why UCLA keeps dropping in USNews rankings

sentimentGX4
Wed, 18 Aug 2010 16:36:27 +0000

As noted above, USC is increasingly reliant on out-of-state students. It is likely that in the future, the majority of USC undergrads will be from out-of-state; this is already the case at other highly-ranked private schools in California, including Stanford, Caltech, and the Claremont Colleges.

Well what I was getting at is that USC is huge. Stanford and Caltech are all small universities. If USC ever fell par to Stanford, it would like be adding 4 Ivy League universities!

You do understand my point? Even recruiting nationally and internationally, USC is going to have to push aside a bunch of universities to get there. USC would need 4x more endowment and other resources than counterparts such as NU. That’s what I find to be an obstacle for the university. Sure Berkeley has been done. But after Berkeley is unchartered territory.

The only way I imagine USC could rise to the top without having to run over 4 universities for every tier it jumps is if it successfully recruits international students. Most internationally renowned universities are research giants, however, and USC lags behind in this department.