<p>Well, Berkeley is surrounded by, well, berkeley, irvine is surrounded by…irvine, and ucla is surrounded by westwood - none of which are crappy areas.</p>
<p>I’ve repeatedly heard the argument that academically, UCSD is right on part with LA, and in quite a few programs, on par or higher than Berkeley (bioengineering, neuroscience, etc come to mind). However, since LA has all the D1 sports teams, they get much more national recognition.</p>