<p>My son is a freshman engineering student at UMass. He is a good student, but no genius. He was waitlisted at RPI and accepted at WPI, who offered him a small (6k per year) scholarship. I never expected much more than that because he’s just not academically outstanding.</p>
<p>He’s loving it at UMass. The program is challenging, but not so much that he can’t get good grades. The instructors have been good and responsive, there is a lot to offer on campus, and the dining halls are outstanding. This is just the sort of kid state universities are for; the kid with the 800 math SAT can get a scholarship at RPI.</p>
<p>Of course that is true. The responsibility of public universities are to provide a high quality education at a reasonable cost to students who do reasonably well in high school. And most states, including Massachusetts do that. I am not arguing that UMass is weak - in fact, internationally and outside of New England, it is probably the best known public university in New England, probably better known than RPI or WPI.</p>
<p>The difference is that Massachusetts doesn’t dedicate as much of its resources to public education as do other states, largely due to our Ivy-league-obsessed culture and the preponderence of high quality and well endowed (and also quite expensive) private universities and colleges. Michigan State provides to Michigan what UMass provides to Massachusetts. But they also have the University of Michigan, a bargain for a truly elite university. Same with the UC schools; Berkeley for elite students and the rest for bright and hard working students who may not necessarily be academically exceptional. In Massachusetts, if you want the elite networking and name recognition provided by University of Michigan, for example, you have to pay Ivy League fare (even for UMich OOS) and compete with the best students across the nation. Other states such as Georgia (with its Hope Scholarship) and Alabama also provide more scholarships to high-achieving students for public universities than Massachusetts.</p>
<p>It is good vs. better not bad vs. good.</p>
<p>Just an addendum:</p>
<p>And I have to argue that getting a scholarship at RPI doesn’t mean that you are a genius. I got a $15k scholarship there but declined for WPI and I am by no means a genius – far from it actually. The word “genius” has come to refer to something out of its regular scope. Getting good grades has to do with studying hard; being a genius has to do having unusual creative and analytic abilities that or exceptional mastery of something which comes with lots of practice and hard work. I would say even most students at University of Michigan or UC Berkeley are not geniuses. Genius is a once-in-a-generation kind of phenomenon and you know it when you observe it.</p>