The Washington Monthly rankings ranked UCSD as #1 and the Shanghai rankings ranked UC – Riverside above Dartmouth. How can those be credible?

They’re credible if you see education as a tool to better lives and not as social cachet.
The Washington Monthly’s system looks at community service, research production, and meritocracy/social mobility, as opposed to US News’s obsession with American prestige rankings. For example, the Monthly uses Pell Grant enrollment, Peace Corps recruitment, and ROTC membership as criteria.

In short, US News asks “how prestigious is this college?” while the Monthly asks “what does this college produce that is beneficial to the society it inhabits?”

If you want figures, the Monthly is very forthcoming with its criteria:

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/

Go Bruins.

Oh yeah, I want to go to a school that is the best in offering community service, not so much in research or other academic fields of merit. That will really help me get a job when I graduate.

I think there’s more going on behind the rankings. U.S. News probably got a nice Trojan kickback for that one.

Equipment Financing

When I was at UCLA almost 20 years ago, my Trojan friends and family told me about USC’s long term plans. USC did massive fundraising drives during a 20 year effort to improve their school. It was very deliberate. They took that money and used it to attract top students and faculty, as well as improve their facilities. My little brother and two of my friends were recipients of these full academic scholarships and they turned down very prestigious universities to attend USC for free. Those scholarships enabled them to afford top law and medical schools without accruing massive debt. USC didn’t have to buy that ranking – they bought good people and earned it. ;)

Don’t get me wrong I am 100% for the LA rivalry. But, some people take it too far. Sometimes us bruins do, sometimes the trojans do. I hope with these rankings being released we start working together to build LA into an even greater city, with more educated people. We have all the makings. A great liberal arts education at UCLA, top-ranked professional schools at USC, and technology powerhouse at Caltech. LA has the ability to turn itself into a truly different city, a better city even. Can’t we all just get along?

Upon closer inspection of the various factors that make up the ranking as a whole, there is a HUGE disparity in alumni giving between USC and UCLA graduates. 85% of USC alumni give back while only 15% of UCLA alumni do so. This needs to change. More Bruins need to give back to the school in order for our alma mater to maintain its position as a world renowned institution of research and higher education. If every Bruin alumni can just give back just a little bit whether that be $10, $100, or $1,000 a year, UCLA would be so much better off. UCLA cannot maintain its status and continue its mission without the proper support from its alumni.

I hate to admit it, but USC will probably rise to a point where it won’t be something to talk about in a couple of years. There’s no point to “fight on” because USC won’t be catering to the UCLA demographic in a few years anyway. USC is also nowhere near challenging UCLA in the graduate front. The rivalry will quell down soon enough.