<p>Um, where have you been for, like, the last century? Berkeley is a world renowned school with incredible cache–here in the US and abroad. As for rankings, it seems to be doing pretty good–despite the fact that it is just a plain old “public” school. [National</a> rankings & faculty honors - UC Berkeley](<a href=“http://www.berkeley.edu/about/rank.shtml]National”>http://www.berkeley.edu/about/rank.shtml)
I also know that Berkeley and Chicago law schools are tied for 6 in US News. </p>
<p>I love how folks love to try to dump on public schools, as if that is a bad thing. I also love the ignorance of statements like “the state school has to accept a lot of in state students” and therefore can’t have a uniformly intellectual student body. What a stupid statement. Do you not realize that California has 40 million people, and of that big pool of people, there are tons of brilliant folks who want to stay in the Golden State??? By your logic, an ‘elite’ private school that accepts the top student in each of the 50 states offers a more intellectually gifted student body…what if the smartest kid from North Dakota got a 1500 on the SAT but the average Californian got a 2000 on the SATs? Total rubbish…</p>
<p>You are right, however, about the state budget. Budget cuts do make public schools vulnerable.</p>