USC closing college rankings gap

Though many blue and gold supporters would rather not hear the
news, recent rankings show that crosstown rival University of
Southern California is catching up to UCLA in academics and quality
of education.

USC’s ranking has risen since 1998, from being ranked 41
to being ranked 30 in this year’s issue on the U.S. News and
World Report. UCLA, on the other hand, has consistently hovered
around the 25th spot since 1998.  

Specifically, USC’s art history department has reflected
the university’s rise in the rankings.

It was primarily a move from the School of Fine Arts to the
College of Letters, Arts and Sciences that resulted in the
department’s growth, said Nancy Troy, the art history
chairwoman.

Partnerships with other departments under the new school have
made it easier to hire more faculty, she said.

USC has also established connections with the J. Paul Getty
Museum to create the USC-Getty Program in the History of Collecting
and Display, she added.

“The major has grown enormously,” Troy said.

As for USC’s neuroscience program, another academic
program that has seen much growth within the last decade,
neuroscience professor Alan Watts attributed the growing
success to increasing support from the university.

“The president of the university has identified the life
sciences as an area of growth for the university,” Watts
said.

There is also an increasing demand to pursue an undergraduate
neuroscience major at USC.

“We probably doubled the number of
applicants within the past three years,” Watts said.

UCLA, however, is not without its merits in the same academic
departments and programs. The art history department and the
neuroscience program at UCLA have also increased their numbers of
faculty within the past few years.

“There’s a continuous trend here at UCLA over the
last eight to nine years to bring in new faculty in
neuroscience, and a lot of new faculty have been hired in those
years,” said Michael Levine, chairman of the graduate
interdepartmental Ph.D. program in neuroscience.

When departments that comprise the neuroscience program hire new
faculty, this faculty becomes part of the neuroscience program.
This, in turn, lends strength to the program in terms of
undergraduate research, Levine said.

“If undergraduate students want to do research in
neuroscience, they have a list of well over 100 labs where they can
do research. That gives (the neuroscience program) a lot of
strength and diversity,” Levine said.

Though the number of faculty has grown in the neuroscience
program, the number of undergraduate students has remained constant
for the past five years ““ between 250-300.

UCLA’s art history faculty has experienced growth, as
well, over the past eight years and recently hired a professor
teaching 20th-century and contemporary art, said Cecelia Klein,
chairwoman of the art history department.

Specialties such as Asian art history and Latin American art
history within the department have also grown strong, Klein
added.

“We now have what may be the largest Asian art history
faculty in the country,” she said.

Unlike heated football rivalries, professors’
attitudes toward USC’s academic growth is not
only tolerated, but welcomed.

“The benefits of USC’s recent growth extend to the
entire Southern California academic community,” Klein
said. “USC sponsors events that are often of interest to some
of us, and vice versa.”

USC’s rankings may have been affected by its ability to
acquire qualified students.

USC has been able to acquire practically the same number of
students using merit-based scholarships as it has in the previous
year ““ though the number of scholarships offered was
reduced.

Thirty percent fewer admits were offered the Trustee
Scholarship, USC’s merit-based full-ride
scholarship, this year compared to this past year, due to
an upping of the required qualifications.

However, nearly the same number of students accepted the
scholarship, said Michael Thompson, vice provost for enrollment at
USC.

This year, 129 incoming freshmen accepted the Trustee
Scholarship ““ four fewer than the past year. USC estimated
that 100 students would accept the Trustee Scholarship, Thompson
said.

“What it tells us is that really excellent students think
that USC is a good institution whether they get merit money or
not,” he said.

At UCLA, the university’s ability to award scholarships
was affected this year due to the general state of the economy,
said Ronald Johnson, director of the Financial Aid Office.

Specifically, endowed scholarships were adversely affected by
the state’s economic woes.

“Interest earned on endowed scholarships dipped this
year,” said Gail Ishino, assistant director for the Financial
Aid Office.

These privately funded scholarships, which include many
need-based scholarships, generate funds by collecting the interest
on the initial funds established by the founders.

However, the Regents Scholarship ““ the largest merit-based
scholarship UCLA offers ““ was not affected, as 69 of the 258
students offered the scholarship accepted it.

The numbers are about the same as last year, Ishino said.

For incoming freshmen who demonstrate need, certain measures
have been taken to lighten the load of increased student fees.

“As the fees have increased, we’ve tried to be very
cognizant and try to distribute our money in a way so that
low-income students and middle-income students would receive a
subsidy in the form of grants,” Johnson said.

The ability of UCLA to hire more faculty may also be hampered in
the midst of its current budget crisis.

The recent $410 million cut the state made to the UC budget
could result in halts in faculty pay increases and further erosion
may reduce faculty salaries in the future ““ affecting
UCLA’s ability to compete with comparable universities such
as USC.