Best Colleges in California by Crowd Vote
The 12 California colleges and universities on College Clash, ranked by voters in head-to-head matchups. Cast your vote
| # | School | Overall | W–L | US News |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Stanford#2 overallStanford University | #2 | 160–66 | #5 |
| 2 |  UC Berkeley#13 overallUniversity of California, Berkeley | #13 | 127–88 | #20 |
| 3 |  UCLA#15 overallUniversity of California, Los Angeles | #15 | 119–79 | #20 |
| 4 |  Caltech#29 overallCalifornia Institute of Technology | #29 | 99–81 | #5 |
| 5 |  USC#31 overallUniversity of Southern California | #31 | 79–116 | #27 |
| 6 |  Pomona#32 overallPomona College | #32 | 65–107 | |
| 7 |  Claremont McKenna#33 overallClaremont McKenna College | #33 | 59–92 | |
| 8 |  UC Santa Barbara#35 overallUniversity of California, Santa Barbara | #35 | 63–116 | #44 |
| 9 |  UC Irvine#39 overallUniversity of California, Irvine | #39 | 57–117 | #34 |
| 10 |  UC Davis#44 overallUniversity of California, Davis | #44 | 41–126 | #34 |
| 11 |  UC San Diego#45 overallUniversity of California, San Diego | #45 | 54–111 | #29 |
| 12 |  Harvey Mudd#46 overallHarvey Mudd College | #46 | 58–98 |
Crowd vs US News
Voters put UC Berkeley above Caltech, the reverse of US News, which ranks them #20 and #5.
Voters put UC Santa Barbara above UC San Diego, the reverse of US News, which ranks them #44 and #29.
# = rank within this list; Overall = rank on the full crowd leaderboard. US News = 2027 National Universities rank (blank for liberal arts colleges, which are on a separate list).