prestige of UC's

Applying to College
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Before coming to CC, I had never heard people really praise the UC system. I go to a top public school in New England that sends numerous students to top-ranking schools every year, yet very rarely any to a UC. (yes, I know it’s very difficult to get in out of state)

Why are California kids so obsessed with the UCs? It seems like they only hold prestige on the West Coast and the degree won’t help you that much if you decide to move to Boston or New York.

What exactly makes the UC system so great?

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<p>It’s not just west coast kids. I just arrived in Singapore and the first thing my cousin said to me when I mentioned I only had one year of HS left was “What colleges are you going to apply to? Berkeley?”</p>

<p>Then he told me how people here go to the US to go the UC’s. They aren’t as “unprestigous” as you think.l</p>

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<p>I’m not saying that they aren’t prestigious. I just think they’re overhyped by California kids.</p>

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<p>oh no, not another one of these threads!! </p>

<p>now, i don’t know if it is overhyped by california kids or not, but i’ll try to explain things from a typical californian point of view: </p>

<p>the UC’s are good as a whole… 6 of the 9 undergrad UC’s rank in the US News top 50 universities. so even if you can’t get into berkeley (the best public school in the world) or UCLA (one of the best public schools in the world), you can still get into many other respectable UC’s. most kids applying to UC’s are from california and intend to stay in california after they graduate, so going to a UC makes sense. also, the UC’s are a bargain on its own for in-state residents, regardless of whether or not you can get a better deal at a private college. certainly, it’s not the best undergrad education you can get and large class sizes aren’t favorable, but you’ll still receive a good education from there… for half the price of every other college out there.</p>

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<p>The prestige of the UC’s stems primarily from its graduate schools, which tend to be extraordinary. Berkeley in particular can vie with any school for having the most outstanding collection of PhD programs of any school. A Berkeley PhD degree is widely respected throughout the world in both academia and industry.</p>

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<p>sakky,
I appreciate what you’re saying, but do not underestimate the undergrad dept’s as well. The point that is often overlooked regarding U’s with great graduate schools, is that such a factor attracts – & demands – great profs who can teach to undergrads, too (often). So in some cases that produces a vibrant dept. in a particular major or interdisciplinary major, encompassing undergrads & grads alike. Few U.S. U’s can match Berkeley’s Eng. Lit. Dept, or its Near Eastern Studies dept, etc. It’s not about either/or.</p>

<p>I do not think that Californians are “obsessed with U.C.” (katieeeee). Rather, Californians are aware of both the positives & negatives within the UC system. (Um, they live there.) However, I do think some CC’ers from the Northeast corner of the country are definitely obsessed with putting U.C. down, including Berkeley, & putting its students down. </p>

<p>Sad but true. (You should probably get over yourselves.)</p>

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<p>Well, I wouldn’t go around pushing the UC undergraduate programs too much. This thread is about highlighting the strengths of the UC system, and the fact of the matter is, while the undergrad programs are good, they are probably the weakest part of the entire system. Think about it. If you looked at all of the Berkeley programs and you had to pick out one that is the weakest, I think that the consensus opinion would be that it is the undergraduate program. Again, the undergrad program is still pretty good, but the fact is, it does not match the caliber of the Berkeley PhD or professional programs. If only the UC undergrad programs could be as good as the UC graduate programs…but I digress.</p>

<p>I agree that some from the Northeast are obsessed with unfairly putting UC down. However, from what I’ve seen, the most unfair comments tend to come not from Northeasterns, but actually from certain Californians, and in particular, from certain Californians that go to a certain highly prestigious school in Northern California. </p>

<p>On the other hand, I would say that certain criticisms of the UC system, especially of the undergraduate programs, are quite fair. Like I said, while the UC undergraduate programs are pretty good, they have serious flaws also, and I don’t think it’s unfair to point them out.</p>

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<p>Many CA kids only consider UCs because of the economic realities in CA. Many people who could not possibly afford a $40K/yr school for their kids look like they can on paper because of the price of CA homes. </p>

<p>So in many middle class neighborhoods with competitive schools, everyone is UC bound. But even in CA, the prestige is mostly ascribed to UCB and UCLA.</p>

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<p>katiee:</p>

<p>the reason you can’t really appreciate the UC’s is bcos there are few public colleges like them, and absolutely none in the NE (Rutgers, ZooMass, UConn, SUNY?). As a result, I would suggest that many NE kids are over-hyped about HYP! :)</p>

<p>btw: a Calif kid’s obsession with Berkeley and UCLA results from acceptance rates that rival the top 20 schools, even for in-state; thus, they are a reach for nearly every unhooked resident. In comparison, the top publics in the NE (and even #2, UMich), accept more than 50% of their apps, making them a match or safety for strong applicants.</p>

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<p>I’m going to go with bluebayou’s response. Good observation, and thanks for making my job easier. =)</p>

<p>TTG</p>

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<p>Overhyped. The word that is so often thrown around to describe the UC’s.</p>

<p>California kids get excited about the UC’s because the rest of the nation gets excited about them too. Contrary to popular belief, a degree from a UC is very powerful both nationwide and worldwide. </p>

<p>What other state has so many of their public universities ranked in the top 50? What other public university system is consistantly praised for being leading research institutions?</p>

