Lucky to be Californian, 10 in State Universities are Among Top 100 Global Ranking

Applying to College
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Search Best Global Universities - US News Education

  • Stanford University – No. 3
  • University of California, Berkeley – No. 6
  • University of California, Los Angeles – No. 13
  • University of California, San Francisco – No. 16
  • University of California, San Diego – No. 21
  • California Institute of Technology, Pasadena – No. 23
  • University of Southern California, Los Angeles – No. 77
  • University of California, Santa Barbara – No. 91
  • University of California, Davis – No. 96
  • University of California, Irvine – No. 96
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I’d actually suggest if anything, that is understating the picture for aspiring undergrads. That is essentially a research ranking, which of course is one possible criterion a possible undergrad could use, but not at all a necessary one, and not the only one.

So here, for example, is a different US News ranking, the top 70 (with ties) undergrad programs at National Universities that scored particularly well in a peer survey about dedication to undergraduate teaching:

https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/undergraduate-teaching?_sort=rank&_sortDirection=asc

Some additional names off that list (so eliminating overlaps):

Santa Clara (t-17)
Biola (t-31)
Loyola Marymount (t-31)
Pepperdine (t-45)
UC Santa Cruz (t-45)
University of San Diego (t-56)
UC Riverside (t-70)

But wait, there are more! US News also ranks LACs for undergrad teaching:

https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-liberal-arts-colleges/undergraduate-teaching?_sort=rank&_sortDirection=asc

This includes:

Pomona (t-7)
CMC (t-30)
Pitzer (t-35)
Harvey Mudd (t-42)
Occidential (t-42)
Scripps (t-61)

But wait–there are even more!

US News also ranks the top engineering programs where there is not a PhD program:

In the top 50 alone (there are more), this adds (so again eliminating dupes from above):

Cal Poly Slo (t-8)
Cal Poly Pomona (t-10)
San Jose State (t-15)
CSU Long Beach (t-23)
CSU LA (t-30)
CSU Fullerton (t-37)
CSU Sacremento (t-37)
CSU Northride (t-44)
CSU Fresno (t-44)

And so on. Lots of different ways to think about what might be the best sort of college for any given individual, but basically California is loaded with great options in every major category. And many of them are publics, both UCs and CSUs and indeed others I didn’t even get too.

So yes, it is a great state for colleges.

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What a great post :bouquet: :grinning_face:
– especially for all the CA students who worry about 4-5 universities… So many good choices.

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In the engineering majors that USNWR ranks, Aerospace, Civil, Computer, Electrical and Mechanical, Cal Poly ranks #2, #1, #1, #2 and #2 respectively. Somehow that equates to 8th overall.

Olin, second overall, ranks 4th in computer engineering, a major they don’t offer.

HMC, third overall this year, ranks 5th in computer, 3rd in electrical and 3rd in mechanical, but you can’t major in any of them at HMC.

For sure CA has a LOT of very good schools, both public and private. I don’t know that we need specious ranking systems to “prove” that.

Kids apply to too few schools because they, and their parents, believe USNWR means something, but does it?

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Yes, I don’t understand why USNWR ranks majors at these schools that are not actually offered. For example, UCSB is ranked highly by USNWR for undergraduate programs in materials science, but they only offer a PhD program. I’m sure there are many more examples like this.

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Just pointing out having UCSF in a list isn’t of value to undergrads, especially those outside the health sciences field.

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Why do you care about Global University ranking? The highest weighted components on the ranking are research reputation, number of publications that are among 10% most cited, percentage of publications that are in 10% most cited, normalized citations impact, total publications, and total citations. Are these important factors to you when selecting a college?

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