<p>UConn and UMass are normally the only NE state universities mentioned on CC. What about the others - Maine, Vermont, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire? What are the pros and cons of each? Are they good schools that are overshadowed by all the top-ranked privates in the region? Average schools that suffer from indifference and underfunding? I ask this simply out of curiosity; none of the four has any posts on CC - maybe that says something.</p>
<p>For people in New England who aren't prestige-obsessed, those 4 are interesting alternatives to the pricey private schools. They are small by public flagship standards, and in many ways resemble private colleges (especially Vermont, which gets relatively little state support). When I lived in Massachusetts, it was very popular for Massachusetts high schoolers to go to these schools instead of UMass.</p>
<p>In the northeast, UNH has a very good reputation. UVermont is in a bucolic setting, does a number of things very well and attracts many who are Vermonters at heart. UMaine has a number of campuses, but unfortunately Maine in general has a bad rep in terms of what alot of students want, many find it far too isolated and far too cold. Never hear much about URI, but it's sandwiched between CT and Mass. UConn's rep has been climbing steadily the last decade or more, so it tends to get the most attention. UMass has been rumored to suffer significantly from underfunding, and a number of previously highly regarded programs have begun to slide.</p>
<p>It depends what you are looking to study, each school has its stronger departments.</p>
<p>Actually, from what I've seen on CC, University of Vermont (UVM), seems to get about as much attentionj as UMass and UConn. As far as UVM's location, I don't really I would call it "bucolic"; Burlington, VT is a small, but (IMO) rather appealing, city. Most of the academic departments there have a solid reputation. I would say that the biggest potential drawback to UVM is, for non-Vermont residents at least, that their OOS tuition is very steep and unfortunately there doesn't seem to be much in the way of FA (at least merit based) to offset that.</p>
<p>I live in maine and I would recommend not to come up to a maine college, during the winter and spring it is so miserable up here. Every kid in my school wants to get as far away as possible from this place, its crazy.</p>
<p>URI receives poor financial support from the state. Also, it accepts a higher percentage of out of state students than other public universities (for the higher tuition). If I lived in RI, I would send my kid to Rhode Island College (in Providence) before URI.</p>
<p>I would say UConn is probably the best state U in New England. CT spends BILLIONS on their flagship, with a sense of pride.</p>
<p>Vermont does get overshadowed sometimes by Uconn, which is mentioned a lot on CC.</p>