige of a given university.</p>
<p>the ranking i most often like to cite is the HIU rankings, since because they’re about citations, they’re the closest thing to objective that rankings can get to (they don’t take into account at all perceived prestige, bias, etc)</p>
<p>[High</a> Impact Universities | World University Rankings | Results for 2010](<a href=“http://www.highimpactuniversities.com/rpi.html]High”>http://www.highimpactuniversities.com/rpi.html)</p>
<p>in that ranking you’ll see that UCLA is #4 on that ranking, behind only Harvard, Stanford, and MIT.</p>
<p>USC is #25, which out of 500 universities is still pretty impressive, but it has a long way to go before it becomes a highly-regarded world class university.</p>
<p>ok, i have to point this out because it really annoys me with these college rankings. But has anyone ever noticed that USNWR is the only one that makes the most sense. How can UCLA possibly be ranked higher than the University of Cambridge?! and how can the university of Arizona be ranked higher than Washington University in st louis. I just dont see how you can follow a ranking like this when it is so clear that wash u and cambridge are both the better schools? At least with USNWR it makes sense with where each school places!</p>
<p>There are lots of “problems” that can lead to bias with the HIA ranking, too: school size, UG vs G, are two I can think of.
No ranking methodology is perfect.</p>
<p>You need to look at the INPUTS into these ranking systems, and decide what is important to you. You can compare schools using these INPUTS and come out with your OWN ranking. Weight one more, remove one, create sub-ranking lists by input, etc.
So they are helpful and useful as sources of data.</p>
<p>“Ranked higher” ???</p>
<p>nice to know that the relative quality and value of schools is now firmly in the hands of a second rate newsmagazine</p>
<p>Whether it’s second rate magazine or not, if more people choose to believe, it has more value, just like religion.</p>
<p>Both USC and UCLA are great schools – but in very different ways.</p>
<p>UCLA might be better known around the world for its superior science and medical programs; while USC’s versions of these programs are good, they can’t rival UCLA. Internationally, science-based programs tend to be a bit more valued – consider that a lot of the world rankings come from Asian countries – so obviously, UCLA would be more known than USC in these demographics.</p>
<p>USC excels in the Arts and Humanities in ways that UCLA (mainly it’s UG programs) never will. If you’re an undergrad trying to pursue acting, English, journalism, IR, film, American studies, etc – USC will offer you a more focused, personalized and detail-oriented education. Because of the size of UCLA and its lack of funding, these programs tend to be ignored because they’re not UCLA’s “cash cow.” I’ve mentioned this story here many times before – but my best friend in high school was a political science/IR major at UCLA and was faced with extremely large classes, required classes not being offered every semester, frazzled and unfeeling professors and a lack of attention from the teaching staff (both professors and TAs). Long story short, she hated it and wished she had gone to a private university mainly because she felt like a drop in the bucket at UCLA.</p>
<p>USC is invested in its students in a way UCLA is not; if you want your college experience to be a “get in, get out, do your work, keep your head down, go unnoticed, finish in 3 years” affair, maybe UCLA is your school. If you want a more pointed, personal education experience, USC is hand down the better of the two. </p>
<p>In 5-10 years, the UC system will buckle under its financial failures and USC will start to be a bit more respected from the general naysayers. UCLA’s science programs are pretty well-endowed and will always surpass USC in terms of quality.</p>
<p>So, if you want to be a doctor or scientist, go to UCLA.</p>
<p>If you want to do anything else, go to USC.</p>
<p>(Again, this is mostly for UG programs. UCLA has a fantastic law school and a great PhD musicology program – but like I said, UCs tend to favor graduate students a bit more adn the programs reflect this.)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>^lol 10char</p>
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</p>
<p>the universities emphasize different things. At UCLA, its more about them giving you the opportunity and resources to excel to the best of your abilities, rather than sort of codling you and holding your hand along the way. UCLA is filled with a ton of over-achievers who just want to excel and be the best in what they do. Here are a few examples:</p>
<p>[App</a> from UCLA team prevails in Facebook’s first SoCal Camp Hackathon](<a href=“http://www.dailybruin.com/index.php/article/2011/05/app_from_ucla_team_prevails_in_facebooks_first_socal_camp_hackathon]App”>http://www.dailybruin.com/index.php/article/2011/05/app_from_ucla_team_prevails_in_facebooks_first_socal_camp_hackathon)</p>
