Gary A. Vasquez-US PRESSWIRE
In the dozens upon dozens of college rankings anyone has ever managed to find, there has been just one large website that has South Cal in the same class as UCLA in terms of academics.
Coincidentally, it’s the one that most Trogans point to, to give themselves the feeling of academic parity despite the fact that they do, indeed, go to an inferior school.
That ranking is the annual US News & World Report national rankings. In 2012, U$C magically upended UCLA, earning the 24th spot and relegating UCLA to 25th.
Of course, after UCLA fans, students and alum called foul — UCLA has ranked ahead of U$C in every other ranking, including USNWR’s own World rankings, where UCLA is 34th and U$C doesn’t crack top-100 — US News World & Report did the easiest thing ever and just tied both schools for 24th in their new rankings in their new list.
We can’t link you to every single other ranking that shows U$C isn’t anywhere near UCLA’s level, because that’s pretty much every ranking ever created, excluding the ones emphasizing “student life” which is code for hitting the booze often and partying like a dumb-ass rather than getting a legitimate education.
Because U$C can’t touch UCLA in terms of academics, and although Trogans will give you that tired “but it’s great for my major!” excuse is clearly employing cognitive dissonance to cope with the fact that UCLA denied them. The Trogans won’t believe it, but it’s likely you’ll find more success at UCLA than you will at U$C in nearly every aspect. We may not have a journalism major, but anyone with initiative can sign up for the Daily Bruin, which regularly matriculates its writers to major ESPN internships and jobs, while they also become contributors at Rivals and Scouts in a sports aspect, and even many others become highly touted journalists in other areas. Meanwhile, go ahead and pay $50,000 to just work on the U$C campus newspaper and enjoy “networking” while half the graduates wind up regretting their degree.
And that’s just one arena where UCLA dominates without actually having the major.
Either way, U$C kids shouldn’t even discuss being anything beyond a “really good” school and don’t deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as the UCLA elite.
It’s OK, Trogans. You got football. (Although it doesn’t seem like that’s going to last too long anymore … yikes, you should’ve tried harder to get into UCLA.)