Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Are we talking about identifying what college is in what city because there are a **** load of colleges and its pretty hard to keep track of all of them. Most people could probably tell you a few top schools and then football schools and that's about it. By a few top I'm talking they might know NYU, Harvard, Columbia, UCLA, Penn State, UPenn. I doubt most people could even tell you that Yale is in Hartford CT or Princeton is in Princeton NJ. If you're just talking about what cities don't have major universities than there are very few and certainly not Tampa which has one of the highest pop schools in the nation. If you mean what metros don't have prestigious universities you should've said that and it is largely dependent on what field you are trying to study.
Detroit's Wayne State is not really usable for this because few people know about it. UMich is kinda applicable but there are farms between metro Detroit and Ann Arbor, I think there's a disruption between the two MSAs.
However, Oakland U and Umich-Dearborn are getting big so that may not last for long.
I almost said Flint, then remembered Kettering. That is one hell of a school!
The OP said he was looking for "great" universities, so whatever your definition of "great" is (selectivity of admission, prominence of a particular program or programs, highly ranked football team or basketball team, notable faculty, school name recognition, preponderance of research, etc.), all of these answers so far are totally acceptable.
Because there are so many universities, you really have to categorize them by Best law schools, med schools, etc. Best football schools, and other sports etc.
For example, LA would score for all catergories and a few specialties that only a few other metros can match.
LA: Film and Dramatic Arts schools: USC, UCLA, numerous small acting schools
Med: USC, UCLA
Tech: Cal Tech
Business: USC, UCLA
Law: UCLA, USC
Gymnastics and Swimming: UCLA
Just giving examples, I missed a few for LA and not countng other private schools like Pepperdine, and Loyola, and the many other public state schools like Cal State LA, SB, Long Beach, Fullerton(Dramtic Arts), Northridge, and several more.
University of California, Davis (UCD): Now, know for all disciplines and has rated high in most categories in the last 2 decades: Medicine (the main huge teaching hospital is in Central Sacramento), Business, Law, etc.
UCD has the largest land mass of all UC schools and it has the 3rd largest undergrad population.
Davis is 10 miles from downtown Sac and connected by a 15 times a day commuter train.
For years, Davis was know only for Veternary Science (the Animal and Farm School). It is still one of the top Vets Schools if not the best in the USA.
Specialities In: Bio-engineering, Wine (Viticulture) and Food Technology, and Environmental science.
UCD is the top Viticulture school in the USA. (Napa Valley is half hr away). In these disciplines, UCD is know internationally.
UCD is not know for Football, that could be why some people have never heard of it.
San Diego is probably the biggest metro without an automatic "name" university
Other candidates would be Sacramento, San Antonio, Tampa, Portland, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Cleveland
I think Dallas is debatable. SMU is a good school, but doesn't really have an obvious national name. It's certainly a regional name, but I'm not sure if SMU is automatically recognizable in Boston or Seattle, for example.
For Detroit, only if Ann Arbor is included as part of the CSA. I don't think Wayne State has an automatic national name.
I disagree on San Diego. San Diego has UCSD, which is a strong research university and probably in the second tier of public research universities alongside UIUC, UNC, UT Austin, UW-Madison, Georgia Tech, etc. Scripps is also in San Diego which is a notable research institution.
Sacramento has UC Davis nearby which is probably a slight notch below UCSD but still good nonetheless.
Cleveland has Case Western which has a relatively good quality undergraduate body and a strong medical school. Even though Case Western may not have national name recognition, it should be off this list before Dallas.
SMU and UT Dallas are decent universities (the quality of their student bodies are very similar) but neither are notable research schools and have mostly regional influence.
I disagree on San Diego. San Diego has UCSD, which is a strong research university and probably in the second tier of public research universities alongside UIUC, UNC, UT Austin, UW-Madison, Georgia Tech, etc. Scripps is also in San Diego which is a notable research institution.
Sacramento has UC Davis nearby which is probably a slight notch below UCSD but still good nonetheless.
Cleveland has Case Western which has a relatively good quality undergraduate body and a strong medical school and even though Case Western may not have national name recognition, it should be off this list before Dallas.
SMU and UT Dallas are decent universities (the quality of their student bodies are very similar) but neither are notable research schools and have mostly regional influence.
Case is a top 40 institution. CSU is also rapidly becoming a contender amongst research universities as it now offers SEVERAL doctorate programs, is remodeling the campus to be completely cutting-edge (and BEAUTIFUL) and is beginning to attract big name talent in both academics and athletics (they're the 2nd best in Horizon League basketball just behind Butler!). With almost 20,000 students and counting, I'd keep an eye out for it. I look for it to eventually (maybe in 10-20 years) be on par with other major state schools.
As far as JuCos go, Tri C isn't bad either.
Quote:
Notable programs include the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs, whose city management and urban policy program is ranked 2nd in the country by U.S. News and World Report, as well as the recently-formed School of Communication, ranked 8th in research productivity and as the top terminal MA-granting program in the United States overall.[24] The Nance college of Business Administration is also highly regarded and is ranked in the top ten nationwide in performance of its Certified Public Accountant graduate students. Additionally, CSU is the first university in Ohio to offer a master's degree in software engineering.
I'm not trying to push anyone to go there or anything, I just feel it is way too underrated.
I disagree on San Diego. San Diego has UCSD, which is a strong research university and probably in the second tier of public research universities alongside UIUC, UNC, UT Austin, UW-Madison, Georgia Tech, etc. Scripps is also in San Diego which is a notable research institution.
Sacramento has UC Davis nearby which is probably a slight notch below UCSD but still good nonetheless.
Cleveland has Case Western which has a relatively good quality undergraduate body and a strong medical school. Even though Case Western may not have national name recognition, it should be off this list before Dallas.
SMU and UT Dallas are decent universities (the quality of their student bodies are very similar) but neither are notable research schools and have mostly regional influence.
Yeah, I know about all these schools, but I'm not really sure if they have a national reputation.
UCSD, for example. I don't think the name opens many doors in NYC or DC, for example.
Yeah, obviously it's a UC based in San Diego, but I don't think most folks outside of California know a thing about it. I think surfer school or something, even though I know it's quite strong in the sciences.
Same goes with Davis. If I said "I attend Davis" outside of California, almost no one would know what you're talking about.
So I'm not criticizing these schools, as they're all good. I'm just skeptical of their national reputations (thinking of reputations to the man on the street or potential employer, not really reputations among academics or intellectuals).
UCD is the top Viticulture school in the USA. (Napa Valley is half hr away). In these disciplines, UCD is know internationally.
UCD is not know for Football, that could be why some people have never heard of it.
UC Davis(and UC San Diego and Cal Poly-SLO and whole host of other schools in California) are all well known and respected in California, maybe throughout the West on some level--but I don't know how familiar their names are recognized on a national level. But on some level it doesn't really matter these days... People might know Boise State nationally these days because of the Broncos' success on the gridiron, but academically it's not comparable to the UC system or even many of the other state universities in the West.
What it comes down to is that people on a national level for the most part recognize Ivy League colleges, big schools with Division I Football programs or perrenial contenders in the college basketball tournament, and maybe a few other private universities well-known for being academically prestigious(maybe John Hopkins).
Last edited by Deezus; 01-18-2011 at 02:25 PM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
