UC San Diego

Located on an oceanside cliff in sunny La Jolla, UC San Diego is one of the world's top institutions for producing researchers, innovators, and awkward engineers. It is consistently ranked #1 by Washington Monthly, a magazine that nobody reads. As California's unofficial science department, UCSD research discovered the first evidence for climate change, the cause of diabetes, and a colony of endangered ants living in Chancellor Khosla's mustache. Its mascot, King Triton, is well-known as the most badass eunuch of all time.UC San Diego is minutes from most of San Diego's world-class attractions. But if you're looking for UCSD students, you'll find them napping at Black's Beach wishing they could surf, waiting in line at TapEx, or hiding from social interaction in Geisel Library. Despite not having a football team, students find things to do, like studying for midterms between raves.UCSD was designed with a unique six-college system, to give freshmen an easy conversation starter. These colleges (Revelle, Muir, Marshall, Warren, Roosevelt, Sixth) are considered pretty equal, except for Sixth. Campus-wide traditions like the legendary Sun God Festival unite the colleges as one university.Out of its 200,000 graduates, UCSD has produced exactly four famous alumni: Nick Woodman, who founded GoPro, and those three interchangeable Asians from Wong Fu Productions. The other 199,996 are all out there somewhere, still complaining about not having gotten into Berkeley.