I'm overhearing several discussions on college prestige (mainly amongst the high school students at my church, since deadline time for choosing a college is fast approaching).  I have several thoughts on the subject, but too many to fit on one posting.  But since the National Academy of Sciences just announced its new electees, it's a good time to bring up a few stats.

Membership in the NAS is considered one of the highest scientific honors bestowed in the United States.  But is it completely free of politics? No, of course not.  But it's not an old boy's club either, and so the number of NAS members from a given institution is a measure of that school's impact in scientific research.  Two caveats are in order.  Some schools are bound to have more members simply because they have more faculty members.  Also, certain warm-weather schools are a haven for retiring scientists, and this tends to overinflate their numbers, since many of these retirees are no longer active in research.  But with that said, here are the membership numbers within the University of California system. 

UCB: 127

UCSD: 66

UCLA: 31

UCSF: 31

UCSB: 28

UCI: 22

UCD: 20

UCSC: 8

UCR 2

People sometimes mention UCLA in the same breath as UCB in terms of prestige in the sciences.  But as this analysis shows, that is unwarranted.  They have about the same number of faculty, and yet UCB has four times the number of members in the NAS.  Even UCSD, which has fewer faculty than UCLA easily beats them.