which state contains the best universities?

[irishScott]

Wow, people really care about this?

Still haven't quantified "best". The best for Engineering? Music? Political Science? Asian Studies? Architecture? Neffing? Pornographic and Feminist Thought? What?

There are specialty schools out there that will blow most of the "big names" out of the water in their chosen specialty.

Likewise you could also rate "best" by any number of attributes. ie: From what I've heard the Carnegie Mellon Engineering department is pretty damn cutthroat. Therefore (assuming that's true) I wouldn't rank it among the "best" in terms of atmosphere.



General question is too general.

 

[l0cke]

CA sucks, and MA is not a state so it doesn't fulfill the one requirement of this question.

Plus, MA sucks.

 

[DT4K]

Originally posted by: JS80

Originally posted by: sjwaste
Whoever pointed out that regional status matters more is probably correct. Out here in VA, we don't give a shit which UC school you went to, but if you went to UVA, Penn, or even W&M, it matters. In CA, you probably don't even know what W&M is and generally know that UVA is a good school, but you know which of the UCs are better, etc.

National rankings are mostly meaningless outside of the top handful of schools. Especially true in the legal profession, I've found.

But to answer the OPs question, no state has the sheer number of quality schools present in CA. Of course, no state has the sheer number of schools present in CA.

It's really, really hard to not say MA has the best schools, just for the presence of Harvard and MIT. History probably plays a big part of that, though. That and I'm from the Northeast - but I cant stand Sox fans. So CA wins.

Harvard, MIT and Stanford, Cal Tech pretty much same caliber.

In terms of real quality of education, you're probably right. They are all top quality schools.

But in terms of reputation and name recognition, Harvard and MIT are still a notch above Stanford and Cal Tech.

Ask most people what the best university in the country is and most of them are going to automatically say Harvard.
Ask what the best science/engineering school is and most people are going to automatically say MIT.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Originally posted by: l0cke
CA sucks, and MA is not a state so it doesn't fulfill the one requirement of this question.

Plus, MA sucks.

:disgust: Yet, your the one that can't find an urinal for less than $200.

 

[BW86]

CA or NY

 

[BChico]

Originally posted by: Perknose

Originally posted by: Xanis
PA has some pretty good schools.

Drexel
UPenn
Cornell
Carnegie Mellon
Penn State
Pittsburgh

Uh, just around my area (20 mile radius) there are three of the nation's finest liberal arts colleges: Swarthmore (3rd), Haverford (10th), and Bryn Mawr (23rd) as well as the Univ. of Pa. Second tier in the same small area would include Drexel, Villanova and La Salle. Plenty of other colleges, too.

Cornell is NOT in PA, however.

Try again...

1. UPenn
2. CMU
3. Lehigh
4. Penn State
5. Drexel
6. Pitt...

Swarthmore is a very good liberal arts school.

 

[Mo0o]

Originally posted by: DT4K

Originally posted by: JS80

Originally posted by: sjwaste
Whoever pointed out that regional status matters more is probably correct. Out here in VA, we don't give a shit which UC school you went to, but if you went to UVA, Penn, or even W&M, it matters. In CA, you probably don't even know what W&M is and generally know that UVA is a good school, but you know which of the UCs are better, etc.

National rankings are mostly meaningless outside of the top handful of schools. Especially true in the legal profession, I've found.

But to answer the OPs question, no state has the sheer number of quality schools present in CA. Of course, no state has the sheer number of schools present in CA.

It's really, really hard to not say MA has the best schools, just for the presence of Harvard and MIT. History probably plays a big part of that, though. That and I'm from the Northeast - but I cant stand Sox fans. So CA wins.

Harvard, MIT and Stanford, Cal Tech pretty much same caliber.

In terms of real quality of education, you're probably right. They are all top quality schools.

But in terms of reputation and name recognition, Harvard and MIT are still a notch above Stanford and Cal Tech.

Ask most people what the best university in the country is and most of them are going to automatically say Harvard.
Ask what the best science/engineering school is and most people are going to automatically say MIT.

A lot of that is just tradition and misconception.

 

[JDub02]

Originally posted by: Xanis
PA has some pretty good schools.

