In other news (apolitical thread)...

[847badgerfan]

[betarhoalphadelta]

I think UCLA is pretty inexpensive for CA residents.  And it's a pretty good school I think.  I wouldn't have them at 15 based on reputation though.  I wouldn't have Vandy that high either.

I'd think Georgia Tech and Emory should be near a top 20.

I personally take most of these rankings with a grain of salt. IMHO they're more often about the selectiveness of the admissions process than the actual education provided. It's easy to say that you send great graduates out the back door when you've only allowed the most promising kids in the front. 

That said, I can't seem to think of any particular reason to say that UCLA isn't one of the top schools in the nation. 

I'd rather send my son there and pay in-state tuition than pay what I found out Michigan's OOS tuition costs 

[847badgerfan]

I'm not a fan of living in LA.

[Cincydawg]

I completely agree these rankings are no more than broadly suggestive, I think a top 30 school is likely pretty solid, a next 30 school is solid, and so on.  It does help if the rankers spell out how they did the rankings.  And of course some schools are better in one subject than others.  It's a crude way of looking at things.

UCLA likely is a top public school with pretty affordable tuition in state.  Is it way way better than Michigan on UC-Berzerkly or even UVA?  Maybe a little.  But what does "better" even mean, really?  For me, it's a resume builder (or not).  I think it starts to make more difference in grad school where certain departments are well known to be very good, and even there who you work for counts a lot as well.

[Cincydawg]

[847badgerfan]

I completely agree these rankings are no more than broadly suggestive, I think a top 30 school is likely pretty solid, a next 30 school is solid, and so on.  It does help if the rankers spell out how they did the rankings.  And of course some schools are better in one subject than others.  It's a crude way of looking at things.

UCLA likely is a top public school with pretty affordable tuition in state.  Is it way way better than Michigan on UC-Berzerkly or even UVA?  Maybe a little.  But what does "better" even mean, really?  For me, it's a resume builder (or not).  I think it starts to make more difference in grad school where certain departments are well known to be very good, and even there who you work for counts a lot as well.

100 percent agree.

When I was in Madison, I had really great engineering professors who truly enjoyed teaching, and my advisor was beyond awesome. Man, they are all Emeritus now! 

Bubenzer, Gary – Biological Systems Engineering – UW–Madison
Potter, Kenneth - UW-Engineering Directory | College of Engineering @ The University of Wisconsin-Madison
Monkmeyer, Peter - UW-Engineering Directory | College of Engineering @ The University of Wisconsin-Madison

One more has passed, unfortunately. 

Without those guys, it's just another school.

[utee94]

Hey @847badgerfan what's your source for these?  And, could you show Texas and Texas A&M?  I'm waist-deep in the middle of all of this now.

[Gigem]

My extremely conservative friend from work, both his kids now live in Ca.  His daughter graduated from A&M and then went to UCLA for grad school.  His son also graduated from Texas A&M.  I don't think he went to grad school, or if he did it was some on-line program.  

It's kind of strange really, because my friend is just so damn conservative.  He doesn't even cuss (to my knowledge he isn't religious), and is just so uptight about everything.  Like Hank Hill from King of the Hill in a way.  He told me one day that he didn't even go out of the State of Texas until he was in his 30's, or maybe even 40's.  I don't think he's ever even been out of the country.  So now both his kids live in Ca, within about an hour or so of each other so when they go visit they can see both of them.  These kids are early 20's/late 20's so fairly young.  

[betarhoalphadelta]

I completely agree these rankings are no more than broadly suggestive, I think a top 30 school is likely pretty solid, a next 30 school is solid, and so on.  It does help if the rankers spell out how they did the rankings.  And of course some schools are better in one subject than others.  It's a crude way of looking at things.

UCLA likely is a top public school with pretty affordable tuition in state.  Is it way way better than Michigan on UC-Berzerkly or even UVA?  Maybe a little.  But what does "better" even mean, really?  For me, it's a resume builder (or not).  I think it starts to make more difference in grad school where certain departments are well known to be very good, and even there who you work for counts a lot as well.

Subjects matter, of course. Which is why for him [wanting to be an engineer] the top of his list is UC-Berkeley, not UCLA. Not that UCLA isn't a great engineering school, but Berkeley is cream of the crop. 

I'm not a fan of living in LA.

Pretty sure most kids at UCLA would be claiming they live in Westwood, not LA 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Purdue is going into their 14th year of tuition freeze. 

[Cincydawg]

I had tested out of first quarter chemistry with the advice I attend class (I went to one).  I did OK second quarter and then made a D third.  That's the only D I ever made.  I figured I should change my major, but I had already signed up for soph courses, and I was too lazy to change.  So, I'm in org chem with a bunch of quasi-premed types, and the professor, one M. Gary Newton, was excellent.  He made it interesting, to me.  We started with 180, people sitting in the aisles until after the first test, and ended the year with about 30.  So,  that one professor surely changed my course in life.  I wrote a letter to the department when I heard he had passed.

Coursework is a lot easier if you're interested.

[SFBadger96]

LA is a big place. Allegedly there are parts of it that are amazing, including Westwood.

But it's the home of the Dodgers and USC, so screw that place.

[FearlessF]

Pasadena seemed nice

[SFBadger96]

Kids are dumb.

It's one of the best public universities in the biggest state in the country. It's going to get a lot of applications on that alone.

I know you have reservations about the direction of higher education right now, but UCLA brings in motivated, hard-working, smart kids. It's on a great campus, with tons of options, in a place with fantastic weather and access to just about anything you want in the world, except for winter, which isn't that far away.

The downside is the cost of living, which is high, but not the tuition, which is reasonable.

The NorCal in me scoffs at UCLA's prestige and says that's only because of its admission stats, because it's in a bigger metro area than Cal, but the reality is it's a premier public school, and will open a lot of doors for people who graduate from there.