How come the University of California system (the UC’s) is the only state campus system to consistently have the best public campuses in the world?

23 comments

1. Because California has high taxes, and high taxes allow for the people of this country to afford things like good public universities

2. *University of Michigan has entered the chat*

3. Many public schools compete well against UC schools.

4. When you say best public campuses, do you mean looks-wise or prestige?

   In terms of aesthetics, it’s kind of hard for the rest of the country to compete with that California weather.

5. There are world-class public universities in other states. California might have more, but if I would argue that’s because their population is larger.

6. What rankings are you look at that classify them as the best in the world?

   Many public universities in other states are well regarded and people come from around the world to attend.

7. Most of the major state schools in this country are very good places to get an education. University of Oregon is an excellent school with a beautiful campus.

8. This is the logical fallacy called “begging the question.”

9. The SUNY (state university of New York, pronounced ‘soony’) system is very well regarded. It doesn’t have the name recognition of the UC schools and doesn’t have elite colleges like UVA or UC Berkely or UCLA but they weren’t designed for that. They were designed to deliver an affordable education to New York high school students that passed a series of exams called ‘regents’. You pass the regents exams you can get into a SUNY school and go and do good things in your community.

   The result is if you want to go to an elite college in New York you have to go to Columbia or Cornell or USMA. New York has some smaller liberal arts colleges that are quasi elite, like Barnard and Vassar. In general, the state schools are designed to get normal people through college without a lot of debt. It isn’t to compete with Texas or California.

10. Cite your sources.

11. Most states don’t have a campus system that works the way California’s does. More common is one big university and a couple smaller state schools. California, a large state with a large population, chose a more decentralized system instead of putting resources mostly to one flagship campus.

    [Many of these state Universities](https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/top-public) are considered as good as any UC – Michigan, Virginia, UT Austin are some examples.

12. There are lots of public university systems that “compete” equally well. California’s system is particularly large and perhaps has the greatest number of different campuses within one state that are all “well known” – most likely because the sheer size of the system. Most states do not have a UC Berkeley *and* a UCLA *and* a UCSD *and* a UCSF med school etc. (to say nothing of the Cal State system.) But most states don’t have 40m people coupled with relatively high taxes and a priority on higher ed.

13. The same way the EU describes themselves as the best place to have ever existed, changing the definitions until you’re always the best. Have a bad dropout rate? Redefine what is declared a drop out to something like temporary leave. Crime on campus? Declare the crime is on city property and is thus now their problem. Administrators in California, and every where else mind you, sell their campuses the best way they can.

14. Extremely bold claim to make, there.

15. I, as a swede, would rank the grande ecole way above the university of Californias public universities. Also Todai and a bunch of others.

16. Because UC schools are research-based and receive massive funding from the state, donors, and private entities. I went to UCSD, a predominantly STEM focused school, it received about $1.64 billion in the 2022 fiscal year. Five UC schools rank in the top ten of public universities, according to US news.

    Also, University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, UT Austin, and University of Florida are very well recognized universities. These universities are heavily funded for research as well. The American university system is a powerhouse overall…

17. They pull in more out-of-state tuition than most other schools in the US and the economy in CA generates massive tax revenue for the state which is funneled into the UC system.

18. It doesn’t…what metrics are you using? Even a source?

    You also are ignoring the fact that many states have more than one state university system. For example, University of Texas, Texas A&M, and Texas State are 3 separate state-funded systems that all consist of very large universities. Texas State for example contains Sam Houston State, Texas State University (San Marcos), and Lamar University. There are others that I haven’t even mentioned, and TX is not unique in this way.

    Your question also contains the logical fallacy known as “begging the question” where you both present and argument and assume the conclusion in the same statement.

19. Virginia, Michigan, North Carolina, Texas, New York, Illinois, Washington, Wisconsin…all have excellent public university systems. California is our most populated state, with a massive tax base and a commitment to funding the system. Only one state can be on top of rankings.

20. New York has an excellent system of public universities.

    Purdue is a top engineering school.

    A lot of state universities have great rankings and offer excellent education. And for in-state residents, they get a great value.

21. It all depends on how you rank and what you value, but generally speaking, yes most of the UC campuses would be a flagship campus in another state. But here UC really has no flagship campus anymore. Berkeley is the original campus and does usually outrank UCLA, but not by much. UCLA consistently receives the most freshman applications of any school in the U.S. UC San Diego, Santa Barbara, Davis, and Irvine are all pretty regularly top 100 global universities. Davis is a world leader in certain agricultural fields like winemaking and veterinary medicine.

    That said, the state does not support UC the way it used to. I think these days UC gets by largely on reputation, which draws huge numbers of applicants every year, as well as attracts top teaching and research talent. This works symbiotically with California’s enormous economy–companies want to locate here to have access to this top talent, and vice versa. I don’t think any other state can compete to that degree.

22. I’m pretty partial to the UNC system myself.

23. U Mich, U Texas will like to have a word with you.