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View Poll Results: Which State Has the Best Universities?
New York 12 6.09%
Massachusetts 48 24.37%
Pennsylvania 13 6.60%
New Jersey 3 1.52%
District of Columbia 1 0.51%
Ohio 14 7.11%
Missouri 0 0%
Illinois 7 3.55%
North Carolina 19 9.64%
Texas 8 4.06%
Colorado 2 1.02%
California 55 27.92%
Other 15 7.61%
Voters: 197. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 08-16-2009, 07:36 PM
 
Location: Pittsburgh
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Which state has the best universities? Just for some guidance, there are 15 universities in CA ranked by U.S. New and World Report; 13 in NY; 10 in MA; 7 in PA; 6 in TX; 5 in DC; 5 in OH; 5 in IL; 4 in NC; 4 in MO; 4 in NJ; and 4 in CO....and yes, I realize DC is not a state. What is your ranking?
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Old 08-16-2009, 07:38 PM
 
Location: Boston Metro
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Massachusetts
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Old 08-16-2009, 07:43 PM
 
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Private- Massachusettes

Public- Michigan (not even included on poll) followed closely by Virginia (same). Voted Ohio because I was biased, and thought it unfair to count private Uni's in poll. However, Pennsylvania and North Carolina have the best public universities out of the poll options, with Ohio in a close third and Cali at a distant fourth (way too hard for avg. CA resident to access "quality")
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Old 08-16-2009, 07:53 PM
 
Location: Pittsburgh
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Daytonnatian View Post
Private- Massachusettes

Public- Michigan (not even included on poll) followed closely by Virginia (same). Voted Ohio because I was biased, and thought it unfair to count private Uni's in poll. However, Pennsylvania and North Carolina have the best public universities out of the poll options, with Ohio in a close third and Cali at a distant fourth (way too hard for avg. CA resident to access "quality")
I have to disagree. I see no problem lumping public and private unversities together as a school is a school. Secondly, at least according to U.S. News (which isn't the end all authority, but has credibility and is a reasonable authority), Ohio has 1 school in the top 20 public universities; PA has 2 and CA has 6.
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Old 08-16-2009, 07:57 PM
 
Location: Sarasota, Florida
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Daytonnatian View Post
Private- Massachusettes

Public- Michigan (not even included on poll) followed closely by Virginia (same). Voted Ohio because I was biased, and thought it unfair to count private Uni's in poll. However, Pennsylvania and North Carolina have the best public universities out of the poll options, with Ohio in a close third and Cali at a distant fourth (way too hard for avg. CA resident to access "quality")
I'm going with Pennsylvania because as you say it has good public universities, but many good private and small/unknown, colleges and universities also.
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Old 08-16-2009, 08:47 PM
 
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The reason why I thought it was unfair to include private Uni's is because, first of all, they really have no more connection to the state than the average corporation does, and second, are not easily accesible to the average citizen. Thus, my reasoning why only state with strong public systems should be included.

Anyways, out of the nation, U Michigan is definitely the best because almost all of its programs are top 10 in the nation, and it's not too difficult for the average in-state student to gain acceptance to the university, along with the fact that MSU is really good, too. Virginia would be next because of its extreme strength in UVA, VA Tech, and W&M, followed by Georgia with its Hope Scholarship program, UGA, and GA Tech. North Carolina (UNC and UNC-Asheville are stellar), Pennsylvania (with Penn State and U Pitt being extremely high quality) Ohio (OSU, Miami of Ohio, U Cincinnati, and Ohio U), California (lots of strength, but serves way too many students to really be effective), Florida (UF, FSU, and New College are good), Minnesota/Wisconsin (counting as one state due to reciprocal agreement, UM-Twin Cities+UW Madison=stellar combo) and Indiana (divided strength with IU and Purdue pulling in opposite directions)

Quality as a system falls rapidly from there, as generally other states have only one strong-ish university with a moderate variety of extraordinarily weaker state Uni's as well, such as Texas. Not a great system for the average aspiring student to contend with, and such systems may even create a preference for out-of-state students, which is definitely not the intended purpose.
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Old 08-16-2009, 09:41 PM
hsw
 
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Define "best"; I'd argue best are universities and specific majors where top 5-10% of grads have highest incomes/net worths post-grad and 5, 10 and 20yrs post-grad

Suspect top 5-10% of grads of Stanford CompSci or Wharton Finance undergrad are from all over US (and outside US) and migrate post-grad to wherever are best career opportunities, likely Manhattan for finance and SiliconValley for tech

Fairly provincial to assume smartest, most ambitious kids will ever stay in region where they went to high school or college or obtained first career opportunity....consider the mass exodus of IQ from Bos/Phila post-Harvard/Wharton graduation (and similar flight from Berkeley Engineering or U-IL Engineering) to places where lucrative careers are possible
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Old 08-16-2009, 09:45 PM
 
Location: Underneath the Pecan Tree
15,982 posts, read 35,194,653 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Daytonnatian View Post
The reason why I thought it was unfair to include private Uni's is because, first of all, they really have no more connection to the state than the average corporation does, and second, are not easily accesible to the average citizen. Thus, my reasoning why only state with strong public systems should be included.

Anyways, out of the nation, U Michigan is definitely the best because almost all of its programs are top 10 in the nation, and it's not too difficult for the average in-state student to gain acceptance to the university, along with the fact that MSU is really good, too. Virginia would be next because of its extreme strength in UVA, VA Tech, and W&M, followed by Georgia with its Hope Scholarship program, UGA, and GA Tech. North Carolina (UNC and UNC-Asheville are stellar), Pennsylvania (with Penn State and U Pitt being extremely high quality) Ohio (OSU, Miami of Ohio, U Cincinnati, and Ohio U), California (lots of strength, but serves way too many students to really be effective), Florida (UF, FSU, and New College are good), Minnesota/Wisconsin (counting as one state due to reciprocal agreement, UM-Twin Cities+UW Madison=stellar combo) and Indiana (divided strength with IU and Purdue pulling in opposite directions)

Quality as a system falls rapidly from there, as generally other states have only one strong-ish university with a moderate variety of extraordinarily weaker state Uni's as well, such as Texas. Not a great system for the average aspiring student to contend with, and such systems may even create a preference for out-of-state students, which is definitely not the intended purpose.
Wrong. Texas has UT, A&M, Texas Tech, and UNT. All of those are very good public schools. You have a load of great underrated public schools in Texas. Rice, SMU, Baylor, Mary-Hardin,etc
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Old 08-16-2009, 09:47 PM
 
Location: Concrete jungle where dreams are made of.
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Probably MA. It's not really which state has the most, but rather the notoriously hard to get into colleges that are very prestigious.
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Old 08-16-2009, 10:02 PM
 
Location: Denver
6,625 posts, read 14,449,301 times
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If your answer isn't Massachusetts or California, you're an idiot.

My choice is Massachusetts:

Harvard, MIT, Wellesley, Williams, Amherst, BC, BU, Lesley, Tufts, Brandeis, Worcester Polytech, Clark, Northeastern, among others.

How in the heck is Ohio winning this poll...what colleges do they have?
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