<p>OK, so I was accepted to both UCLA and UCB and I love UCLA, much more so than Berkeley, but the prestige and reputation factor at Berkeley is causing me to lean that way. But it seems to me that the prestige factor loosely follows an inversely proportional relationship to acceptance rate. I was reading the CC results thread for berkeley and it seems that a lot of ppl who got into berkeley were rejected from UCLA. With the demand for a UCLA education increasing (72K freshman apps alone) and the acceptance rate going down, do you think that UCLA will eventually/soon eclipse UC Berkeley as the most prestigious public institution in the country?</p>
<p>no.
Berkeley prestige is because of its graduate programs, not undergrad admission %.</p>
<p>I think if UCLA does something right, then yes. Berkeley and UCLA are both great schools, and with enough time, I suppose it’s possible. However, looking at graduate school rankings in the sciences, I do think UCLA would have to catch up by a bit.</p>
<p>Ucla has long had many more applicants than ucb. No I do not think ucla will become more prestigious than cal. As has been stated it’s graduate program are overall generally better.
Seriously, don’t go to a school for its prestige factor, go for what the particular school has to offer for your major and your nonmajor interests.
What matters more is what you make of your time at school. After your first job post college no employer is going to really care what school you went to.</p>
<p>No it’s really doubtful. It’s prestige certainly comes from it’s grad programs, but it’s also historical. Cal is like 60 years older than UCLA and was already one of the most prestigious universities in the world when UCLA was barely starting to become reputable like in the 1960s.</p>
<p>If you look at current reputational rankings, it’s not even close:</p>
<p>[Top</a> Universities by Reputation 2012](<a href=“http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2011-2012/reputation-rankings.html]Top”>World Reputation Rankings 2012 | Times Higher Education (THE))</p>
<p>Cal has over twice the reputational points that UCLA does (71.6 v 33.8) but what i should note is that while Cal’s reputation went down slightly, UCLA’s shot up significantly over 10 points, and up 3 rankings, from last year (someone on a different forum on CC made a point that they just reinforced new data from this year on last years data.) which i believe no other university came close to doing.</p>
<p>For some reason though, UCLA grads are hired at a much higher rate than berkeley grads worldwide (11 vs 30):</p>
<p>[Education</a> - Image - NYTimes.com](<a href=“Education - Image - NYTimes.com”>Education - Image - NYTimes.com)</p>
<p>and honestly, the prestige berkeley caries won’t make much of a difference unless you leave the US. And berkeley isn’t more selective than UCLA is (they’re admit rates are pretty similar.)</p>
<p>So no, i doubt UCLA will achieve or surpass berkeley’s prestige. But there’s much more to a college than prestige. If there wasn’t, William Sharpe wouldn’t have transferred from Berkeley to UCLA. And Hilary Putnam wouldn’t have transferred here from Harvard either.</p>
<p>I vote “maybe”. I can see a shift in prestige among the top 3 UCs in the next 50 years (that may or may not be to our advantage) and I do not believe Berkeley will be as prestigious as it is forever. Nothing is set in stone.</p>
<p>UCLA’s graduate programs are actually quite prestigious already and they would only need to advance slightly to match Berkeley’s. Furthermore, UCLA has a med school while Berkeley doesn’t. The medical school is the most prestigious part of a university and, because of this, international rankings occasionally rank UCLA above Berkeley and it ISN’T a fluke in methodology. </p>
<p>UCLA is also gaining undergraduate momentum vs Berkeley. The gap in USNWR rankings has decreased in the past 20 years as well as the gap between the student body. If current trends persist, which is actually more reliant on Cal’s decline rather than our rise, we could “surpass” Berkeley in the next 50 years.</p>
<p>Remember USC. I don’t understand why people are so insistent that rankings are rigid because they are not.</p>
<p>Regarding how important “prestige” is, I think you will regret choosing Berkeley if you aren’t at least “tolerant” of the environment. “Prestige” has negligible impact on your career. All you really gain from going to Berkeley (or MIT/Harvard/etc. etc.) is the ability to tell people you went to Berkeley. If this means a lot to you, which it does to some people, then Berkeley is the right choice.</p>
<p>UCLA > UCB. Berkeley is too liberal and a lot of employers (outside of the academic world) are turned off by it.</p>
<p>If you like UCLA more, you should go to UCLA. The opportunities after graduation for UCLA and Berkeley undergrads are identical. The undergrad student bodies at each of these schools are identical. I don’t know why “prestige” matters. I think you’re making an issue out of something that’s only an issue to people in forums like this. Plenty of people, like myself, chose UCLA over Berkeley.</p>
<p>Admitted to UCLA too and considering transfer to other schools. </p>
<p>Actually I’d like to pursue a career in consulting. So would anybody tell me about some related undergrad programs as competitive as mmss in Northwestern?</p>
<p>I was also considering the “prestige” factor when deciding between UCLA and Berkeley, but in the end the difference between the prestige of UCLA and that of Berkeley is really minimal at the undergrad level and not really going to affect your job prospects or anything like that. UCLA is only rising in prestige and as the #1 dream school in america the UCLA brand is definitely well regarded.</p>