Anonymous wrote:To see how well this will work, I think we can just look at the University of California system.

No one is going to confuse UC Merced with UC Berkeley. And it doesn't take long for the location to overshadow the institution in common language.

"Where did you go to undergrad?"
"Berkeley"

That's because UC Berkeley (Cal) is the original UC and oldest one, and UCLA is the 2nd oldest. All the other campuses have grown since and in time their reputation has been going up too. That will be true over time with both UC Merced and UC Riverside, that are attracting really impressive faculty and depth. Look how high UC San Diego, UC Davis and UC Santa Barbara have grown in expertise and prestige. That wasn't the case initially.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All the top 20 STEM programs from https://www.topuniversities.com/world-university-rankings welcome to California.

Build the strongest pathways for the top STEM students from CA to the high-tech companies. So we don't need to export our best students to the East Coast.

More legit

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/latest/world-ranking

Cool. As long as they teach real things and care about academic strength and meaningful learning not some prestige or cars bullshit.

Anonymous wrote:All the top 20 STEM programs from https://www.topuniversities.com/world-university-rankings welcome to California.

Build the strongest pathways for the top STEM students from CA to the high-tech companies. So we don't need to export our best students to the East Coast.

More legit

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/latest/world-ranking

Anonymous wrote:Is USC the Duke of the West?

Both overly expensive and overrated. So, yes.

Is USC the Duke of the West?

Anonymous wrote:One time a Purdue alumni told me they were the "Harvard of the midwest"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No insult to Purdue or Hahvard.

And I do believe people used to call Miami University, the 10th oldest in the country, the "Yale of the Midwest." (https://educatedquest.com/educated-quest-college-profiles/distant-revisit-miami-university-of-ohio/). It was also dubbed one of the public ivies in that 1988 book. That said, that was a LONG time ago and its model changed a lot. Still a very good school for an undergraduate education, but it no longer gets mentioned in the same breath as any "elite" university.

Point is, things change.

I think it would be interesting to see top STEM programs from other institutes to come for the brightest minds in California.

Anyway those East Coast private elite schools look to focus more on attracting the wealthy and the international students for cars and sports.

One time a Purdue alumni told me they were the "Harvard of the midwest"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No insult to Purdue or Hahvard.

All the top 20 STEM programs from https://www.topuniversities.com/world-university-rankings welcome to California.

Build the strongest pathways for the top STEM students from CA to the high-tech companies. So we don't need to export our best students to the East Coast.

Anonymous wrote:To see how well this will work, I think we can just look at the University of California system.

No one is going to confuse UC Merced with UC Berkeley. And it doesn't take long for the location to overshadow the institution in common language.

"Where did you go to undergrad?"
"Berkeley"

Agree 100%.

To see how well this will work, I think we can just look at the University of California system.

No one is going to confuse UC Merced with UC Berkeley. And it doesn't take long for the location to overshadow the institution in common language.

"Where did you go to undergrad?"
"Berkeley"

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/02/satellite-campus-expansion-vanderbilt/686032/

The Harvard of the South … Of the West?
Elite universities are taking the concept of a satellite campus to its logical extreme.

I am wishing for Tsinghua, NUS, OxBridge STEM majors open campus in the Silicon Valley.