<p>West Virginia University is by no means the worst public college in the US. It attracts many out of state students and has its strengths.</p>
<p>One investigative report said Chicago State University was one of the worst public universities in the country. Someone else said they have a new President who has been turning things around.</p>
<p>the largest public university campus by far in the country is Arizona State in Tempe. In addition to the huge Tempe campus, it also includes 3 nearby mid-sized campuses in the Phoenix metro area.</p>
<p>Statistically, you will find that the public colleges with the lowest stats are overwhelmingly open admissions schools with very high populations of poor African-American and Latino students. Some of the poorest areas of the country are border counties of Texas next to Mexico, which are served by some colleges with low stats, for example. Chicago State is in a poor area of South Chicago, where segregation policies for 50 years concentrated low income African-Americans together, including many warehoused in huge public housing high rise complexes (which have since been demolished). </p>
<p>An argument could be made that problems arise from poor quality public schools in poor areas of the country, as well as economic forces that cause students to drop out. Students find they have to work full time while attending college, and may have day care problems. Large numbers of students in open admissions public colleges need remedial education in things they should have learned in high school. Those courses may not count for college credit. </p>
<p>In addition, the public colleges that serve the lowest income students often have the least funding, and can’t count on rich alumni or endowments.</p>
<p>UT’s engineering school is on par with all of these schools, and is considerably better than the engineering programs at UNC and UVA. UT also has the #1 Petroleum Engineering department in the country, ahead of all these other schools.</p>
<p>UT’s law school is ranked 14th in nation, ahead of UCLA’s.</p>
<p>UT’s business school is on par with UNC and UCLA, and is not far behind Haas, Ross, or UVA. McCombs has the #1 accounting program in the nation, ahead of all these schools.</p>
<p>There are tons of programs at UT ranked in the top five, ahead of all these other schools. Geology, Pharmacy, Architecture and Education are just a few. I can’t think of any area where UT is considerably worse than any of these schools.</p>
<p>The endowment per student of UT is higher than all of these schools other than UVA and Michigan.</p>
<p>In terms of admission statistics, UNC isn’t any more selective than UT. I do think the other 4 schools are slightly more selective though. If UT doesn’t belong, then UNC doesn’t belong either.</p>