What's up with UCLA these days?

[macroeconomicus]

So, I wonder, what IS the reason that so many UCLA faculty had left in recent years? Extreme funding problems? Politics? Something else? What are the resulting implications for the new PhD students in the program?

[YoungEconomist]

Originally Posted by macroeconomicus

So, I wonder, what IS the reason that so many UCLA faculty had left in recent years? Extreme funding problems? Politics? Something else? What are the resulting implications for the new PhD students in the program?

Insane housing prices! Just kidding, I have no idea.

[IntEcon80]

But it is still a Top 15 program and will remain so for some time

[macroeconomicus]

Originally Posted by IntEcon80

But it is still a Top 15 program and will remain so for some time

Where did you get the idea that it still IS 15? Most rankings I know of were done in 2004 or before then. Anyways, I care about the real implications for the PhD students, not the ranking number. It's the faculty that shares your interests that helps you become a successful researcher, not a rank number.

[econphilomath]

From what I have heard from people from UCLA is that its not going through a good moment right now.
The input I got from different people was:

1-Low funds have lead to a series of problems including hiring less
junior professors and less fellowships affecting entering class quality.

2- that internal quarrels had lead to more senior faculty to leave
or not to interact very much with each other via seminars etc.

3- younger faculty take UCLA as a intermediate step since low
funding limits their chances of getting tenure and thus they might
leave at any moment

all these things affect the chances of getting some decent guidance on the development of a good disertation and then a good placement.

In general what I was told was that right now UCLA is not all that
great a place to go because of the uncertainty regarding where its
headed in the future. It could certainly straighten out in the next
years and be a great place or maybe it might sink into a worse
state.

All in all I'm not applying there partly because of the uncertainty involved. Maybe I'm wrong and there are some arbitrage opportunities available here!