Why is UCLA still perceived the better school when USC is ranked higher?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Southern California
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<p>I’m impressed you all have made it out to page 6 on this thread. Just in case you also missed the usc vs. ucla thread from last week, here is the summary of both threads in gif form:</p>

<p><a href=“http://i.imgur.com/kTKjO.gif[/url]”>http://i.imgur.com/kTKjO.gif&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>notaznguy’s ignorant rants are not worthy of a response, and you will certainly not get him to change his mind, no matter how wrong he is or how right you may be. Let him wallow in his idiocy, alone.</p>

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<p>@Kulakai, I wish I could “like” that post over and over again LOL</p>

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Saul Perlmutter, Nobel Prize in Physics 2011, teaches an undergrad physics course for non-majors called “Physics and Music”</p>

<p>George Smoot, Nobel Prize in Physics 2006, teaching undergrads the day after he won the award:
[George</a> F. Smoot - Photo Gallery](<a href=“http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2006/smoot-photo.html]George”>http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2006/smoot-photo.html)
<em>last pic in link above</em></p>

<p>USC has a long way to go to build up its faculty:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/princeton-university/1334351-national-academy-sciences-announces-new-members-news-item.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/princeton-university/1334351-national-academy-sciences-announces-new-members-news-item.html&lt;/a&gt;

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<p>USC didn’t gain one NAS member this year and currently has 11 NAS members on staff.</p>

<p>I won’t post NAE or Nobel Prize data here…that would be rubbing it in too much.</p>

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<p>UCLA stole Cal’s fight song and mascot. I respect USC for being original.</p>

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<p>Cal stole one of Yale’s colors. ;)</p>

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<p>^ At least we acknowledge the color - it’s called Yale Blue.</p>

<p>You guys keep getting darker and darker, to be more like your big brother. Most recent darkening was in 2004.</p>

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<p>It sure does, which is why USC has been hiring top faculty from other institutions.</p>

<p>Two recent examples:</p>

<p>[Southern</a> California Pulls a Leading Stem-Cell Researcher From Harvard - People - The Chronicle of Higher Education](<a href=“http://chronicle.com/article/Southern-California-Pulls-a/131733/]Southern”>http://chronicle.com/article/Southern-California-Pulls-a/131733/)</p>

<p>[UCSD</a> loses a top scientist to USC | UTSanDiego.com](<a href=“http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/may/01/ucsd-loses-top-scientist-usc/]UCSD”>http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/may/01/ucsd-loses-top-scientist-usc/)</p>

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<p>^ That’s fine, but academic prestige will not truly be gained until current faculty and alumni from USC win academic awards for work done at USC - which has been practically zero.</p>

<p>The Nobel prize winners USC has wooed are nearly emeritus.</p>

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<p>Agree. Big difference b/w producing top faculty and hiring it.</p>

<p>USC appears to be hiring top faculty in order reach critical mass – the point at which the whole thing snowballs.</p>

<p>Past USC president Steven Sample pulled it off with undergrads. Current president Max Nikias seems to be attempting the same for faculty.</p>

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<p>“UCLA stole Cal’s fight song and mascot. I respect USC for being original.”</p>

<p>Puh leez. We’re all part of the University of California. We all use the same fight song buddy. Irvine, Davis, you name it.</p>

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<p>USC has a very long way to go before it can be mentioned in the same breath as UPenn, Columbia, etc. much less Harvard or Stanford. There’s no shame in admitting that; it’s realistic. USC’s capital campaign will help, but don’t forget that the schools it wants to overtake are also fundraising aggressively. For example, Columbia is in the middle of a $5 billion campaign and already has more than 2x the endowment as USC. Cornell is in the middle of a multi-billion dollar campaign and is building another campus in NYC. Even these schools are pretty far behind HYPS, so you can imagine how far USC has to go. USC is going to have an even harder time since it’s very large, larger than all but a handful of public universities.</p>

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<p>Notaznguy-</p>

<p>UCLA is only but a tiny branch of the great Berkeley tree up north. Going forward, your school will continue to be a speck in USC’s rear view mirror. Do us all a favor and go ■■■■■ the UCSD, UCI, or UT Austin forums about how great you think UCLA is.</p>

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<p>We are debating why USC is more prestigious than UCLA on the UCLA board. Per usual, I’m not an azn, I mean, I’m really, really not an azn, guy is in a tizzy, lol…</p>

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<p>Selecting a college is all about the “right fit” for the student. My son a recent grad from Marshall and my daughter a current student at USC find Stanford students- SOCIALLY ODD.
Our family does not lay awake at night wishing to be Stanford students/or alums. Choose a school that fits your child. A happy student will be a successful student!</p>

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<p>The two may be physically close together, but they are very different schools. I prefer UCLA to USC because of location and just the general experience and people I met while visiting. Both are great schools. When applying for a job I doubt an employer would take the USC grad over the UCLA grad just because of the school name or vice versa.</p>

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<p>But then again you aren’t part of the Trojan family, which they do prefer one school or another. The network that is the trojan family is one of the largest and most dominate in the southland.</p>

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<p>Those who know… know.</p>

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<p>For those of you (beyphy) who continue to say that UCLA has much better graduate programs than USC and therefore the prestige level is differentiated substantially because of this, please take a look:</p>

<p>US NEWS 2012 Graduate School Rankings: </p>

<p>Business: UCLA 15 / USC 21
LAW: UCLA 15 / USC 18
Medicine: UCLA 13 / UCLA 34
Engineering: USC 12 / UCLA 16
Education: UCLA 6 / USC 15
Social Work: USC 11 / UCLA 16
Public Affairs: USC 6 / UCLA 23
Fine Arts: UCLA 4 / USC 36</p>

<p>Yes, UCLA has some of the finest Graduate school programs in the world. But, if you look at the rankings (which doesn’t mean much) you can see that the difference is not large. No firm, corporation, non-profit, small business, school will hire someone over someone else because they went to a “top 15 school vs. a top 20 school”. I’m sorry, that’s not how the world works.</p>

<p>So, for those of you who say UCLA’s “prestige” is because their graduate programs dominate over USC’s… I don’t think it is true. </p>

<p>Both institutions crank out some of the best students and professionals out of their graduate schools than 98% of the world. Be proud of this and stop bickering on the marginal. </p>

<p>I have said this before, but I want UCLA to be the best it can be. The better UCLA and USC are, the more companies come to LA, the more world changing research is pumped out of LA, the smarter the local the population becomes, and it drives the intellectual capacity of both institutions. </p>

<p>So, to UCLA, instead of beating you down, I applaud you for your greatness, because at the end of the day, it only drives USC to be greater.</p>

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<p>^Finally an amazing response. I truly applaud you for being one of the most sane USC student/alum/fan I have seen around here if your username is accurate. Thanks for showing not all USC affiliates are die hard unrealistic crazies. I truly believe both institutions are very comparable and the better each becomes, whether USC or UCLA, it simply means all Angelinos benefit. I used to actually frequent the USC board to see what was up across town just because I was curious since I knew what was going down in westwood and I’d get caught up in the flame wars and nonsense. Some rivalry is fine and competitin is always healthy, but this kind of banter is kind of useless. As a former frequenter of both boards, I really don’t see a point for threads like this. </p>

<p>PS: You made a typo on the medicine ranking.</p>