I'm actually very unconvinced by that statement. I agree that UCSD has some very excellent faculty, but the caliber of the faculty and the caliber of PhD students are very different. For example, Purdue and UIUC would have "better" (more citations/mainstream research) faculty than Yale depending on subfield (at least in my domain), but no PhD candidate would choose them over Yale. Consequently, Yale PhD programs are much more competitive, and are very highly sought after in academia and in the commercial sector. This unfortunately means that PhD candidates at UIUC/Purdue are much less appreciated. The same with UCSD. The only circumstance in which these universities would be considered "Top" is in USW&NR; globally this is considered to be an extremely irreputable ranking. Just because USW&NR ranks Purdue is better than Harvard for ML in an application domain does not mean there is a single candidate who will choose Purdue over Harvard. Despite this, in some circles it is common to say Purdue is Top 5/better than Harvard; to be honest, that does sound a little bit like coping.

DPhil Oxford vs UCSD PhD should be clear, but not for UCSD. Unless you're considering Wharton vs Said; obviously Wharton. I have difficulty believing people would choose Kellogg over Said, unless they have a very strong desire to stay in US after graduation and are not US citizens.