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California by far for sports. Massachusetts really only has Boston College and Boston University for that. And the multitude if colleges in the UC system, some Cal. State, and private colleges all around the state give it the upper hand in academics. Massachusetts has a lot less land and people so it doesn't have the need for more institutions. Of course people are going to argue that MIT, Harvard, BC, BU, Amherst etc. are better than California, USC, Stanford, UCLA etc and might be right but they will forget about the numerous other colleges that California has and that compounding the colleges' prestige is the appropriate thing to do when comparing all colleges. With that said I think if you compared the quality of colleges to say, amount of people, that would be a better comparison.
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
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
^^^^
Again, not only are Massachusetts schools right there or above CA schools onyour list, but Ma schools make up a bulk of the 16-30 grad programs- Tufts, BU, BC, Brandeis etc.
Also, the liberal arts colleges in Ma are excellent.
Amherst College is usually number #1 or #2 in nation rankings of undergrad programs. Also Smith, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, Wellesley, Bentley, Emerson (for communication), and some the UMASS system are regarded highly. Also Holy Cross, Worcester Polytech, Northeastern.
As far as specialty programs:
Boston Architectural College is highly regarded.
Berklee School of music is a top 5 music school, as is the Boston Conservatory.
Bard College at Simons Rock.
School of the Museumof Fine Arts.
^^^^
Again, not only are Massachusetts schools right there or above CA schools onyour list, but Ma schools make up a bulk of the 16-30 grad programs- Tufts, BU, BC, Brandeis etc.
Also, the liberal arts colleges in Ma are excellent.
Amherst College is usually number #1 or #2 in nation rankings of undergrad programs. Also Smith, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, Wellesley, Bentley, Emerson (for communication), and some the UMASS system are regarded highly. Also Holy Cross, Worcester Polytech, Northeastern.
As far as specialty programs:
Boston Architectural College is highly regarded.
Berklee School of music is a top 5 music school, as is the Boston Conservatory.
Bard College at Simons Rock.
School of the Museumof Fine Arts.
Does Massachusetts schools really make up the bulk of the the rest of the top 30? I'd imagine that USC, Claremont Graduate University, UCLA, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC Riverside, UC Santa Cruz, UC Santa Barbara, UC San Diego, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and San Diego State would make a notable presence on the rankings. For undergrad, Cal Poly Pomona, Cal State Long Beach, Mills College, Occidental, and the five Claremont Colleges are notable.
As far as art schools, it should be no surprise that the best film programs in the nation (maybe the world) are in California with AFI, UCLA, and USC. California also has some of the preeminent art schools in the nation with the California College of the Arts, CalArts, and the Art Center College of Design.
All in all, it seems like California has more schools and well-regarded programs. However, California is also massive and the very fact that a comparison could be made between the two means Massachusetts is amazing.
Of course people are going to argue that MIT, Harvard, BC, BU, Amherst etc. are better than California, USC, Stanford, UCLA etc and might be right but they will forget about the numerous other colleges that California has and that compounding the colleges' prestige is the appropriate thing to do when comparing all colleges.
Called it.
And people are also ignoring the sports aspect.
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