<p>True, an undergraduate education at a UC isn’t going to compare to their graduate programs, but that doesn’t mean the degree isn’t powerful, or that the experience along the way isn’t amazing. Believe me, New York and Boston are certainly very familiar with the UC’s, and tend to treat the degree accordingly.</p>

<p>Honestly, HYP are always going to be the big boys, especially on the east coast, where all of them are located. But the UC’s, especially Berkeley and UCLA, have enough name recognition and prestige to keep up.</p>

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<p>i also want to agree with bluebayou. the UC’s are really good state schools. many other states don’t have state schools that compare, so it’s much harder to understand it from that perspective. </p>

<p>like i said earlier, 6 of the 9 undergrad UC’s are ranked in the top 50 by US News. two of the remaining three that aren’t in the top 50 universities overall (UC Santa Cruz and UC Riverside) are still better than HALF the STATE FLAGSHIPS in the USA. the nonranked UC is UC Merced, which just admitted its first class. </p>

<p>does that deserve some hype? sure. are the UC’s overhyped? i guess that depends on who you’ve talked to.</p>

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<p>don’t you become a number when you go to a UC?</p>

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<p>The University of California is the largest state system in the United States and despite it’s budget cuts in recent years, continues to boast an amazing undergraduate population, amazing professors, and new facilities. It may not be a HYP education nor the prestige often associated with Ivy Leagues, but the UC provides for Californians a post-secondary education that is arguably one of the best in California.</p>

<p>California in general has the most extensive public university system: 10 University of California’s (not including Hastings and UCSF), 22 California State Universities, and hundreds of community colleges.</p>

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<p>Sure, you’re a student ID number to the admissions office. But with 20,000+ undergrads, it would be quite difficult for each student to have an intimate session of tea and crumpets with the people who handle your financial aid paperwork. As far as the relationship you have with your professors, it depends on you and the type of instructor. It depends on how much effort you put into your overall experience. If you take the right steps to stick out and try to get involved, you will be far more than a number.</p>

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<p>There are tons of Cali kids at my East Coast prep school and almost none want to go to a UC. Tons of kids love UVA (especially the Echols program), UMich and UNC. The UCs are overhyped in Cali and don’t impress other than with their grad school (some) degrees.</p>

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<p>Yes. I am going to be number 2,489. You literally transform into the number during orientation. I’m dreading it.</p>

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<p>“The UCs are overhyped in Cali and don’t impress other than with their grad school (some) degrees.”</p>

<p>well, that’s a really uneducated response. but alright.</p>

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<p>Surely you may not get the attention that a small liberal arts college offers or even a larger research private institution like Harvard, but going to a UC does not automatically mean you become a number. UC’s continually strive to personalise the education, particularly for freshmen. Berkeley offers its Freshmen seminars limited to 15-25 students (which is still large for some people) and UCLA has it’s Fiat Lux courses, for example.</p>

<p>Again, UC’s are large in student population; however, (Sakky mentions this somewhere), students who actively seek out resources will get them.</p>

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<p>Graduate Programs are great, as you said:</p>

<p>Criminology: UC Irvine (ranked 4 in front of UPenn)
Business: UC Berkeley (ranked 6, tied with Dartmouth and ahead of Columbia); UCLA (ranked 11, tied with Duke and ahead of UVa and NYU, and Cornell, and Yale); UC Davis (ranked 42) and UC Irvine (tied with Rice for 49)</p>

<p>Education: UCLA (ranked 2, ahead of Stanford) UC Berkeley (tied with UPenn of 7) UC Santa Barbara (ranked 45 tied with Cornell)</p>

<p>Engineering: Berkeley (ranked 3, ahead of Cal Tech, UMich-Ann Arbor, USC) UC San Diego (ranked 11 ahead of Cornell and Univ of Texas) UCLA (ranked 15) ahead of PRinceton and Harvard) UC Santa Barbara (tied with Northwestern for 21 and ahead of Columbia) UC Davis (ranked 38 ahead of Yale) UC Irvine (tied with Univ of Rochester for 40 and ahead of Dartmouth, Brown, Rutgers at New Brunswich)</p>

<p>Law: Berkeley (ranked 11 tied with Cornell and Duke) UCLA (ranked 15 ahead of USC, George Washington, Boston Univ, UNC Chapel Hill) UC Davis (tied with Emory for 32) UC College of Hastings (tied with Ohio State for 39</p>

<p>Medicine (Research): UC San Francisco (ranked 5 ahead of Duke, Stanford) UCLA (tied with Yale for 11) UCSD (tied with Cornell for 14) UC Davis and UC Irvine (tied with Georgetown for 46)</p>

<p>Medicine (Primary Care): UCSD (ranked 7) UC San Francisco (ranked 8) {both are ahead of Harvard} UC Davis (tied with UPenn for 17) UCLA (ranked 33 ahead of Dartmouth and UVa)</p>

<p>UC Berkeley’s departments (note the plural) consistently rank in the top 10 of graduate programs.</p>

<p>And undergraduate? Their undergrad is not HYP, but it is far superior and comparable to other universities. In terms of rankings, Berkeley ranks 21 and UCLA 25 (tied with Georgetown). It offers a decent education for a reasonable price. Students who actively seek out resources will find them.</p>

<p>As an aside, let it be known that despite the fact that I use rankings, I still disapprove of them.</p>