Are public schools worth it?

<p>I'm a prospective student from the UK with a dual citizen ship,
and have already started my search for colleges, atleast finding out a bit more about them.
However, I'm not sure if I should limit my search just to private schools as i've noticed the out of state fee's are usually like triple the in state fee's. (Atleast for schools such as UCLA etc..)
Including living fee's, you might as well go to a private school.
Are there any major pro's of public schools or should I just focus on the private ones? thanks.</p>

<p>If you can’t afford to pay full tuition and room and board at a public school, how will you do it at a private school? I think you’re creating a useless dichotomy here because if you’re concerned about money as an international student, you need to differentiate between schools that will give you money and schools that won’t, not private and public schools.</p>

<p>If money is a concern and you don’t live in California, you should probably stop thinking about UCLA now. What other colleges have you looked at? What kind of merit scholarships do you think you could get? If you’re serious about coming to the United States for college you need to narrow it down to colleges that aren’t financial reaches. </p>

<p>Depends on the public university, and whether or not you require financial aid. The top public universities, like Cal (Berkeley), Georgia Tech, Illinois-Urbana Champaign, Michigan-Ann Arbor, Texas-Austin, UCLA, UNC-Chapel Hill, Virginia, William and Mary, Wisconsin-Madison etc… are worth the cost of attendance, assuming you do not qualify for financial aid and will have to pay full tuition, regardless of where you go to college. On the other hand, if you cannot afford paying full tuition, you are better off applying to colleges and universities with generous financial aid policies for non-residents. </p>

<p>@HateBeinSober I never said I couldn’t afford it, I am just wondering is it worth it? Will I get an education just as good as a private school or is it really not worth paying that money when I could just go to a private school.</p>

<p>My parents can afford to pay for my education abroad but obviously I don’t want to waste their money. </p>

<p>The education at the schools mentioned above (and others) is every bit as good as any private college, even better in some cases. </p>

<p>@Alexandre & @‌Chardo thank you!</p>

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<p>It depends on what you want to study and which specific schools you are comparing, not whether one is public and the other is private.</p>

<p>There are a lot of highly ranked public schools. Don’t disregard them just because they are a public; you may get a better education at a public than a private school (although it clearly depends on the schools being compared). I would suggest looking for schools that have a good program for what you want to major in. </p>