Why U of A is better than ASU – the facts

The University of Arizona was just ranked in the top one percent of universities worldwide. The global study, which took into account over 25,000 institutions, places us comfortably in the top 250.

While ASU also made this ranking, the UA seems to dominate in plenty of other rankings of specific aspects of campus life. According to U.S. News, the UA is ranked #121 in the nation, while ASU is ranked at a close, but not better, #129.

Wilbur leads the UA student section at a home football game! Photo courtesy of Dillon Driscoll Photography.

Not only is the overall academic ranking at the UA better than ASU, the athletic program at Arizona (#38) even takes the cake over ASU (#49), as determined by Niche for their 2016 Best Colleges Rankings. Sure, ASU will normally take the victory in football, and even upset a basketball game.

But it’s clear based on the number of times Arizona has gone to the NCAA tournament, and how far the team has made it in those years, that Arizona is straight up a better basketball school than ASU. Furthermore, the Cats have a championship winning baseball team, with softball and soccer teams which have also been nationally recognized. Plus, let’s be honest… Wilbur and Wilma are quite the duo compared to Sparky.

Photo of Old Main at the UA courtesy of Dillon Driscoll Photography.

Pretty much all students would agree the campus itself at the UA is better than that of ASU’s as well. While the downtown and college town atmosphere of ASU is appealing to some, many people are more attracted to the feel of the campus in Tucson because it is big enough to not feel like a high school campus, but is close-knit enough to truly feel like a college town. “The campus is way nicer and feels a lot more like college. Plus, the school spirit around U of A cannot be beat,” provides Alec Stewart. Stewart could not pursue the major he wanted at the U of A, so transferred to ASU, but still considers himself a Wildcat because of his family’s history with the school and town, in addition to his personal ties with the university. “The advising at ASU has been very difficult to work with. This is not something I would normally look at a school for, but I definitely took the amount of work my academic advisors did for me in Tucson,” Stewart continues.

School spirit is also something that should be acknowledged in comparing the rivals. Arizona was ranked by the Princeton Review to have the 17th best student section to pack the stadium at sporting events. School spirit is prominent not only on the UA campus, but in the City of Tucson as a whole. Similar to the way Tempe is “Sun Devil territory,” Tucson’s population support the school and university in every way possible, as the town is nearly dependent on the college. Many businesses suffer during the summer when many college students go home for the summer, and the city seems to thrive when school season is in full swing.

This overwhelming love and passion for all things UA makes Tucson truly feel like home and peers and faculty feel like family, especially for students from across the nation or world.