UCLA: Why being a Bruin is exactly 122.3 times better than being a usc trojan
Normally, here at GJB, we just talk about UCLA Athletics and trash on u$c when the time is right.
But sometimes, we need to pour a little salt on the wounds of the pricey university in the shady area of town.
I wasn’t, initially, all in to the UCLA-uSc rivalry, despite wanting to become a Bruin since I was in high school. I never really knew where u$c was located until halfway through my high school career, let alone recognize the vicious rivalry between the two schools.
And, even when I got into UCLA on April 25, 2011 (somewhere smudged in between my acceptance to UCSD and Cal Berkeley), I didn’t care much for our rivalry with $c.
Then I found out one of my fellow transfers would be heading to u$c, right after they got into UCLA, calling UCLA her “backup school.”
Oh, it was on.
Since coming here, I’ve learned to appreciate the UCLA-U$C rivalry for what it is — good ole’ fashioned smack talk between two schools, where one is a prestigious and elite university (UCLA) while the other one’s just a good school (u$c). I was under the impression that UCLA was far and away the better school, but to my dismay — and to the joy of $c students across Los Angeles — US News World & Report had UCLA ranked as the 25th best university in the country, while U$C was ranked one spot ahead at 24th.
And that, coupled with your occasional tr
o
jan “50-0” rebuttle, got me to thinking: Is U$C really a better school?
So I sobered up and went to work.
US News World and Report is a pretty well-known list of the top colleges in the university, but they’re also a little contradictory. While UCLA ranks one spot behind u$c in National (U.S.) rankings, US News World and Report has UCLA ranked 34th in the world; U$C ranked, ouch, 107th out of 400. (Just missed the upper quartile, trojans. Maybe next time?)
“So what,” your average trojan says. “That’s 1 out of 2. 50-0.”
Well, if we want to play the numbers game …
ASU came out with a 2010 annual report that said UCLA beat U$C in numbers of top-ranked measures nationally. Additionally, Forbes — a little odd on their rankings, to be sure — ranked UCLA 71st while UsC ranked 112th (out of the top 100 again, Southern Cal? Next time, tiger). TheBestColleges.org has UCLA ranked 41st — still very low to our eyes, but we’ll play — while U$C doesn’t appear anywhere on the list.
So then what about department by department, in terms of grad school? Let’s check some of them, yeah? All via US News World and Report:
Psychology: Advantage UCLA
Engineering: Advantage U$C
Biological Sciences: Advantage UCLA
Chemistry: Advantage UCLA
Earth Sciences: Advantage UCLA
Physics: Advantage UCLA
Business (General): Advantage UCLA
Law school: Advantage UCLA
Med school (primary care): Advantage UCLA
Med school (research): Advantage UCLA
Public Affairs: Advantage U$C
Economics: Advantage UCLA
English: Advantage UCLA
Political Science: Advantage UCLA
Sociology: Advantage UCLA
Fine Arts: Advantage UCLA
Nursing: Advantage UCLA
There are a ton of other graduate programs to search from, so if you’re curious, I encourage you to play around a little bit. I think for the purpose of this blog post, the sample size is large enough.
Many u$c students like to bag on UCLA students for going to Southern Cal for grad school, and they absolutely make sense — it’s a heck of a lot harder to get into UCLA’s graduate programs as opposed to ‘$C. If you’re not good enough, then, well, you’re not good enough. It happens.
And then there’s a matter of everything else. While uSc is situated in the gorgeous area near downtown Los Angeles, UCLA is situated in West Los Angeles. You can’t argue with downtown LA, you guys — you’re never bored and being around shady people all day really boosts your awareness.
Tuition’s another factor, too: UCLA students pay around $15,000 a year, where UsC students play somewhere in the neighborhood of $35,000. I won’t even rag on this, because it’s depressing being neck-deep in debt.
So you see, there’s nothing wrong, per se, about being a usc trojan except if under one circumstance: if you’re given the chance to become a UCLA Bruin. The only difference between the two is that, for the past ten years, UsC has had the luxury of saying they’re better at football. And hey, can you blame them? They need something.
But trojans aren’t bad people, you guys. My fellow Fansided bloggers at Reign of Troy Michael Castillo and Trenise Ferreira are both intelligent, well-mannered and gracious people, and are probably better bloggers than I am. Basically, they’re UCLA Bruins, at their core, who wound up at USC. (Stuff happens!)
So, you see, I’m still not too much into the rivalry outside of football. It’s like Los Angeles sports hero Kobe Bryant once said: “It ain’t a rivalry because they never beat us.”
But for the purposes of having fun and clowning around, we’ll just pretend.
GO BRUINS!!!