<p>I think UCB is a much better school academically than UVa. Looking at rankings almost every department for UCB is at least top 10 whereas very few in UVa are even top 20. UCB should be ranked much higher than it actually is.</p>
<p>We’re talking about undergraduate education not grad school, if that was the case UCB would be ranked ahead of all the ivies except for may be Harvard and Yale.</p>
<p>In classof09’s defense, UCB undergraduate programs are better than most of the schools ranked ahead of it. In engineering it is unmatched except for MIT. For business is ranked higher than all the ivy’s except for Penn (US News and World). Im pretty sure its political science department is better than most other schools as well even though there is no ranking on US News. Overall though, from what US News tells us about the undergrad programs, Berkeley has beat out nearly every school. Same goes for University of Michigan. Yet they are ranked much lower. In all honesty I believe that both Michigan and Berkeley are at least stronger than UVa academically for the undergrad as well.</p>
<p>Thank you for your analysis class2009college and colleclassof2013. Finally someone who agrees with me.</p>
<p>UVA has been 1 or 2 since the rankings came out, so it might pass UCB next year. As for Michigan and UCLA, they are both excellent schools and a difference of one or two ranks on any list means nothing. </p>
<p>You are using the information from one magazine to prove that the same magazine’s list is wrong. Can you not see how, logically, that would seem silly? - Paraphrasing- “This magazine’s list is wrong because according to these department undergrad rankings (from the same magazine) one college is higher than the other!” </p>
<p>Don’t let these rankings bother you so much rjkofnovi. Michigan has NEVER been ahead of UVA on this list, so it’s not really that surprising this year. Whether it deserves it or not, I don’t think it’s for any of us to say. It has a lot more to do with personal preference and region than concrete evidence. In fact, I don’t think it’s possible to have any concrete, irrefutable evidence that Michigan is better than UVa or vice versa, so give it a rest man.</p>