<p>From US News 2005 College Rankings Issue </p>
<p>TOP PUBLICS BY AVG SAT SCORE</p>
<p>William & Mary - 1350
Georgia Tech - 1340
Virginia - 1330
Berkeley - 1315
UNC - 1290
UCLA - 1285</p>
<p>P.S. UNC is technically the oldest US public school whereas W&M was private until the early 1900s.</p>
<p>From US News 2005 College Rankings Issue </p>
<p>TOP PUBLICS BY FRESHMAN IN TOP 10% OF HS CLASS</p>
<p>Berkeley - 99%
UCLA - 97%
Michigan - 90%
William & Mary - 85%
Virginia - 85% (estimate based on partial data)</p>
<p>penn state schreyer</p>
<p><a href="http://www.scholars.psu.edu/%5B/url%5D">http://www.scholars.psu.edu/</a></p>
<p>Every top public university has a "scholars" program. W&M has Monroe, Virginia has Echols, etc.</p>
<p>Yea University of Nebraska at Lincoln lol!!! hey Tommy Lee went here!! haha just kidding...well he did come here but it certainly doesnt make it the best public university. But then again if you're going to be in a marching band Nebraska is one of the best. And the journalism is also good. not to mention our Football Team..Go HUSKERS!...at least during the good ole days of Coach Osborne!!!!</p>
<p>illegit "national title" in 1997.</p>
<p>what?!? lol maybe i really dont know. i dont think it was illegit but then again...!!!! but anyways why do you say such things!?! when the huskers were good, we were very good, and our wins were legit.</p>
<p>Not the win against Missouri. The kick which gave Nebraska the TD to bring the game into overtime was illegal.</p>
<p>Also in the final voting for the ESPN poll, an unnamed coach (most likely Fulmer from Tennessee) voted Michigan #4. Yeah, 12-0, #4. That gave Nebraska enough points to overtake Michigan.</p>
<p>not geographically based.
UCB
VIRGINIA
UCLA
MICHIGAN
UNC
TEXAS
WISCONSIN</p>
<p>I'm surprised there aren't better Northeast publics. I guess they have the Ivies...</p>
<p>Yeah the East Coast doesn't have a history of strong Public Universities. Someone here said the reason why theyre not as strong as the rest of the US, but I forget now. It kinda sucks that I dont have a good public Uni to fall back on. :(</p>
<p>prepparent- I disagree. Michigan > UCLA, Wisconsin > Texas. I mean, US News agrees, although obviously we're splitting hairs.</p>
<p>transfer, are you from the mid-west? I would say they are very close. My recollection is that UCLA was ranked 3rd after berkely, and virg. Maybe it was mich then ucla. In either event, mich and ucla are both very fine schools.</p>
<p>Berkeley PERIOD.</p>
<p>This argument always makes me laugh since many of the schools compared are pretty different though they're all public. </p>
<p>But if you want a truly UNIQUE public school experience that NONE of the other public schools have, UVA and William & Mary all the way! </p>
<p>This article about UVA in US News says it all. Wahoowa!!!</p>
<p>I'd repeat many answers, and say W&M, UV, UC-Berkeley, UCLA, UNC- Chapel Hill. For the northeast...I don't know. The northeast is home to really well-known, private schools, such as Harvard, Yale, etc. Some of the UMASS universities have pretty good reputations, I know some students with excellent transcripts who have chosen to go there. umass amherst and lowell come to mind. but otherwise, i'd say the ones i listed first.</p>