Opinion: Best PUBLIC schools?

College Search & Selection
21

<p>Wisconsin hands down. Amazing town and academics.</p>

22

<p>UT-Austin hands down.</p>

23

<p>UCLA wins because of location. </p>

<p>Michigan has bad winters, neither Virginia or UNC are much of an improvement, Berkeley is between Oakland and Richmond and isn't much of a desirable area to begin with.</p>

<p>All schools are relatively the same in academics. However, Westwood shines above all in terms of a city. You're minutes away from Hollywood, the Beach, Beverly Hills, and downtown L.A.</p>

24

<p>Best: Berkeley</p>

<p>Favorite: UCLA</p>

25

<p>
[quote]
isn't UMichigan obnoxiously expensive for out-of-staters?

[/quote]

Yup, Michigan's 2008-09 total cost of attendance at $44,500 makes it the most expensive public for OOS.</p>

<p>Others are catching up though: UIUC(sci/biz/engr: $42,650); UT-Austin($42,852-$45,006); UVa($41,800).</p>

<p>Wisconsin($33,280), UNC($34,082), UWash*($34,137) and Florida($33,350) are good bargains.</p>

<p>*2007-08 rate</p>

26

<p>
[quote]
UCLA wins because of location.

[/quote]

UCSD has the best weather. It has a collegetown atmosphere and only 20 min away from downtown San Diego.</p>

<p>I second UT-Austin. Austin is a great city especially if you are over 21.</p>

27

<ol>
<li>Berkeley</li>
<li>UVA</li>
<li>W&M (just to throw a new name into the mix)</li>
</ol>

28

<p>
[quote]
Stanford's pretty solid but don't you just wanna gouge your eyes out from boredom?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Hey. I take offense to this.</p>

<p>UT - Austin
UVA.
UMichigan.</p>

29

<p>University</a> of Florida</p>

<p>Academics, Gators (sports) and weather :)</p>

30

<p>Michigan, Cal, UCLA, UVA</p>

31

<p>Oh and UNC-CH rounds off my top 5 (replace it with W&M if you're an LAC aficionado :D)</p>

32

<p>Michigan and UCLA were the only public schools I bothered to look at aside from my own state school.</p>

<p>Either way I have tons of respect for those two schools along with:
UVA, Cal, UofI, UNC, and Georgia Tech.</p>

<p>I also hate the fact that if my parents had just moved across the Potomac River I'd be in VA instead of MD and have 3 amazing state schools to choose from instead of just one.</p>

33

<p>For undergraduate eduction;
U of California-Berkeley
U of Michigan
Michigan State University
U of Wisconsin-Madison
U of Washington
U of Texas-Austin
U of California-Los Angeles
Indiana University
U of Virginia
U of Minnesota-Twin Cities
Ohio University
College of William and Mary</p>

34

<p>
[quote]
Ohio University

[/quote]

It's interesting that you listed Ohio University(Athens) but not Miami U of Ohio(Oxford), one of the original public Ivy. Do you believe Ohio U is a better school?</p>

35

<p>For me, probably UC Berkeley, UIUC, and UT-Austin.</p>

36

<p>I just have to say it--all those knocking the National Merit finalist award as useless?</p>

<p>Univ Texas at Austin gives any NMF in-state tuition plus $1,000 a year. (cost for an out-of-state NMF is $15,000, not free, but workable, and a bargain for a college that is #44 in the USNWR rankings)
Univ Florida also gives in-state tuition for NMFs</p>

<p>Couldn't help noticing in the lists above how popular these 2 colleges are.</p>

<p>Interesting fact: U Texas at Austin admits the second highest # of NMFs in the U.S.<br>
Harvard admits the most.</p>

37

<p>I love that interesting little fact, whyhaveaa! UT has loads of bright students in it's honors colleges (heck, even in it's non-honors colleges!)</p>

<p>Plan II! woohoo!</p>

38

<p>UF
UT
IU
Oregon
Colorado
UNC-Asheville
MSU
Minnesota
UDub
And Temple :)</p>

39

<p>
[quote]
kyledavid, Stanford's pretty solid but don't you just wanna gouge your eyes out from boredom?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I was afraid that Stanford would be boring, but it isn’t—it’s a vibrant place and tons of stuff is always going on. Not to mention that if I ever do get bored, there’s always San Jose or San Francisco, or the beach not too far away. And of course Palo Alto does have its own interesting things to do—but I will say it isn’t nearly as interesting as the city of Berkeley.</p>

<p>Plus, with all the opportunities Stanford offers me—research, internships, great work-study jobs, etc. (not to mention organizations, sports, and the like)—it’s hard to be bored. Not that any student going to Berkeley would get to experience what those are like. :p</p>

<p>
[quote]
Would you wanna just go blow yourself up from all the hippies and liberal anti-Marine maniacs Berkeleys got for ya?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I like that sort of insanity. :)</p>

<p>(People have blown the whole "anti-Marine" thing out of proportion.)</p>

40

<p><a href="People%20have%20blown%20the%20whole%20%22anti-Marine%22%20thing%20out%20of%20proportion.">quote</a><a href="Here%20we%20go%20again...">/quote</a>
People have only blown it out of proportion <em>only</em> in the sense that they're acting like these types of irrational actions are par for the course for Berkeley.</p>

<p>When the local city council is complicit with Code Pink activists through its preferential treatment of granting a free parking spot in a strategic location (while not doing the same for those that actually WORK in the building) and noise permits, it's hardly "blown... out of proportion."</p>