California vs Massachusetts! Which State has better Universities? (comparison, population, people)

[shiver]

I don't like getting caught up in the US News rankings. It's an indicator, but I wouldn't live and die by what it says. The California state university system does win the public school battle and that's a big deal, because CA residents can get a top notch education at several very well regarded schools at a public school pricetag. UMass-Amherst is a pretty good school, but it's no UC-Berkeley. MA is known more for it's private schools.

Stanford and Caltech are very comparable to Harvard and MIT, but I'd give a slight edge to the latter because they do have a little bit more prestige.

What makes MA so impressive is the number of quality schools for such a small state. It's only about 140 miles from end of the state to the other compared to the massive size of Cali. There's also a great variety of prestigious schools - big universities, small liberal arts schools, specialty schools (ex. Berklee School of Music).

CA wins for it's numerous great public universities, but MA wins for it's wide variety of prestigious and diverse private schools in such a small state. Very tough match-up.

[Cliff Clavin]

Originally Posted by PDX_LAX

Harvard
MIT
Boston College
Boston University
Tufts
Umass
Northeastern
Clark
+ a lot more including specialty and lib arts schools

...Bentley...Brandeis...Suffolk...Emerson...Welles ley...

[tmac9wr]

Easily the two best states for education. My vote goes to Massachusetts (with a bit of hometown bias), but California can easily make its case for being the top state for education. As someone mentioned before, it's very impressive that a state which is geographically smaller than Atlanta's Metro area can go toe-to-toe with our country's most powerful state which is third-largest geographical, and largest population-wise.

California is 19.89 times larger than Massachusetts (geographically).

[18Montclair]

As a UCLA and Berkeley Alum, I can say that I'm really pleased to see how extensive the reach of CA's publics is.

The California public education system is very impressive because of the quality and how many people are enrolled in its 3 principal branches. I can't tell you all how many people I know came to this country with nothing, enrolled in a community college(now $20 a unit-I remember when it was $7) and then transferred to a UC or CSU and are now living the american dream.

System/ Enrollment
University of California 220,000
California State University 437,000
California Community Colleges 2,800,000

Total Enrollment in California Public Colleges and Universities: 3,457,000

[18Montclair]

At the very top of the rankings, CA does quite well.

US News and World Report 2009 Ranking of Graduate Schools


Best Business Schools
1-tied Harvard
1-tied Stanford
3 U. of Pennsylvania(Wharton)
4-tie MIT(Sloan)
4-tie Northwestern(Kellogg)
7-tie Dartmouth(Tuck)
7-tie U. of California, Berkeley(Haas)
9 Columbia
10 NYU(Stern)
11 U. of California, Los Angeles(Anderson)
12 U. of Michigan, Ann Arbor(Ross)
13 Yale
14-tie Cornell(Johnson)
14-tie Duke(Fuqua)
14-tie U. of Virginia(Darden)

Best Law Schools
1 Yale
2-tie Harvard
2-tie Stanford
4 Columbia
5 NYU
6 U. of California, Berkeley
7-tie U. of Chicago
7-tie U. of Pennsylvania
9-tie Northwestern
9-tie U. of Michigan, Ann Arbor
9-tie U. of Virginia
12 Cornell
14 Georgetown
15 Vanderbilt

Best Medical Schools
1 Harvard
2 Johns Hopkins
3 Washington U. in St. Louis
4 U. of Pennsylvania
5 U. of California, San Francisco
6-tie Duke
6-tie U. of Washington
8 Stanford
9-tie U. of California, Los Angeles
9-tie Yale
11-tie Columbia
11-tie U. of Michigan, Ann Arbor
12 Baylor
14-tie U. of California, San Diego
14-tie U. of Pittsburgh

Best Engineering Schools
1 MIT
2 Stanford
3 U. of California, Berkeley
4 Georgia Tech
5 U. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
6 Cal Tech
7 Carnegie Mellon
8 U. of California, Los Angeles(Viterbi)
9-tie Cornell
9 U. of Michigan, Ann Arbor
11 U. of California, San Diego
13-tie Texas A&M
13-tie U. of California, Los Angeles(Samueli)
15-tie Purdue
15-tie U. of Wisconsin, Madison

Best Education Schools
1 Stanford
2 Vanderbilt
3 U. of California, Los Angeles
4 Columbia
5 U. of Oregon
6 Harvard
7-tie U. of California, Berkeley
7-tie U. of Washington
9 U. of Michigan, Ann Arbor
10-tie U. of Pennsylvania
10-tie U. of Texas, Austin
12-tie Northwestern
12-tie U. of Wisconsin, Madison
14-tie Michigan State U.
14-tie NYU

