Money magazine just released their latest ranking of colleges and universities, and the University of California got 5 of the top 11 spots! Wow! To come up with the rankings, Money combines measures of “Quality of Education” (based largely on graduation rates), “Affordability” (net costs after financial aid, borrowing, time to graduation and student loan repayment rates) and “Outcomes” (measured mostly by alumni salary data).
UC San Diego ranked 2nd overall, after only Princeton University. UC Irvine was 3rd, UCLA came in 4th, UC Berkeley was 7th, & UC Davis was ranked #11. One can definitely quibble about the order, the criteria and even the validity of these types of rankings in general. I am definitely biased, but I am not convinced that there are 3 UCs that are better than Cal! I also don’t think average salary is a great measure of outcomes. Nonetheless, it’s clear that the University of California system is doing something right, and is something to be proud of.
Forbes Magazine also just released their own annual rankings of colleges, with different criteria that also yielded incredibly impressive results for the University of California. For 2018, UC Berkeley was #1 in their list of the top 25 public colleges (that’s more like it!). UCLA was #8 on this list, UC San Diego was #18, UC Santa Barbara was #19, UC Davis was #21, and UC Irvine was #22. UC Berkeley also ranked #14 on their overall list of best colleges (including public and private institutions). This is all really well-deserved recognition!
The full lists, and more information about the methodology used for these rankings can be seen online at
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