Best schools with "State" in their name.

College Search & Selection
41

<p>undergrad only:</p>

<ol>
<li>Michigan State</li>
<li>Penn State</li>
<li>Iowa State</li>
<li>Ohio State</li>
<li>Washington State & North Carolina State (tie)</li>
</ol>

<p>OVERALL REPS -- GRAD & UNDERGRAD:</p>

<ol>
<li>Michigan State & Ohio State (tie)</li>
<li>Penn State
[the rest]</li>
</ol>

<ul>
<li>NOTE: Florida State is not the land grant school in Florida; both UF and Florida A & M are (the latter created in the 1880s to keep black students segregated from whites in the general state colls</li>
</ul>

42

<p>Technically, I guess you'd have to include Virginia Tech (Virginia Technical Institute and State University), and Rutgers (Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey). Both of these are quality public schools.</p>

<p>For a more unbiased source about all these schools, I've added digital encyclopedia cites. Read, and you decide:</p>

<p>Michigan State
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_State%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_State&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Penn State
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penn_State%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penn_State&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Iowa State
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iowa_State%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iowa_State&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Ohio State
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_state%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_state&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Washington State
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_state%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_state&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>North Carolina State (tie)
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NC_State%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NC_State&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Virginia Tech
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Tech%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Tech&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Rutgers
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutgers%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutgers&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

43

<p>Wikipedia, more "unbiased." According to your vocabulary, I can't agree. I'd go with a fact-checked publication on that, as much as I love and read wikipedia, or a cross examanation of many rankings available.</p>

44

<p>It's also one of the best schools for pre-vet, after Cornell and Penn. ... davis is better :-D</p>

45

<p>It's also one of the best schools for pre-vet, after Cornell and Penn. ... davis is better :-D</p>

46

<p>I don't disagree with what you're saying. Wikipedia's far from perfect. I wasn't so much talking about rankings, I was only talking about overview information about the different campuses. And on that score, I think wikipedia's somewhat more un-slanted than the college websites which often cheerlead their schools. Most wiki articles are footnoted so much of the factual info can be crosschecked and verified. Also, wikipedia's articles tend to be snapshots and more concise than websites which have a million hyperlinks.</p>

47

<p>cal state - fresno</p>

48

<p>Excellent state school with some superb programs that compete with any school out there. Undergraduate research opportunities for honors kids are outstanding; clearly the best in Florida.</p>

49

<p>Better than University of Florida, or that public liberal arts college? I think many would disagree with your claims.</p>

50

<p>Depends on the program, this is the same claim UF can make.</p>

51

<p>San Diego State</p>

52

<p>Ohio State</p>

53

<p>Bowling Green STATE University</p>

54

<p>UF and Florida State are not twins. They do not duplicate the same majors in general, though there is some overlap. Basically, if you want the pure sciences, fine arts, criminology, meterology and so on go to FSU if Florida state schools are where you want to be. If you want to be a vet, build buildings, be a certain type of engineer or grow oranges go to UF. If you want to go to law school, it's a toss up, because FSU's law school has bested every other law school in the state for some time now in passing the Florida bar, though this can change, obviously. UF's med school is more established, but compared to the distributed training concept FSU's new med school is using, UF's dominance in this area may well be short lived. This liberal arts heritage is why FSU has the Alpha chapter of Phi Beta Kappa and UF does not. </p>

<p>This is not by chance, it's by design. To say one school is 'best' is really nonsense to anyone who thinks it through and knows the schools. Compared to New College, that's the school you were probably thinking of, FSU is quite different. NC uses a unique, at least in FL state schools, grading method and so on. It is a nice, high-quality, small niche school. Really depends on what you want. FSU is very much the oldest, Gothic structure university with an extensive and colorful history in Florida. Students from FSU (called by an earlier name) even fought in the Civil War; Confederates, of course. That's partly why Tallahassee was not captured by the Union.</p>

<p>If you cite to me the US News ratings, then please explain why FSU was 64th in the US in 2002, then dropped to 112th in 2004? Could that rating be political? Or did some disaster level half the buildings of the university? Maybe FSU just hired a politician (T.K. Wetherell) as president instead of a pure academic type person? Could be. But in tough budget times for state schools, every advantage helps.</p>

<p>Another interesting fact is that FSU was called the Berkeley of the South in the 1970s due to the activities of some strong minded students. Note that FSU's administration did not give themselves such a name, unlike other schools in the state. I think you may find this bit of trivia interesting, given where you appear to be from.</p>

