In its ranking of top-tier colleges and universities in the U.S., the top California school is Stanford University, which comes in fifth. Next is California Institute of Technology (seventh on the national list), University of California--Berkeley (22), University of Southern California (23) and University of California--Los Angeles (25). Other California schools in the top 100 nationally include University of California campuses at San Diego, Davis, Santa Barbara, Irvine, Santa Cruz and Riverside, as well as Pepperdine University, the University of San Diego and the University of the Pacific. "The University of California is the premier public university system in the world," University of California President Mark G. Yudof said in a press release. "These rankings indicate the breadth of quality throughout the UC system."
This ranking puts the California Institute of Technology in the top spot statewide, followed by Stanford University and the University of California--Berkeley. Forbes didn't enter the college-ranking business until 2008. Its stats are based on how many graduates are listed in "Who's Who in America," four-year graduation rates, student rankings of professors, the amount of debt accumulated by students and other factors.
Asian Nation, an organization devoted to issues faced by Asian Americans, ranks U.S. colleges according to how Asian-friendly they are. The organization considers the number of incidents of bias against Asians that occur on campus in its tally. Among the top 10 colleges on its list are five from the UC system, the campuses at Riverside, Los Angeles, Davis, Irvine and San Diego. "New Mobility" magazine rated colleges by how friendly they are to people who have disabilities. Making its list were University of California campuses at Berkeley, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz and San Diego. "Black Enterprise" magazine rated the top colleges for African Americans, putting the University of California--Berkeley and the University of Southern California in the top 50 nationwide.
When this institution rated universities worldwide, the top California colleges included were Stanford University, the California Institute of Technology and University of California campuses at Berkeley, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco and Santa Barbara. Among the factors Shanghai Jiao Tong University considers in its rankings are the quality of the education a school provides and the quality of its faculty, based on the number of awards and percentage of research that's frequently cited in other publications. Academic performance in relation to the size of the institution is another consideration.