Does UT have the same reputation as Harvard in Texas?

[radiolibre99]

Originally Posted by WestGuest

Harvard is not the best school in the world - On several measures Cal -Berkeley beats it. Part of the methodology is how many people apply vs how many accepted. Harvard advertises because it gets revenue from application fees knowing most of those suckers wont be admitted. Cal on the other, does not encourage people to apply. That's only one measure.

UT is a great public school and attracts different people than Harvard. UT has lots of money to improve. I would say its on a par with some of the good schools in the Pac 12 or Big Ten ( Indiana has a much prettier campus) and better than any SEC School.

In my opinion Cal Berkeley and Stanford are tied for the best schools in the world. They blow Harvard out of the water. Harvard is only number one because of it's admissions rate and overall history. It's endowment too. But in terms of actual academic powerhouse and significance, it's those two CA schools all the way.

One thing that can be said is that for all of CA's faults, the one thing they got right by miles ahead of the rest is their higher education system. Even Cal States such as Cal Poly, Cal Poly Pomona, Cal State Long Beach and others, it's a golden state for education. Their community colleges can rival some of Texas's lower ranked universities.

[thenewtexan]

Originally Posted by RMESMH

Did you migrate to Texas from California? If so, are you a native Californian? I wonder, because no native I know or have ever known would post the above.

I'm a fifth generation native Californian. With only two exceptions who comes to mind, all of the 'Pre-Milennials' in my family on both sides grew up in California, and most of the Millennials did as well. All of us attended either highly competitive public high schools or private prep schools. With all of us, our friends in high school were on a similar trajectory. The range of our high school graduation dates....from 1948 to 2011. Locations....from La Jolla northward to Marin County. All have at least a BS or BA, and most have graduate degrees. Some graduated from private colleges and universities (Stanford, Claremont, USF, Georgetown, Notre Dame, St. Mary's, University of Chicago, etc.). Many of us graduated from 'UC schools', and the rest graduated from 'state schools'.

My point is that, through all of those many years...for all of us, and all of our friends....a reference to 'state schools' or 'the state schools' ALWAYS has meant The California State University system (San Francisco State University, Sonoma State University, Chico State University, San Jose State University, San Diego State University, California Polytechnic State University at Pomona, California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo, etc), NOT the 'UC schools' (Berkeley, UC Davis, UCLA, UCSD, UCI, UCR, UC Merced, UCSF, UC Santa Cruz, and UCSB).

So, no...Cal Berkeley ('Cal'), where the first UC student in my family graduated well over 100 years ago, is not normally known, and definitely not by natives with deep roots, as 'a flagship state school'. Cal Berkeley is the oldest UC. Cal Berkeley is THE flagship UC......not the same thing as 'a flagship state school.

Re the actual name of each system, the CSU system...the California State University system...obviously has the word state as part of the name. The UC system does not.

This represents the 'collective 2 cents' of everyone I've ever come in contact with.

YMMV .

I remember one thread or part of a thread where people went on for pages over the use of "Cali".....this not the same thing....minor....not worth that level of energy.

Technically I am right because "state" was not capitalized. I was referring to California as a state, not the CSU system. So, yes Cal is the flagship campus for California. Thank you for the dissertation on your family's history, though. It was very much on topic.

[walker1962]

Originally Posted by philopower

Obviously Harvard is the superior school, it's the best school in the world. However it seems that the reputation of UT here in Texas is top notch and employers will have a preference for grads of the school over others.

Harvard is one of the top 10 but rankings have had Stanford, Princeton on occasion have been ranked higher.

[walker1962]

Originally Posted by Ghost Town

Rice is not overrated. Rice professors and students do cutting edge science. And university rankings are based on number and strength of scientific publications. There are very strong papers continuously coming out of Rice and that keeps this university alongside with ivy league colleges in various rankings. However, real world skills is a different story and Rice is not necessarily great for conventional jobs.

Rice has excellent academics but honestly its so small, I think that lends to its high success.

[walker1962]

Originally Posted by Ghost Town

Rice is not overrated. Rice professors and students do cutting edge science. And university rankings are based on number and strength of scientific publications. There are very strong papers continuously coming out of Rice and that keeps this university alongside with ivy league colleges in various rankings. However, real world skills is a different story and Rice is not necessarily great for conventional jobs.

Rice has excellent academics but honestly its undergraduate enrollment is small, I think that lends to its high success.

[walker1962]

Originally Posted by marcopolo2000

UT doesn't even have the same reputation of other large public schools like UCLA, UC-Berkley, Virginia, Michigan,etc. Even though Texas is huge, it lags big time in the number of highly ranked, Tier 1 universities so UT benefits from the whole "big fish in a little pond" phenomenon. Outside of the state, its not really in the same league as other flagship universities. Texas A&M fares even worse. Its not even on the radar when people discuss top universities nationally.

Sorry, but UT does rank well with Michigan and UCLA. Virginia is not really comparable. It is more like a Rice with a bigger enrollment. Remember VA was founded by Thomas Jefferson so its been around far longer than UT. UC Berkeley is a liberal arts school for the most part, especially compared to Stanford. UT's academic standing has improved significantly since the 1980s and has quite a few nationally known alums. Texas A&M is an excellent public school but I agree, it does not have a national brand like UT. Its colleges of Business, Engineering and Veterinary Science though are all top 25 programs nationally.

[radiolibre99]

Originally Posted by walker1962

Sorry, but UT does rank well with Michigan and UCLA. Virginia is not really comparable. It is more like a Rice with a bigger enrollment. Remember VA was founded by Thomas Jefferson so its been around far longer than UT. UC Berkeley is a liberal arts school for the most part, especially compared to Stanford. UT's academic standing has improved significantly since the 1980s and has quite a few nationally known alums. Texas A&M is an excellent public school but I agree, it does not have a national brand like UT. Its colleges of Business, Engineering and Veterinary Science though are all top 25 programs nationally.

There is the national media prestige that kids in high school follow like Beliebers follow Justin, but then there is the workforce and employers who do value degrees from most ranked schools as generally equal depending on the program and experience two years or more out of college. Texas A&M is an amazing school for engineering and would help out a grad in any city. It's rep in that field is, especially for chemical, petroleum, etc, great. As is UT on an even grander scale.

[kidicarus89]

Originally Posted by radiolibre99

In my opinion Cal Berkeley and Stanford are tied for the best schools in the world. They blow Harvard out of the water. Harvard is only number one because of it's admissions rate and overall history. It's endowment too. But in terms of actual academic powerhouse and significance, it's those two CA schools all the way.

One thing that can be said is that for all of CA's faults, the one thing they got right by miles ahead of the rest is their higher education system. Even Cal States such as Cal Poly, Cal Poly Pomona, Cal State Long Beach and others, it's a golden state for education. Their community colleges can rival some of Texas's lower ranked universities.

California's universities are far and away the bests in the nation if you take into account the entire state.

Hopefully Texas sees the importance of better funding our institutions. Quality of higher education directly correlates with economic output of a region.