If you managed to apply to Berkeley, go through CalSO and survive Welcome Week without hearing UC Berkeley is the “number-one public university in the entire world” at least 50 times, there’s something wrong. It’s our ultimate point of pride here at Cal, and for good reason. However, as revealed by a slew of newly released university-reputation rankings, it turns out UC Berkeley has a lot more to be proud of!
On Aug. 25, four UC campuses were named in the top five of Washington Monthly’s 2014 rankings. UC San Diego was ranked first for the fifth year in a row, and UC Berkeley took third. The second, fourth and fifth places went to UC Riverside, Texas A&M University and UCLA, respectively. Schools were rated based on their contributions to the public in three categories: social mobility, research and service. Cal received an overall score of 94. Janet Napolitano said in a statement that “for four of our campuses to be ranked in the top five and for UC San Diego to be ranked No. 1 for the fifth consecutive year is a significant achievement. All eight of the UC Campuses that were ranked in the top 100 institutions deserve heartfelt congratulations from the entire UC community.”
That same day, the Daily Caller released its own college-rankings list entitled “The Best 52 Colleges In America Period When You Consider Absolutely Everything That Matters” — setting pretty high standards for its rating system. Colleges were evaluated based on four academic-related categories and four nonacademic categories. The academic-related categories were 1) overall academics, 2) professor quality, 3) overall ability to graduate freshmen and 4) admissions selectivity. The nonacademic categories were 1) social life, 2) student attractiveness, 3) campus and surrounding area and 4) cost of tuition and fees. UC Berkeley took 12th place — pretty good in the larger scheme of things, right?