Best Biological Sciences Schools
1 Stanford
2-tie MIT
2-tie U. of California, Berkeley
4-tie Cal Tech
4-tie Harvard
6 Johns Hopkins
7-tie Rockefeller U.
7-tie Scripps Research Institute(CA)
7-tie U. of California, San Francisco
7-tie Yale
12-tie Cornell
12-tie Duke
12-tie Princeton
15-tie Columbia
15-tie U. of Michigan, Ann Arbor
15-tie U. of Wisconsin, Madison

Best Chemistry Schools
1-tie Cal Tech
1-tie MIT
1-tie Stanford
1-tie U. of California, Berkeley
5 Harvard
6 Scripps Research Institute(CA)
7-tie U. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
7-tie U. of Wisconsin, Madison
9-tie Cornell
9-tie Northwestern
11 Columbia
12-tie U. of California, Los Angeles
12-tie U. of Chicago
12-tie U. of Texas, Austin
15 Yale

Best Computer Science Schools
1-tie MIT
1-tie Stanford
1-tie U. of California, Berkeley
4 Carnegie Mellon U.
5 U. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
6-tie Cornell
6-tie Princeton
6-tie U. of Washington
9-tie Georgia Tech
9-tie U. of Texas, Austin
11-tie Cal Tech
11-tie U. of Wisonsin, Madison
13-tie U. of California, Los Angeles
13-tie U. of Maryland, College Park
13-tie U. of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Best Earth Science Schools
1 Cal Tech
2-tie MIT
2-tie Stanford
4 U. of California, Berkeley
5-tie Columbia
5-tie U. of Michigan, Ann Arbor
7 Pennsylvania State U., University Park
8 U. of Arizona
9 Harvard
9 U. of Texas, Austin
11-tie Princeton
11-tie U. of California, Los Angeles
11-tie U. of Washington
11-tie Yale
15-tie Cornell
15-tie U. of California, San Diego
15-tie U. of Chicago
15-tie U. of Wisconsin, Madison

Best Mathematics Schools
1 Princeton
2-tie Harvard
2-tie-MIT
2-tie Stanford
2-tie U. of California, Berkeley
6 U. Of Chicago
7-tie Cal Tech
7-tie Yale
9-tie Columbia
9-tie NYU
9-tie U. of Michigan, Ann Arbor
12 U. of California, Los Angeles
13 Cornell
14-tie Brown
14-tie U. of Texas, Austin
14-tie U. of Wisconsin, Madison

Best Physics Schools
1-tie MIT
1-tie Stanford
3-tie Cal Tech
3-tie Harvard
3-tie Princeton
3-tie U. of California, Berkeley
7 Cornell
8-tie U. of Chicago
8-tie U. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
10 U. of California, Santa Barbara
11-tie Columbia
11-tie Yale
13-tie U. of Maryland, College Park
13-tie U. of Michigan, Ann Arbor
13-tie U. of Pennsylvania

[Chicago60614]

Taking into account we're basically comparing the Boston metro area to the entire state of California - and Boston holds up very well, I'd have to give it to Boston.

[irishimm]

California's UC system is arguably the best public university system in the world. Add that to colleges like Stanford, CalTechm Pepperdine, Santa Clara, Pitzer, etc and its tough to beat.

[18Montclair]

Originally Posted by Chicago60614

Taking into account we're basically comparing the Boston metro area to the entire state of California - and Boston holds up very well, I'd have to give it to Boston.

As far as the top of the graduate grankings, its more like Harvard and MIT vs Stanford, Berkeley, Cal Tech, UCLA, UCSF, UCSD, UCSB and Scripps.

From that perspective California is really hard to beat.

[tmac9wr]

Originally Posted by Chicago60614

Taking into account we're basically comparing the Boston metro area to the entire state of California - and Boston holds up very well, I'd have to give it to Boston.

Yea it's pretty impressive that many of the top colleges mentioned are within a few blocks of one another, and sometimes have campuses that overlap each other. Even the two big Liberal Arts schools out in Western Mass, Williams and Amherst, are very close to one another.

To think, if we expanded Massachusetts to include all of New England, this could actually be relatively lop-sided in New England's favor.

[18Montclair]

Furthermore, after looking at those grad school rankings-one is left with the impression that US News' overall ranking is sorely erroneous. UC Berkeley, UCLA and Michigan should all be ranked much higher overall.