<p>UW-Madison's great, but it's not Michigan. Terrific school, though.</p>
<p>You're right. It's not Michigan. It doesn't cost 35,000 dollars a year to attend from out of state.</p>
<p>UVa>UMichigan>UC-Berkeley</p>
<p>^^ undergraduate EXPERIENCE :)</p>
<p>UC Berkeley all the way!</p>
<p>towerpumpkin, could I PM you with questions about Penn State?</p>
<p>Go ahead...</p>
<p>UCB!!!!!!!!!!!!!</p>
<p>Arizona State has got a strong honors program, and has a lot of National Merit finalists (4th in the nation or something). and the business and engineering programs are strong. the con is that it's also a party school that pretty much accepts anything with a pulse. but, it is ginormous.</p>
<p>sorry, I'm useless for determining the best school in the southwest, states are kinda spread out here and I haven't researched much (California doesn't count)</p>
<p>I hear Uconn is highly selective aswell. I live in connecticut, the campus in my city is really nice looking. </p>
<p>I am also in love with NYU, but mainly because its in the city.</p>
<p>Ut- Austin is crazy big, and actually has some pretty strong programs. I don't really know all the numbers, but I do know that the honors colleges are really selective. I would definently say it is in the running for SW best!</p>
<p>I'd rank public universities in groups:</p>
<p>Group 1: UCB, UVA, Michigan
Group 2: UNC, UCLA, Wisconsin, William and Mary
Group 3: GA Tech, Illinois, UT-Austin, UCSD
Group 4: PSU, Washington, UCSB, UF</p>
<p>However, for specific programs, and especially for financial reasons, these rankings might not make sense for everyone. If I had to choose between UNC and UVA, and UNC cost less, and if the programs are similiar in ranking, then I'd prolly go to UNC.</p>
<p>I definitely wouldn't put UT-Austin on the same level as UCSD, Georgia Tech, or Illinois. It's definitely above that.</p>
<p>I agree with beginning. UT Austin has gotten a lot more selective with their admissions.</p>
<p>FSU-Florida State University-Tallahassee- is a really good public school</p>
<p>UF-University of Florida-Gainesville-another really good public school</p>
<p>Yeah, UF is def on the rise - their 75th percentile SAT score has reached 1400 this year.</p>
<p>I don't see any compelling argument as to why Texas should rank above Illinois or UCSD. They all have top notch programs and very comparative admission standards.</p>
<p>Why is it that you believe the selectivity of admissions is the direct correlating ranking factor? The University of North Carolina is a lot harder to get into out of state than the University of Michigan, but most people agree Michigan is a better school. Why? Because a) Michigan STILL has a quality student body, even if it is marginally "lower" b) the academic quality (professors for example) are ranked very highly c) other factors that people use to rank give Michigan an advantage.</p>
<p>And for specific fields, Illinois, UCSD, GA Tech, Texas, are all highly ranked, but not across the board. I mean look at the US News and World Report, often the most cited rankings on these boards. Illinois, GA Tech, UCSD are all ranked above UT-Austin. Also, my school UW-Madison is easier to get into than USC. However, they are still ranked neck and neck (I think it's like 30st and 31st) because the peer ranking of Wisconsin with its prestigious professors and specific programs makes up for that. While the bottom 25% of the class might lag, the fact that the top 25% of the class are nearly 4.0, 30+ ACT students (which will be over 1,000 students) still makes the school student bodies comparable based on sheer numbers too. My point is that it's just not a good standard to use selectivity alone as the way to rank schools.</p>
<p>On another level, beginning, you sure do like to make absoulte statements. It's "definitley" better? I didn't know the entire world got together over night to decide that!</p>
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<p>Wow, is UConn really that good?</p>
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<p>It's not in the same class as some of these other schools, but the northeast does not have a big tradition of strong public colleges. The private schools there have been so good for so long (over 300 years) that the public schools came along as something of an afterthought.</p>
<p>This has to go to UC Berkeley, followed by UCLA.</p>
<p>I think UCSD will be the fastest rising public school out there. The school puts great emphasis on the hottest fields out there (biomedical engineering). The fact that they are #3 behind JHU and Duke (were #2 last year) in bioengineering, just tells you that the school will become more popular. UCSD overall has a great engineering program (#11) and we can't forget marine biology with the scripps institute (#1). The only thing that's crippling UCSD down is humanities and a weak business program compared to all the top publics right now. I think bioengineering will compensate for it in the next couple of years.</p>
<p>Northeast: ?
Southeast: Virginia or William & Mary
West: Berkeley or UCLA</p>