<ol>
<li>Cal</li>
<li>Michigan</li>
<li>UCLA</li>
<li>UVA</li>
<li>UIUC</li>
<li>UNC</li>
<li>UCSD</li>
<li>UW</li>
<li>GA Tech</li>
<li>W & M</li>
</ol>
<p>Fair list of the top 10 ... not sure about that order though.</p>
<p>Depends alot on the intended major. eg. UIUC is the best public for Electrical engineering, even better than Cal. Also, GA tech obviously beats UVA in most, of not all, of the engineering fields.</p>
<p>Strictly for UG:</p>
<ol>
<li>WM</li>
<li>Uva</li>
<li>UM</li>
<li>UCB</li>
<li>UW/UCLA
7.UNC</li>
<li>UIUC/UCSD
10.Texas/PSU</li>
</ol>
<p>GaTech too narrow.</p>
<p>I'm very biased, as I am an incoming Freshman at WM in a few weeks, but here's my logic. Remember, this is strictly for UG.</p>
<ol>
<li>W+M- For what I want to do (Public Policy major/Religious Studies Minor,) there is no other top public that can offer the quality of liberal arts education that WM can. Between the small class sizes, 10-15 student Freshman Seminar requirement, and lack of TA's teaching classes, William and Mary is the only top public that can offer the opportunity to be a part of a learning community and spend class time actually discussing issues of importance rather than watching a powerpoint presentation being shown by a grad student with 300 other people in the room with you. For majors that require extensive lab facilities and the like, another college would probably be a better option. For me, WM is the way to go.
2.UNC- I'm a lifelong Tar Heel fan. Tar Heel basketball + great school= good choice for me.
3.UC-Berkeley- Very good for Policy/Poli Sci
4.UVA- In-State. Thats the only reason. Too preppy for me. Too many of the rich spoiled kids I went to high school with. Good for other people though.
5.UCLA- LA is amazing.
6.UMICH- See Berkeley explaination.
7.UIUC- Probably a more interesting place than Wisconsin.
8.UW-Its in Wisconsin.
9.Texas- Me living in Texas? Not gonna happen.</li>
</ol>
<p>Also, I wanna add Miami University in Ohio to the list, because thats a pretty solid public university in its own right.</p>
<p>For public engineering school ranking</p>
<ol>
<li>Berkeley</li>
<li>U of Mich, Purdue, GT, UCLA, Wisconsin(madison), UIUC</li>
<li>UT(austin), PSU, UMD(College Park), UWashington, UCSD</li>
<li>local state universities near you</li>
</ol>
<p>Cheers, :)</p>
<p>If you think UIUC is more interesting than Madison you need to read or get out more. UIUC is one of the more boring large publics while UW is one of the most happening. Madison is much lively and interesting than Chapel Hill and C'Ville too.</p>
<p>Some photos</p>
<p>W and M does seem amazing for undergrad, but as far as my Berkeley experience goes, I don't think you give a fair assesment of other top publics. </p>
<p>
[quote]
and lack of TA's teaching classes, William and Mary is the only top public that can offer the opportunity to be a part of a learning community and spend class time actually discussing issues of importance rather than watching a powerpoint presentation being shown by a grad student with 300 other people in the room with you.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>C'mon.</p>
<p>:rolleyes:</p>
<p>barrons,</p>
<p>i think wisconsin needs to invest in its computers. using ancient crt monitors? come onnnnnnnn, what is this amateur hour? :-P (-:</p>
<p>They spent the extra cash on the football stadium.</p>
<p>Why would anyone want to get an undergraduate education at a school with 20,000 or more students? Why not pick a school which is human scale with the highest SAT scores of the pack (1390) with an undisputed commitment to teaching? I would choose William & Mary.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Why would anyone want to get an undergraduate education at a school with 20,000 or more students?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>You can't think of any reasons? You need to learn about empathy, and maybe also more about the schools in question.</p>
<p>What the heck is the "human scale?"</p>
<p>"Why would anyone want to get an undergraduate education at a school with 20,000 or more students?"</p>
<p>Because some people don't need to be babied and spoon-fed?</p>
<p>Also the large schools tend to have many more departments and majors. You don't spend much time with all the people in the school--you focus on your college and department which will be typically a few hundred.</p>
<p>"Why would anyone want to get an undergraduate education at a school with 20,000 or more students?"</p>
<p>If you're shy, it's a lot easier to go to a larger school than a smaller school</p>
<p>"Why would anyone want to get an undergraduate education at a school with 20,000 or more students?"</p>
<p>More like, why would anyone want to go a school with 5,000 or fewer students? If I'm going to be living somewhere for 4 years, I want to have a lot of social options, personally. A larger student body provides a more varied, diverse social environment with more (and more specific) clubs and activities. A larger student body enables you to be continually expanding and changing your circle of friends, meeting new people all the time, and to become annonymous should you desire. Schools with larger student bodies also tend to have more academic options, better sports programs, and more active social scenes.</p>
<p>On the topic of William and Mary, it is strange that the 2nd oldest university in the nation whose alumni includes Jefferson, Monroe, Tyler, Washington, John Marshall, Henry Clay, and many more, is not ranked and regarded as highly as one would imagine. Were it not in the South and had it not suffered financially after the Civil War, I can only wonder how great it would be.</p>
<p>Combo of academics and social life</p>
<p>UVA
UNC
UCLA
UCB
UMichigan
W&M
Wisconsin
UCSD</p>
<p>Just thought this was interesting since "public ivy" gets thrown around these boards alot.</p>
<p>The phrase "Public Ivy" was coined by Richard Moll in his book Public ivys: a guide to America's best public undergraduate colleges and universities (1985). Public Ivies are public institutions that "provide an Ivy League collegiate experience at a public school price."</p>
<p>College of William and Mary
Miami University (Ohio)
University of California system
University of Michigan
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
University of Texas at Austin
University of Vermont
University of Virginia</p>
<p>"Because some people don't need to be babied and spoon-fed?"</p>
<p>Yeah. Small publics like William and Mary are notorious for "babying" and "spoon-feeding" their students...</p>
<p>Oh wait...</p>