<p>[National</a> Universities Rankings - Best College - Education - US News](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/national-universities-rankings]National”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/national-universities-rankings)</p>
<p>While noting that U.S. News rankings are never really good indications of how good some colleges really are, this year is particularly strange. USC 23, UCLA 25?</p>
<p>WOAH, that’s a weird ranking. Berkeley now 22, it used to be 21, what school went over berkeley?</p>
<p>It probably has more to do with Cal and UCLA getting worse financially because of the state’s budget deficit, than it does any school getting better over last year. That’s just my guess, though.</p>
<p>Sb tied w/ Davis. wow…</p>
<p>@nick_scheu, I feel the same way</p>
<p>@Lovethelimit: SB was tied with Davis last year too… not that surprising.</p>
<p>Berkeley went down a spot? Wow. And to think I was about to apply there this November.</p>
<p>Shame on me.</p>
<p>I bet if US News said the egg came before the chicken (or vice versa), most people would believe it.</p>
<p>It seems like UCD, UCSB, and UCI all moved up.</p>
<p>* Sb tied w/ Davis. wow… *</p>
<p>Not sure why this is surprising? UCSB and UCD have always been neck and neck:</p>
<p>2011 - UCSB: 39, UCD: 39
2010 - UCSB: 42, UCD: 42
2009 - UCSB: 44, UCD: 44
2008 - UCSB: 44, UCD: 42
2007 - UCSB: 47, UCD: 47</p>
<p>Mid tier UC’s has always been pretty close. </p>
<p>LA+Cal always in the ~20ish SD 30ish and SB/I/Davis all have been relatively close to each other</p>
<p>you guys should really read the letter that the president of stanford wrote to us news:
[Criticism</a> of College Rankings - September 23, 1996](<a href=“http://www.stanford.edu/dept/pres-provost/president/speeches/961206gcfallow.html]Criticism”>Criticism of College Rankings - September 23, 1996)</p>
<p>" I am extremely skeptical that the quality of a university - any more than the quality of a magazine - can be measured statistically. However, even if it can, the producers of the U.S. News rankings remain far from discovering the method. Let me offer as prima facie evidence two great public universities: the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and the University of California-Berkeley. These clearly are among the very best universities in America - one could make a strong argument for either in the top half-dozen. Yet, in the last three years, the U.S. News formula has assigned them ranks that lead many readers to infer that they are second rate: Michigan 21-24-24, and Berkeley 23-26-27."</p>
<p>" Universities change very slowly - in many ways more slowly than even I would like. Yet, the people behind the U.S. News rankings lead readers to believe either that university quality pops up and down like politicians in polls, or that last year’s rankings were wrong but this year’s are right (until, of course, next year’s prove them wrong). What else is one to make of Harvard’s being #1 one year and #3 the next, or Northwestern’s leaping in a single bound from #13 to #9? And it is not just this year. Could Johns Hopkins be the 22nd best national university two years ago, the 10th best last year, and the 15th best this year? Which is correct, that Columbia is #9 (two years ago), #15 (last year) or #11 (this year)? Knowing that universities - and, in most cases, the statistics they submit - change little from one year to the next, I can only conclude that what are changing are the formulas the magazine’s number massagers employ. And, indeed, there is marked evidence of that this year."</p>
<p>Berkeley and Georgetown traded spots. Note that Carnegie Mellon and Emory went down in rankings significantly. I expected UCLA and Berkeley to go up this year…</p>
<p>Their methodology has flaws, but it’s probably the most referenced ranking list by students in the US. With that being said, their list matters!</p>
<p>So sad to see USC pass UCLA, but it’s not a shock to me. On a more positive note, it’s nice to see UCD, UCSB, and UCI move up…they’re catching up to UCSD!!</p>
<p>USC above UCLA? is this a sick joke? wow.</p>
<p>The important thing is that the UC system is clearly well regarded and we are all lucky to have access to such a stellar selection of public universities</p>