<p>Cheers!</p>

55

<p>I really don't know the schools well enough to know which have strengths in which areas. Do you think that people would agree with your assesments, or would they be more particular in their strokes (instead of saying pure sciences as a whole, for instance, say a particular aspect is better at one school, or that they're essentially equal)? From what I know, U of F likes to think of itself as better, and FSU as primarily a teaching school, or at least historically so. I'm sort of out of the loop. My mother went to U of F a long time ago.</p>

<p>Bar passage rates are a questionable measure of law school quality.</p>

<p>US News is by no means the end-all ranking, but is a useful sort of tool. It measures average student quality fairly well, for instance.</p>

<p>It is an interesting bit of trivia.</p>

<p>
[quote]
[FSU is] clearly the best in Florida.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Well, you said the nonsense. ;)</p>

56

<p>This could be a very long answer, but I don't have time at the moment.</p>

<p>On the better programs grads from both schools I think would agree, once you transcend the partisianship. I am an FSU grad my dad got a masters from UF. I've grown up with both universities and have had family members go to both. When I attended FSU, in the 1970s, FSU had reportedly better students and applicant scores, for what that's worth. UF now has the edge in this area, but it's relatively recent. This changes due to all kinds of local reasons over time. The state designed these flagship schools in this manner. </p>

<p>UF had the med, vet, engineering programs that are probably the best in the state at this point. FSU has it's list of the best programs (in state) in physics, chemistry, meterology, music, criminology and so on. The list is long and changes over time. These are huge schools after all. Both are overcrowded, UF particulary so due to it's proximity to populated areas. 50,000 kids are a lot to teach, no matter where they go. 40,000 is virtually the same. </p>

<p>I just reject the blanket assertion that UF is 'best' or FSU is 'best', for that matter in general. You must drill down to your particular area and then decide. Otherwise, one paints with too broad a brush, and there's the rub. </p>

<p>This board has likely steered kids to the wrong place due to hyperactive passions involving such errors in scope, especially concerning large state schools. I think that's wrong. They have trouble separating the forest from the trees at that age. I've seen it with my own kids and kids from other families.</p>

<p>Here you are, for example (don't be offended), across the country, asserting opinions, or representing other's opinions about local issues here in Florida. Time to get a grip and worry about schools in CA. I suspect you would have enough to worry about in SF alone.</p>

<p>Forgive my hyperbole, it was intended to make a point.</p>

57

<p>I'm fairly familiar with the state, have been there many times each year of my life, and have a ridiculous amount of family there, many of whom go or have gone to the state schools. I'm not offended, but if these are such concentrated, local issues, why are they in national magazines, why are they on an internet forum for the entire world, and more? I didn't really dogmatically assert anything. I think it's fairly common for Floridians to think of UofF as better than FSU, do you diagree? I'm not trying to hail one party or the other, but I don't think I'm out of line when saying that's the common view. I understand why you're saying that it shouldn't be. I'm not here claiming that U of F is better than FSU, merely that it's the majority opinion I've encountered throughout Florida, and I think most people would agree with that.</p>

58

<p>Yeah Penn State!!!
Representing the Nittany Lions.
It's actually a REALLY good school too, especially if you get into The Schreyer Honors College.</p>

59

<p>I would go with Penn State, NC State, and Michigan State...in that order. If you're looking to do business, Arizona State has a top 25 undergrad business school and IIRC, a great MBA program as well.</p>

60

<p>I agree that it's common for people to think that. At this point, at the graduate level, they have more of them that are notable, to their credit. However, at the undergrad level, I think that unless you are going for very specific majors it is incorrect to label an entire university best, when most of the kids wind up in areas that are not the university's strength. I know why the kids do it, I just think they are short-sighted. I also see postings from parental nincompoops on this broard that buy their kool-aid wholesale, which is fuel for further nonsense. To hear that kids have classes on tape with little or no interaction with staff is a poor educational alternative. I know why it's done, the place has grown tremendously, as has Florida, and they have trouble keeping up.</p>

<p>The school markets itself this way, in my opinion, and it's a stretch of the truth. We attended a tour for one of my kids and heard unbelievable and arrogant claims of superiority, not supported by any data I've ever seen. I kept my mouth shut, as it was my kid's choice, but even they came away with a sense of 'that can't be true'.</p>