<p>[Daily</a> Bruin investigation top in nation; staff wins numerous awards](<a href=“http://www.dailybruin.com/index.php/blog/off_the_press/2011/05/daily_bruin_investigation_top_in_nation_staff_wins_numerous_awards]Daily”>http://www.dailybruin.com/index.php/blog/off_the_press/2011/05/daily_bruin_investigation_top_in_nation_staff_wins_numerous_awards)</p>
<p>this approach, however, isn’t for everyone. It all just depends on what you want, and expect, from your university.</p>
<p>Nice try with the links. USC students have won plenty of awards, made plenty of apps, and made a name for themselves, too. I don’t need to go looking for links because that is a moot point. For every “over achiever” at UCLA, there’s one at USC. Can we establish that both schools are great and move on?</p>
<p>As far as calling USC’s approach “coddling,” I didn’t think putting students in classes of 5-10 students is considered babying them. I think it’s really important for students to have rapport with their professors, and the UC UG approach makes student/professor relationships more difficult to attain. If you’re a shy student, you may be less inclined to speak up in a class of 300 students than in a class of 15; similarly, you may be more willing to speak with your professor or TA when they seem less like the figurehead at the lecture board and more as someone who leads and initiates discussion.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s fair of UCLA to expect tuition-paying students to have to fight a system filled with red tape. I can imagine it’s very disheartening to try and get any answers or get what you want out of a UC education, especially during these economic times. USC treats all its students equally and offers every student – from the best and brightest, to those struggling with navigating the system – the same amount of attention and equal access to resources. It’s not “coddling,” it’s a matter of knowing that students are there to learn and glean information from the school, not to wander around the school blindly slamming into walls and dead ends because they’re expected to thwart the system themselves.</p>
<p>Perhaps it was easy for you to navigate through UCLA, but maybe for a student who needs more attention (academically, socially, culturally) it gives them a pretty crappy college experience.</p>
<p>you missed the point. The point wasn’t about making apps, or winning awards, the point was that these students are the type of people who only need access to high-quality education and leadership, and for a lot of these people they’re not held back by having class sizes that aren’t ‘5-10’ people in size.</p>
<p>i’ll also have you know that i went to the dailytrojan’s website to try to find similar links, twice, and found none. Maybe it just isn’t USC’s month? Those links i provided from UCLA weren’t some old buried links, they were in the ‘news’ section, and both of them have just recently occured.</p>
<p>It’s pretty funny that you try to talk about building relationships with professors seeing as, i, personally, have never had any difficulty building a relationship with any one of my professors that i’ve wanted to. The only potential difficulty is a conflict with your professor’s office hours due to a class, but they’re more than willing to make special appointments, or check their email.</p>
<p>Sure UCLA will be tough for some people to navigate through, but the same could be said for any school. USC isn’t this amazing rainbowfilled playhouse, and UCLA isn’t some gray, dull house. I’ve said many times that USC is a great university (something which -believe it or not- i actually believe) but like you people don’t like jabs at USC, i don’t like similar jabs at UCLA.</p>
<p>Both are great institutions, and i don’t think that any student is necessarily better for going to UCLA than USC.</p>
<p>Prestige is in the mind of the individual. This can be affected by region of the country, family connections, visit to the campus, field of study and many different factors. </p>
<p>In the latest U.S. News there are 16 indicators used for their rankings, not just one or two. Rankings can be subjective, but certain indicators such as alumni giving are statistical.</p>
<p>UCLA is better than USC in many aspects. in particular, many of their graduate schools are superior to USC’s.</p>
<p>it is what it is.</p>
<p>however in terms of undergraduate education, i firmly believe that USC is better than UCLA, but not by a large margin. honestly if i had been a california resident and i had been admitted to both schools, i would have chosen UCLA if it was significantly cheaper to attend. you can’t really go wrong with either school imo.</p>
<p>beyphy,</p>
<p>I’m guessing you couldn’t find those links on dailytrojan.com because the Daily Trojan is on hiatus for finals.</p>
<p>Just click on the link provided in the Daily Bruin article, and you’ll see that USC won several SPJ awards as well. ASU looked particularly dominant, though I suspect several categories were N/A for many schools – i.e., not every school has a radio newscast.</p>