<p>sfgiants- I must agree there are definite parallels in the TIME article. It should be noted that UCLA has been stagnate in the 25th spot for some time, unlike USC which is now aggressively hiring top researchers and climbing the rankings. For example, I had a professor who was “stolen” from UCLA and loves USC for it’s abundant funding and other benefits that the UC system lacked. </p>
<p>The purpose of this post was not to bash any schools. Just I saw some similarities in the culture and academics of privates and publics. For example, Berkeley is looked at as the more academic campus, where as UCLA is looked as lesser, more social, materialistic “LA” campus. The same could be concluded with CA top privates, Stanford and USC, respectively. Yes, the privates aren’t part of a statewide system, but if they were, there are strong similarities. Same can be considered with respects to UCSD and Pepperdine. Both are beach campuses in a gorgeous affluent town, but the campuses themselves are dull. The academics are also very similar.</p>