I didn't read your post 268 until after I wrote my remark and I didn't mean to include you in the class of ignoramuses. I wouldn't take seriously any ranking that puts Texas below UCSB, however. How many Nobel Prize winners are on the faculty at UCSB?
not quite sure but that also includes peer reviews , overall academic and university standards etc.......when looking at pure academics, Cal is even higher than # 21 (#1 public university) and I know UT has very good engineering and business schools........in fact Cal and UT's business school are right next to each other and though Cal all around has #3 behind Stanford and MIT enginnering but ranks #1 in 3 disciplines there, UT ranks first in one of the enginnering disciplines and 3rd in another......very good showing.......