Drexel
UPenn
Cornell
Carnegie Mellon
Penn State
Pittsburgh

Lehigh
Bucknell
Swarthmore

Cornell is a backup school (and in NY as was stated numerous times) 😛

 

[sactoking]

Originally posted by: Chronoshock
As far as business goes, MIT and Harvard have better programs.
Going by the Business Week rankings, http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/rankings/ (click on full-time MBA), its 2,9 vs 6,10,14,25

I just like to point out that Harvard Business is THE single most overrated school program on the planet. Why? Look around. How many Fortune 500 companies are lead by Harvard MBAs? Almost all of them. The problem is that Fortune 500 companies are Fortune 500 companies because they're big, not because they're good. It's almost always a non-Harvard MBA that gets them there and a Harvard MBA that runs them into the ground. Also, how many TARP recipient companies were put in that position because of Harvard MBAs?

Harvard Business is not a top b-school. It is a self-perpetuating machine of cronyism responsible for some of the biggest failures in American business.

 

[magomago]

Originally posted by: WraithETC

Originally posted by: VAisforlovers

Originally posted by: OCguy
How could it not be CA? 😕

what are the schools in CA?

Berk, Cal Tech, Stanford, USC

USC, atleast for undergraudate, as far as I've heard, is the "Have enough money and we will let you in!" college.

Originally posted by: VAisforlovers

Originally posted by: IAteYourMother

Originally posted by: VAisforlovers

Originally posted by: OCguy
How could it not be CA? 😕

what are the schools in CA?

Stanford, Berkeley, Claremont colleges, USC, UCLA, UCSD, not to mention the rest of the UC system and other various private universities.

the rest of the UC system sucks

UCR? UCSB? places like Boston University or Boston College is better than most of the UCs

I'm pretty sure all the UCs are in the top 5%

 

[sactoking]

Originally posted by: magomago
USC, atleast for undergraudate, as far as I've heard, is the "Have enough money and we will let you in!" college.

Yes, it's the University of Spoiled Children

 

[sactoking]

Originally posted by: VAisforlovers
the rest of the UC system sucks

UCR? UCSB? places like Boston University or Boston College is better than most of the UCs

Really? UC San Francisco, with the #5 medical school in the nation would disagree. UC Davis, with the #1 veterinary school in the nation would disagree. UC Irvine, with one of the nation's best public engineering programs would disagree.

 

[JS80]

Originally posted by: Mo0o

Originally posted by: DT4K

Originally posted by: JS80

Originally posted by: sjwaste
Whoever pointed out that regional status matters more is probably correct. Out here in VA, we don't give a shit which UC school you went to, but if you went to UVA, Penn, or even W&M, it matters. In CA, you probably don't even know what W&M is and generally know that UVA is a good school, but you know which of the UCs are better, etc.

National rankings are mostly meaningless outside of the top handful of schools. Especially true in the legal profession, I've found.

But to answer the OPs question, no state has the sheer number of quality schools present in CA. Of course, no state has the sheer number of schools present in CA.

It's really, really hard to not say MA has the best schools, just for the presence of Harvard and MIT. History probably plays a big part of that, though. That and I'm from the Northeast - but I cant stand Sox fans. So CA wins.

Harvard, MIT and Stanford, Cal Tech pretty much same caliber.

In terms of real quality of education, you're probably right. They are all top quality schools.

But in terms of reputation and name recognition, Harvard and MIT are still a notch above Stanford and Cal Tech.

Ask most people what the best university in the country is and most of them are going to automatically say Harvard.
Ask what the best science/engineering school is and most people are going to automatically say MIT.

A lot of that is just tradition and misconception.

Yup, when a recruiter sees two resumes Harvard and Stanford, they will both be put in the "interview" pile. The "reputation" stuff is just for general populace and asian mother show offs. The workforce puts them on equal footing on paper, as both schools have same caliber students.

 

[sactoking]

For the engineering debate: US News lists MIT as the #1 engineering program in the nation. Stanford, Berkeley, and Cal-Tech are #2, 3, and 4 respectively. None of the other top-10 are from CA or Mass.

Also, California brings Harvey-Mudd, one of the Claremont Colleges, to the table. Having done some research on the subject a while back as my brother was deciding on a school for engineering, H-M is actually on par with Cal-Tech. The difference is that H-M only offers undergrad degrees (and maybe Masters) but not Ph.D so they get excluded from the rankings.

 

[VAisforlovers]

Originally posted by: magomago

Originally posted by: WraithETC

Originally posted by: VAisforlovers

Originally posted by: OCguy
How could it not be CA? 😕

what are the schools in CA?

Berk, Cal Tech, Stanford, USC

USC, atleast for undergraudate, as far as I've heard, is the "Have enough money and we will let you in!" college.

