The Ivy league is a sports league and most people can’t name the schools in a conference (unless it is their own conference). When asked to name Ivy league schools, many put in MIT, Stanford, Penn State, NYU, Williams, etc, if they are thinking academics and not sports.
But it doesn’t matter. If you like the school and think that it’s right for you, that’s all that matters.
Both the UT and TAMU systems probably each educate more people than the entire Ivy League combined. How many Ivy Leaguers can name more than two or three UT campuses? https://www.utsystem.edu/institutions
I think that about sums up this whole thread.
Most people would likely have a hard time naming more than one or two state universities* in any state other than those that they live in or have lived in for a significant amount of time.
*And in many states, “University of [state]” and “[state] State University” are very likely guesses.
No one in our area of Texas can even figure out if New Jersey even HAS a state university. (yes, I know they do…)
I never understood all those big state universities with odd private-school sounding names: Rutgers, Purdue, Clemson, Auburn, etc. I’m sure they all have reasons.
@Camasite From Wikipedia:
Rutgers: Colonel Henry Rutgers donated money when the school was struggling financially.
Purdue: John Purdue donated money to create a college named after him.
Clemson: Founded by a guy named Clemson’s will.
Auburn U: Previously called Alabama Polytechnic Institute. No real reason other than that it “better represented the varied academic programs…”
Most universities with names that aren’t the name of the state are usually named after a major donor/founder (Brown, Harvard, Vanderbilt etc.)
Camasite wrote:
I never understood all those big state universities with odd private-school sounding names: Rutgers, Purdue, Clemson, Auburn, etc. I’m sure they all have reasons.
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Strange comment, what is your point? I do like the explanation above on how these schools got their name but have to add many states have a good number of state universities. There can only be one University of Virginia after that they need a different name. James Madison, William and Mary, and George Mason are all state schools (and the list goes on and on).
I personally like state schools that sound like private universities. I hate that in MA almost all the state schools are just the Umass followed by the town name, I.e. Umass Lowell or the town name followed by “state”, I.e. Bridgewater State. I think many people around here don’t even know Clemson, Mary Washington or Christopher Newport are public schools and most would think you are going to some fancy private school in the south.
However, some states have “University of [state] at [location]” when they have multiple state universities. E.g. University of Texas at Arlington / Austin / Dallas / El Paso / Permian Basin / Rio Grande Valley / San Antonio / Tyler.
Or two, e.g. Carnegie Mellon University.
No point. Just that coming from the west coast I always assumed that Rutgers and Purdue were private universities because of their names. I’m sure I’m not alone in assuming that Rutgers is some private east coast school and not the state university of NJ. A place like Rutgers is pretty far off the radar of a Pacific Northwest kid growing up in the shadow of the Pac-12.
Here in the west, named public universities usually have ‘state’ attached so you know. Not that it really matters I guess:
Weber State
Humboldt State
Both of those are named after their counties, I think. But still. It’s not Weber University or Humboldt University.
Growing up in the SF Bay Area, I didn’t know Rutgers or Purdue were public schools too. Maybe in the last 5-10 years I learned they were publics.
I have spent most of my life on the east coast and didn’t find out until I started coming to CC that Cal and UC Berkeley were the same place. Bottom line is that people are familiar with schools that are near where they live.
This is why many privates (USC, Ivies etc.) have the most % of students from their region compared to other regions (or in USC’s case, state.)
So are any universities prestigious? If so does that carry any weight?
Hold on while I put my Orville Redenbacher in the microwave. ?
I think if you read through this thread the answer is no. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. You may find one school prestigious and I have never heard of it. That goes for public, private, big and small.
I totally agree. Are schools are equally superb. I include community and junior colleges in that assessment as well.
I know in our part of TX most of the top students go to UT, A&M, Rice, SMU, Trinity, or TX Tech depending on what they want to study. There are so many good and affordable choices in the state most kids don’t see much reason to look elsewhere. Here if you want to go far away go to Tech. It seems like another part of the country. Even Baylor or UD seem far away. We hire from all over but really don’t need to look far from home to find great engineers. We just hired 2 from TAMU this month.
That given I have a S who wanted out of TX, a land grant U with a vet school, and good merit. Hopefully with an early admit to vet school program. His GCs of his 850 person graduating class couldn’t help at all. He did his own research and ended up at Kansas State which has been a fantasic experience for him. (How in first year of vet school). But that was totally an anomaly in TX. Only reason people ever heard of it was because it is in the Big 12. Everyone wanted to know why not A&M? He never liked that school and it was WAY too big for what he wanted! BUT most Texans stay in TX.
I grew up in Texas. I went to UT, brother went to Tech, sister went to SMU. When I tried to get our son to consider UT he laughed. I was sad.