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Ooh, fun thread. I'm going to list my 8 without looking at the thread or looking at university rankings. Of course, there is no concrete answer. All the likely candidates are major research institutions with strong academic reputations.
The first three I thought of immediately:
1. The University of California - Berkeley
2. The University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
3. The University of Virginia - Charlottesville.
The next two after a short pause:
4. The University of Wisconsin - Madison
5. The University of Texas - Austin
Then:
6. The University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
Next - the last school that really jumped out when going through a list in my head of public schools:
7. The University of California - Los Angeles
Finally, really debating this: Many of the the Big 10 schools are excellent. Illinois - great engineering and sciences, but that goes for Purdue too,right? Washington has some cache/prestige, no? Am I missing anything out East where private schools seem to rule? Can I add another California campus? (the rest seem to get overshadowed by UCLA and Berkeley). What am I overlooking? SEC schools sometimes get bagged on from an academic reputation perspective, but isn't University of Florida pretty good? Georgia Tech is public, right?: Okay:
8. University of Illinois - Champaign/Urbana?? (Biased choice. I went to grad school at UIUC).
Okay No. 8 was tough and Illinois wasn't a bad choice after looking up the rankings (I looked them up just for reference not because I actually think USNWR rankings are gospel).
A lot of California campuses could have made it - Davis, San Diego, Irvine, Santa Barbara
Georgia Tech would actually be a great choice for No. 8.
Completely forgot William and Mary is public.
Trying to find the schools that are both actually academically great (which is basically all the candidates) and those that have higher "elite" perception. Something like UCSB sort of loses in that regard because it just sounds like some ho-hum regional school, even though it's not.
An underrated state school that is located in NY that has been on the rise is Binghamton University, which is a part of the SUNY system. SUNY-Geneseo south of Rochester is similar in this regard.
Some may not know this, but Cornell is a public and private institution, as some of its schools are actually a part of the SUNY system. It is also the Land Grant University for NYS. So, while it is in the Ivy League, it is also parts SUNY and Land Grant institution as well.
Not surprising, really.
Michigan State has been climbing international lists and garnering international attention in recent years for its strong research, esp in agriculture, biofuels and nuclear physics, among others, as evidenced by DOE selecting MSU for its huge, world-pioneering Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) project in 2008. MSU is 38th in US university/college endowments and has been long recognized as the model for land grant universities in the U.S. and overseas. It has the largest study abroad program and hosts among the most international student bodies. MSU's large residential college program, Honors College and numerous small college experiences within the huge university have long been models for other public universities...
MSU has long been one of the nation's best kept secrets academically. It just seems, lately, the secret has gotten out.
Michigan State has been climbing international lists and garnering international attention in recent years for its strong research, esp in agriculture, biofuels and nuclear physics, among others, as evidenced by DOE selecting MSU for its huge, world-pioneering Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) project in 2008. MSU is 38th in US university/college endowments and has been long recognized as the model for land grant universities in the U.S. and overseas. It has the largest study abroad program and hosts among the most international student bodies. MSU's large residential college program, Honors College and numerous small college experiences within the huge university have long been models for other public universities...
MSU has long been one of the nation's best kept secrets academically. It just seems, lately, the secret has gotten out.
MSU is great. I think it suffers in terms of academic reputation due to (1) it's reputation as a party school, which is ridiculous because, really, what big state university isn't, and (2) being in University of Michigan's shadow from an academic perspective, whether deserved or not.
MSU is great. I think it suffers in terms of academic reputation due to (1) it's reputation as a party school, which is ridiculous because, really, what big state university isn't, and (2) being in University of Michigan's shadow from an academic perspective, whether deserved or not.
It's more your second factor than your first one which, after all, was largely fueled by U-M people... As for your second one, if MSU were located in most any other state, esp one without a leading public U, like Tennessee, Oregon, or all of New England, people drool over the school. But in medium-sized state, sitting only 60 miles from a powerhouse U that is also public, people are like: Meh... It's so bad that many surveys of top universities don't even list MSU at all, ... as if it didn't exist, and yet it's a top 100 World University with The Times Higher Education (THE) reputation ranking putting MSU in the top 70... makes no sense.
Varies so widely based on field as to be meaningless.
As for the ivy experience in terms of networking and translating to income post grad; caltech, MIT, Georgia tech, Rutgers, pennstate, Stanford, not sure about the last two.
Uni of MIchigan is really the first land grant university, along with the first university not founded by clergyman. It was modeled after European universities with more emphasis on practical knowledge rather than liberal arts. you could argue it is the anti-Ivy.
i don't believe MSU is in UM's shadow, MSU graduates more students and is stronger in the two major sports right now. I don't not believe employers view MU's engineering programs as better than MSU's program.
i don't think MSU would overshadow U Tenn or Oregon State / Oregon if located in those states. Would just be equal alternatives.
Naming eight would really be splitting hairs. Honestly, it seems most of the reputation for the Ivy League stems from just Harvard and Yale, with maybe Brown. The others I would really see as sitting about the same level as many other top schools such as Stanford, Duke, Vanderbilt and some of the leading public institutes. Take away Harvard and Yale and they shine less without the reflected light.
In terms of actual academic product (as opposed to reputation), most of the top 25 or so public institutions could be on that list any one year as I doubt there is much real difference in academic outcome.
Don't know if anyone said this afterwards, but, Princeton is in the Harvard-Yale class. And then Columbia. Brown's probably Dartmouth and Cornell-level. My brother goes to Cornell currently--just trying to stay objective
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