Who is the number one?
UCLA and UC Berkeley do not seem to agree. In fact, they refuse to retreat from the top spot.
When US News and World Report released its global rankings last month, Cal was the first public university to appear on the list despite being technically ranked sixth after five private campuses, including Harvard, MIT and Stanford.
But being a top public university on the global list is enough for Berkeley, and it takes pride in the oldest UC campus to lead to a social media avalanche.
“#1 Public” UC Berkeley has been posted on her Instagram and Tiktok accounts, with photos of Oski The Bear and the hashtag “#HolyAirball.”
With no robbery, UCLA began posting to its own society within days: “Never #1” cited another US news national ranking of public universities that came out nine months ago, citing the Bruins as the country’s top public campus.
Fans and alumni from both schools have been sparring ever since.
UC Berkeley Company. When US News and World Report released its global rankings last month, Cal was the first public university to be listed.
(Paul Cloda/Day)
“Wow, UCLA really takes these rankings very seriously,” a user wrote in the Berkeley Reddit community.
Berkeley fans have flooded UCLA’s Instagram and used GIFs from Oski The Bear Dancing.
“Lol UCLA and Berkeley both post being #1,” commented an Instagram follower who holds degrees on both campuses.
“National Ranking UCLA #1 – What’s Really Important” was one of the most preferred comments about Berkeley’s Tiktok post, and spoke about its rank.
“Yeah, UCLA every day,” there was Tiktok’s comment, and another observed:
UC Berkeley’s prime minister also squealed the rich Lions.
Lyons, a 1982 Berkeley alumnus, told The Times, “I admire UCLA for their eagerness to do one ranking for their undergraduate programs and use it for all their values.” “We know how challenging a brother’s rivalry can be for younger brothers.
Mary Osaco, a 1996 UCLA graduate and vice-president of the school’s strategic communications, cited the campus rankings as the top rankings on the US News National List for several years.
“The Bruins love celebrating their first rankings. We’ve been doing it for eight years, but who’s counting?” she said. “Our playful jokes may have ruffled some (golden) feathers. UCLA and CAL are both top public universities that are changing the world for the better.
A school that has long competed for professors, students, athletes and federal grants. Adds a ranking to the list.
A UCLA student in front of the statue of Bruin Bear.
(Brian van der Bragg/Los Angeles Times)
But what gives? Is there really the number one?
Rankings for US news and global reports differ in methodology and scope. A global list, which examines 2,250 institutions (private and public), focuses on academic research, including citations and local reputations. It should be an overall assessment that is not based solely on graduate or undergraduate programs.
On the global list, UCLA was ranked the third best public university in the country. Washington University in Seattle was the second public school.
The national list of public universities focused on undergraduate experience in the field, including undergraduate experience on 1,500 campuses, graduation rates, first-year retention, how well students from low-income households performed and how “peer assessment” results were sent to university presidents, provosts and deans of admissions.
In that tally, Berkeley ranked second only after UCLA. The two rivals were neck and neck for several years, including #1 Thailand in 2023.
Rankings are popular – many campuses across the country are eager to lists – and controversial.
Over the years, several well-known vocational schools have drawn out data to rankings of US news law schools. In 2022, the deans of UCLA and UC Irvine Law School said they will boycott the rankings for the group’s methodology. That year, former U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said it was a “joking” as undergraduate rankings pushed schools into the game.
There are also competing worlds of list makers. Some of the most popular: “Best Colleges” by the Wall Street Journal, “Top Colleges of America” by Forbes, and “World University Rankings” by the International Rankings, Times Higher Education, and QS.
“There are many rankings, each with a slightly different focus, each with its own source of noise,” said UC Berkeley Prime Minister Lions, who has a ranking table in a coat pocket that shows Berkeley’s score. “More robust paintings are the weighted averages of them overall.”
Students walk through Sprawl Plaza in Berkeley, California.
(Eric Lisberg/Applications)
In the university ranking services business, it’s fighting to carve out a popular niche in itself, but both UCs tend to do pretty well, while Berkeley is generally defeating Westwood.
On the Wall Street Journal list, Berkeley ranks No. 8 and UCLA ranks 68th. Journal accounts will be stronger when it comes to estimating how much attending a particular school will affect graduate salary. QS Tally’s Westwood.Cal is No. 17th, and UCLA is No. 46. The Times Higher Education and QS rankings, which have an international angle, look closely at academic research.
Soubhik Barari, a research methodologist at NORC at the University of Chicago, studied university rankings and co-authored a 61-page paper last year that analyzed the list of major universities.
What he found was that it wasn’t perfect. Many people will weigh how they weigh different factors or change what they see each year. They often do not explain uncertainty, margins or errors, he said.
“So many people pay attention to the rankings of these universities,” Barali said. “It’s not always clear what they’re measuring. Are you measuring the best university for the average university student? Are you measuring based on other factors you think are important for higher education? Are you looking at the median value of university students?
Barari, an undergraduate from Tufts University with a Harvard graduate degree, avoided taking sides in UC rivalry.
The Bruins vs. Bears competition doesn’t seem to be nearing its end, and the ranking boast continues on social media and on campus websites.
When UCLA recently posted on Tiktok about the No. 1 spot, the most preferred comment isn’t “No. 1 🤣”. “He said.
Second favorite comment? “I thought #1 was Berkeley.”
When Berkeley made a similar post with Tiktok, the response came from other directions.
“I love confidence, but I don’t.”
“That’s great! What about #2 you guys posted on your Instagram? Baby for the eighth year in a row,” UCLA lovers mentioned an old Berkeley post about being the second mass on the US news national list.
Still, the chart and application stacks show that both campuses are the preferred locations to land.
The two schools also share much more in common than they allow.
After all, isn’t Bruin a bear?
