The old thinking was that Cal was #1, Michigan and UVA we’re about tied for 2nd, and then came a bunch of schools – like UNC, UCLA, Wisconsin, GA Tech, Texas, Washington, Illinois, and W&M – at the next tier.
Of those, UCLA has risen in estimation the most, probably in large part to their USNews rank. But they also do quite well these days in various international rankings, which point to grad/PhD output. (While grad rankings are not proxies for undergrad quality, high grad rankings certainly don’t hurt). It’s become a strong contender for Public Tier 1 status/rep, which I still think (for undergraduates) comprises Berkeley, Michigan and UVA. And now probably UCLA too.