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There's plenty of discussions about which public universities are the best, the ranking. but how about looking at at the states and their aggregate groupings of public institutions. How would you rank the states or, short of ranking them, which states do you think have the best public university system(s)?
Obviously California will be on top or close to it on anybody's list, especially on the strength of all those UC's. How about other states? Do states like Virginia (UVa & W&M), Michigan (U-M, MSU), Indiana (IU, Purdue),and Texas (UT, A&M) get high marks for having two really strong public institutions? Does Ohio receive high marks for having some non-flagship universities (like Miami and Ohio) with stellar reputations?
What states do you think are really do the job right?
My first reaction is, who cares? My husband graduated from West Virginia University so when our kids were looking at colleges one of the first ones we looked at was WVU. It really didn't suit any of our kids, it was too expensive for OOS residents, and we didn't visit and they didn't apply.
We went from Penn State S***ks (our chant at the WVU football games) to visiting Penn State and two of my kids applied there. We live in PA. We have very good public colleges Welcome to the PA State System of Higher Education and semi-publics (Pitt, PSU, Temple). I think they are certainly as good as the SUNY colleges. My point is, that it's fun to talk about what state has the best public college system but unless you are moving sometime before your kids junior year AND (big caveat here) you know they will attend a public college, why does it matter?
interesting... i guess there aren't a lot of other fantastic options in that region, but i always got the vibe that those two schools were "party schools". i guess i'm spoiled having spent most of my life in NC/VA
Ohio University is indeed a party school.
Miami is more known for its fraternities, but it's still a very good school academically. Much better than NC State and probably about on par with Virginia Tech.
Should check out Murray State University in Kentucky. Great school, good nursing program, good broadcasting program with their own radio and TV station, very good sports. I could keep going.
This is from www.murraystate.edu , in their "quick facts" tab.
National rankings
U.S. News Best College for 22 consecutive years. The 2013 rankings place Murray State at 7th among the top public regional universities in the South and the 11th-ranked public regional university in the nation. MSU is also a Top-10 school where merit aid awards are most common. Forbes Top College for five consecutive years. In addition to being named to the 2012 America’s Top Colleges list, Forbes also designated Murray State as one of “America’s Top 100 Best Buy" colleges for the fourth year in a row. G.I. Jobs magazine ranked MSU a “2013 Military Friendly School.” The list honors the top 20 percent of all colleges, universities and trade schools nationwide that are doing the most to embrace America’s veterans as students. The Chronicle of Higher Education named Murray State one of its “2012 Great Colleges to Work For.” The designation specifically recognizes MSU for ““Professional/Career Development Programs,” "Respect and Appreciation" and "Teaching Environment."
Funny how City University of New York (CUNY) gets unjustly ignored considering the accomplishments of both staff and the alumni of City, Queens, Brooklyn Colleges, and the John Jay School.
i taught and got my MS @ CUNY. it's a good system compared to public systems in general, but not as strong as SUNY or strong enough to be in a top X list. the glory days of CUNY are behind it (aka CCNY as "poor man's harvard" and the like), although some of the campuses are improving
part of what's good about CUNY is that, even though it has many flaws, you're still in NYC where there are so many opportunities in so many different fields. very few public systems can offer this
people also don't realize how big CUNY is, it's larger than many state systems
it's too bad for CUNY that CCNY's bid with Stanford for a NYC tech campus got beat out by Cornell/Technion. that would have really raised their profile and credibility
Quote:
Originally Posted by edsg25
is CUNY now part of the state system or is it still controlled by NYC? As far as SUNY: great system that has but one major flaw: the absence of a true flagship institution, a high profile university.
CUNY is still an NYC entity and separate from SUNY. i can't imagine it ever getting absorbed in; it's just too large. it's not just funding and number of students; it has it's own unions and such
agreed on no flagship for SUNY
Last edited by OdysseusNY; 09-12-2013 at 05:52 PM..
I'm from NY and have gone to a SUNY, but I have to admit that I have never quite understood what a CUNY is.
city university of new york. an entirely separate, but still huge, public university system. they also have some community colleges (i'm not sure if SUNY has this)
generally the best SUNYs (bingy, stony brook, etc) are stronger than the best CUNYs (CCNY, Queens, etc)
CUNY only has one PhD granting institution, which is an odd setup. the basically distribute the professors, ugrad and masters level stuff over all the campuses, and then concentrate the PhD programs in one place
city university of new york. an entirely separate, but still huge, public university system. they also have some community colleges (i'm not sure if SUNY has this)
generally the best SUNYs (bingy, stony brook, etc) are stronger than the best CUNYs (CCNY, Queens, etc)
CUNY only has one PhD granting institution, which is an odd setup. the basically distribute the professors, ugrad and masters level stuff over all the campuses, and then concentrate the PhD programs in one place
CUNY Graduate Center is probably stronger than SUNY Buffalo or Stony Brook in terms of Ph.D. programs, coming out higher in the QS rankings of universities example. Binghamton I believe is the hardest SUNY to get into but it's not as much of a research university as Buffalo or Stony Brook.
Every state's situation is so different, I think comparisons are impossible. That said, I'm shocked at Florida being on the list. In the other thread about "leading public universities", only one Florida school, New College of FL, received any mention, and it is not a university but a liberal arts school.
Pennsylvania has an extensive system of state universities.
Colorado, for its size (population, not geographic size) has a good collection of state universities.
Florida has an excellent system of public universities. There are four public universities in the top 100 public universities in the US with two in the top 50. My only beef with the FL state U system is that the state Us are very very large (except New College-which is overated).
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