Next HYPSM

Berkeley.

"In 1964 it was elevated to 'best balanced distinguished university', meaning the school had not only the most top departments but also the highest percentage of top ranking departments in its school. The school in 1993 was the only remaining member of the original 1906 'Big Six', along with Harvard; in that year UC Berkeley ranked first and the other five rankings were, starting from second place, Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, MIT, and Yale."

Honestly, it's already viewed that way: https://news.gallup.com/poll/9109/harvard-number-one-university-eyes-public.aspx

Plus it's one of the six global superbrands, to the exclusion of Yale and Princeton: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/11/these-6-university-super-brands-are-consistently-ranked-the-best-experts-explain-why/

According to LinkedIn, Berkeley feeds the most alumni into Bridgewater (largest hedge fund in the world) of any school outside of the Northeast (Ivy League + MIT + NYU), and roughly the same number as Yale and Princeton individually. Per capita arguments are not relevant here as Berkeley is 200x further away from Bridgewater than Yale and Princeton are, and Berkeley has better per capita placement in Silicon Valley.

/r/ApplyingToCollege Thread