<p>The rankings don’t really matter, and any possible effects from the budget crisis will take at least a few years to become apparent. Your ability to get a job or go to a grad/professional school is not affected by the current crisis. On a longer time horizon, though, the article is right that the real concern is the UC’s system (and Berkeley’s, in particular) ability to attract top professors. If that starts slipping, then the positive feedback cycle generated at the very top universities would be lost (ie, no longer get the best students/postdocs, no longer get high impact research done, no longer attract top profs, etc).</p>