Originally posted by: VAisforlovers

Originally posted by: IAteYourMother

Originally posted by: VAisforlovers

Originally posted by: OCguy
How could it not be CA? 😕

what are the schools in CA?

Stanford, Berkeley, Claremont colleges, USC, UCLA, UCSD, not to mention the rest of the UC system and other various private universities.

the rest of the UC system sucks

UCR? UCSB? places like Boston University or Boston College is better than most of the UCs

I'm pretty sure all the UCs are in the top 5%

is USC viewed in the same league as UCLA/Berk?

 

[sactoking]

Originally posted by: VAisforlovers
is USC viewed in the same league as UCLA/Berk?

Only for athletics and graduate programs.

 

[JS80]

Originally posted by: magomago

Originally posted by: WraithETC

Originally posted by: VAisforlovers

Originally posted by: OCguy
How could it not be CA? 😕

what are the schools in CA?

Berk, Cal Tech, Stanford, USC

USC, atleast for undergraudate, as far as I've heard, is the "Have enough money and we will let you in!" college.

That was right pre-2000. Today USC has a higher GPA/SAT average than UCLA.

 

[uclaLabrat]

Originally posted by: sactoking

Originally posted by: VAisforlovers
is USC viewed in the same league as UCLA/Berk?

Only for athletics and graduate programs.

Depends on the program. They're good for things like business, Pharmacy, dental, law, and film. Chemistry, not so much. They're decent, but not exceptional.

For the sciences (especially life sciences, oceanography, and chemistry) The scripps research institute is absolutely top notch, on par with Harvard, MIT, stanford and caltech.

 

[IAteYourMother]

Originally posted by: DLeRium

http://colleges.usnews.ranking...lege/spec-doct-science

The more conceptual science stuff, CIT rocks. MIT is hands down the better engineering school. CalTech cannot even compete. If you look at programs and resources, and where the best engineers come out of, it's MIT. Even engineers from Cal, Stanford, Cornell would be better. The rankings are really tricky, and if you go visit the schools and explore their programs, you can tell that MIT is more hands on engineering and the rest of the schools have far more industry connections and just real world engineering stuff than Cal Tech. I'm not saying CIT is a bad school, it's just not the place I would see myself.

My roommate who was engineering physics completely seems the type that would fit in to Cal Tech. He's more about math, calculations, proofs, science, etc, and I know that's a place he looked into heavily. The people who I know who came out of Cal Tech are insanely smart. Not just nerdy like some friends from Berkeley, we're talking just like lives focused on calculating things in a very Beautiful Mind way almost. Now it's not like you won't see those people at MIT, but there's more of a focus on EECS in MIT from the people I've spoken too.

I'm still not really sure why CIT is a far better pure science school... MIT's pure sciences are very strong. CIT is very strong too, but I'm not sure I would necessarily say it's definitely better.

 

[invidia]

East coast represent please.

 

[uclaLabrat]

Originally posted by: IAteYourMother

Originally posted by: DLeRium

http://colleges.usnews.ranking...lege/spec-doct-science

The more conceptual science stuff, CIT rocks. MIT is hands down the better engineering school. CalTech cannot even compete. If you look at programs and resources, and where the best engineers come out of, it's MIT. Even engineers from Cal, Stanford, Cornell would be better. The rankings are really tricky, and if you go visit the schools and explore their programs, you can tell that MIT is more hands on engineering and the rest of the schools have far more industry connections and just real world engineering stuff than Cal Tech. I'm not saying CIT is a bad school, it's just not the place I would see myself.

My roommate who was engineering physics completely seems the type that would fit in to Cal Tech. He's more about math, calculations, proofs, science, etc, and I know that's a place he looked into heavily. The people who I know who came out of Cal Tech are insanely smart. Not just nerdy like some friends from Berkeley, we're talking just like lives focused on calculating things in a very Beautiful Mind way almost. Now it's not like you won't see those people at MIT, but there's more of a focus on EECS in MIT from the people I've spoken too.

I'm still not really sure why CIT is a far better pure science school... MIT's pure sciences are very strong. CIT is very strong too, but I'm not sure I would necessarily say it's definitely better.

Not sure about other sciences but in chemistry, the general ranking across the 4 major divisions is:

1. Harvard
2. Caltech/MIT/Stanford/Berkley
6. Columbia/Wisconsin/Urbana Champagne

 

[zerocool84]

So basically everyone TRIES to argue that Cali doesn't have the best Universities but can't refute the evidence.