<p>One might argue that the state schools are not always top caliber.</p>
<p>Of course, I think the real issue is much more than that. In most states there is a state university, and that's about it. Your classmates go there, there really isn't much of a standard for admission, and many are in terrible places. It doesn't feel like anything new or worthwhile. It's, to a high school senior, like going from middle school to high school all over again. It's just the next step in a preordained process where all things that have happened for the past twelve years will happen for another four. One's achievements seem to have meant nothing, indeed it seems that nothing at all has changed. You don't escape from the things you hated about high school, nor the people, nor the state. For all the praise it gets, I'd argue many people, especially here, want nothing to do with that experience again. But psychologically, a state university is neigh forced(by circumstance) and seems like nothing more than another upgrade to "school."</p>
<p>Now, that may well be entirely untrue. It likely is. But that doesn't change the feelings related to it.</p>
<p>To say nothing, of course, of the sense of superiority inherit from going to a more selective university. Again, I don't mean that as a matter of fact, but a matter of feeling. Still, I'd wager that outside of all the things claimed about the top schools, there is a sense of superiority/worthiness that comes with it. Only 8% of people might get into Harvard. Does that mean that the other 92% who applied(and the billions who didn't) are inferior? Of course not. But people feel special when those things happen. Some people feel good about being different but part of some crowd. It moves entire "sub-cultures" that are very dominant in the college applying age group. </p>
<p>Now that's not to say the superiority is egotistic as a whole, and in some people it's, in fact, the opposite. There is a right of passage in their town/family/culture/whathaveyou with college admission. The more selective, the better a person you are. Sometimes it could be entirely personal. Many people who do aspire to top schools sacrifice a good deal and are ridiculed from all sides and merely want to know it was worth it. To go to the(generally) not nearly as selective state school that one's tormentors also will attend just seems ethically wrong.(Or so I feel.)</p>
<p>Of course, there is the fact that I mentioned at the beginning. Not all public schools are good. And in many states you hardly have a choice at all. University of North Dakota, Rutgers, USC(the south eastern one!) are not all schools people might aspire to go to. It could be funding, it could be name, it could be location, but the state school is largely dependent on where you live. As I've said, it can be construed as, instead of an offered benefit of a state, a mandated event. That probably comes with the people who feel that college is a needed thing, by family pressure or perhaps career goals. </p>
<p>But, these are probably pessimistic views on things, and meant to be a bit blunt. I don't mean to degrade any schools, but provide a view on them. Not necessarily my view or the right one, but an interpretation from a (slightly generalized and highly demonized) high school student's eyes.</p>
<p>However, I would say I feel a slightly distilled version of those things(merely replace desires with fears and make the verbs negative. I imagine that's really how people feel, but fearing something not happening and desiring its opposite are neigh the same, at least in this case.</p>