Best State for College (live, cost, largest, compared)

[PGKangrui]

Simple question: which state would be best to live in to be a resident in a state with good universities that have resident state quotas? I'll start by saying North Carolina, because of UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke.

[Lifeshadower]

Hmm, so basically a state that has good public universities with reasonable prices for in-state students.

FYI: Duke is a private school. It doesn't have a quota for in-state students.

California
UC Berkeley (GO BEEEEEAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRSSSSSSSSSSSS!)
UCLA
UC San Diego
UC Irvine
UC Davis
UC Santa Barbara
UC Santa Cruz
UC Riverside
UC Merced
UCSF (Graduate school only)

Virginia
University of Virginia
College of William and Mary

Georgia
Georgia Institute of Technology

Texas
UT Austin (Danny can chime in here)

Michigan
University of Michigan: Ann Arbor

Washington
University of Washington

I'm sure posters from other states can chime in, but IMO I think California takes the cake here. I pretty much paid for jack squat when I was at Berkeley, which is why I'm not saddled with debt nowadays. If I were in any other state, I would have been hard pressed to find an equally good school for such a cheap price. Of course, there have been tuition hikes, but compared to what some privates are charging for their equal or more expensive education, Berkeley STILL comes out being a really great deal. In addition, the UC application only required you to fill out one application for the whole system (depending on where you wanted to apply, of course). Really easy, and really convenient.

[tmac9wr]

Yea there's really no match for California when it comes to their state university system. It's not even close.

[OyCrumbler]

It's not just the UC system though--California also has some of the best community colleges around with many of them serving as feeder colleges to places like UCLA and Berkeley.

Higher education is good in California.

K-12 needs work--as it does pretty much everywhere in the US.

[EndersDrift]

Florida - FIU, UF, FSU, USF, UCF
California - Berkeley, Davis, UCLA, CalPoly
Texas - UTexas, Texas A&M
Michigan - UMichigan
Maryland - UMBC
New Jersey - Rutgers
Georgia - GTech, UGeorgia
Minneapolis - UMinneapolis
North Carolina - UNC Chapel Hill
Virginia - Virginia Commonwealth, Virginia Tech
Pennsylvania - Penn State
NY - SUNY, CUNY, Hunter's College, Cooper Union*


Those are the main ones that come to my mind when I think of good public universities.

I'd give it to California for the number 1 spot, Michigan for the number 2 spot, Florida for the number 3 spot, Georgia for number 4. I'm basing this on quality of education but also on ability to have an in-state school with just about any degree you might be looking for. If we took scholarships and cost into account I'd probably drop Michigan down quite a ways - its very very expensive. It is just as expensive as most Private universities.

*Not public but free to attend if you're lucky enough to get in.

[MN55]

Wisconsin or Minnesota. You get to choose between the U of M and UW Madison for instate tution because of the reciprocity agreement, two great public universities considering the states' size. I'd say those states along with Virginia, NC, Michigan, California, Texas, Georgia (HOPE schollie), and Pennsylvania have it best.

[soug]

University System of Maryland is pretty good. Penn State schools are good as well. I feel like NJ lacks, but that's probably cause there are already so many good schools in Philly and NYC

[FargoBison]

North Dakota isn't bad, college is very cheap for instate students and the state coffers are overflowing which is always good for higher ed. Both NDSU and UND have some outstanding academic programs, both schools are underrated in my book.

I do wonder what is going to happen with higher ed in all these states that are having massive debt issues. You can only cut so much before either quality suffers or students have to pick up the tab.

[Maintainschaos]

Originally Posted by EndersDrift

Florida - FIU, UF, FSU, USF, UCF
California - Berkeley, Davis, UCLA, CalPoly
Texas - UTexas, Texas A&M
Michigan - UMichigan
Maryland - UMBC
New Jersey - Rutgers
Georgia - GTech, UGeorgia
Minneapolis - UMinneapolis
North Carolina - UNC Chapel Hill
Virginia - Virginia Commonwealth, Virginia Tech
Pennsylvania - Penn State
NY - SUNY, CUNY, Hunter's College, Cooper Union*


Those are the main ones that come to my mind when I think of good public universities.

I think Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio and Washington all easily belong on that list.

[a75206]

Pennsylvania

PA has a few top notch public universities as well, though most are smaller branch campuses to the main campus of Penn State in State College.

Penn State
Univ of Pittsburgh
Temple Univ

A lot more other private univ options, most of them top notch.


Texas has a huge 4-part state university system:

UT-system with multiple independent universities within it (meaning, attending one doesn't mean you get the same diploma as you would if you attended another): UT-Austin, UT-Arlington, UT-El Paso, and UT-Dallas being the biggest ones.

Texas A&M-system with multiple independent universities within it as well as branch campus of main campus in Galveston: TAMU-College Station, TAMU-Commerce, TAMU-Corpus Christi, and some others.

Both A&M and UT also have separate medical schools and their associated campuses all over the state.

Besides those two and their flagship universities (Texas A&M-College Station, and UT-Austin) which get special funding and favors from the state and are the two most recognized schools, there is also this:

Texas State University-San Marcos
Stephen F. Austin State Univ
Sam Houston State Univ

and probably a few others that I can't think of right now.

Then there is Texas Tech University out in west Texas, in Lubbock. It is a full fledged major research university alongside UT and A&M.

And same goes for University of Houston, which also has a small system though its main campus is the only one in its system with the "major research university" tag to it.

Both UH and Texas Tech (and UT-Arlington and UT-Dallas) are trying to gain a "Tier 1" research university tag and the associated state support and funding-- basically, those campuses want to be in the same league as A&M and UT-Austin, and many of their graduates would argue that those institutions already have achieved a level and now just need more support and funding.

So, Texas being the second largest state behind California, certainly doesn't have the huge UC and CSU systems with their multiple top-rated universities, but it does have quite a lot of public universities beyond A&M and UT, and at least some of those others are striving hard to gain more national stature.