<p>What is the difference between a regional and a state university?</p>
<p>I am not familiar with that distinction...</p>
<p>Can you name a few examples of regional universities?</p>
<p>the OP may mean regional accreditation? In which case...regional accreditation is what lets a school give out degrees. state schools, as I understand, are regionally accredited as well...</p>
<p>I've regularly heard the term "regional school" applied to a school that's well-respected within its own geographic region, but that doesn't carry as much weight elsewhere. With grad schools, the term carries some info about where grads are likely to find employment.</p>
<p>For example, head over to the law school board. The top 14 law schools in the country are those that are considered truly national, while those much lower (there's some grey area, of course) are considered more regional. Vanderbilt is an excellent law school, but it'll serve you best if you're hoping to stay in the south. Minnesota has a great law school, but your best employment prospects will be in the upper midwest. That sort of thing.</p>
<p>As far as I can see, the only connection between these two terms would be that most state universities are considered fairly "regional" (well-respected and well-connected in their own areas, but not very far-reaching in terms of influence, name-value, or alum network). There are some definite exceptions, of course (Berkeley and Michigan, to name the most obvious). </p>
<p>Not sure if this is what the OP actually means...this is just how I've heard the term used.</p>
<p>I'm really not sure what I'm talking about either. The school that I'm going to go to is apparently a regional university. Someone told me that as far as ranking it goes: ivy, state, regional, community colleges.</p>
<p>I guess what I'm trying to ask is, is a regional university a bad school? Would it be better to go to a state school?</p>
<p>that's a pretty simplistic ranking system...
if you were talking prestige, there would be some validity to it in that state schools are going to be better known than many smaller schools simply because they are bigger, but in terms of educational value, would Colorado College (a 2nd tier school in southern Colorado on equal footing with USC) really be looked upon as "less" than, say, Arizona State (ASU) in most programs? Hardly.</p>
<p>Especially at the UG level, it's more about the quality of education you receive than the prestige of the school. For grad school (or med school, law school, etc.), on the other hand, prestige is more important...</p>
<p>Everyone my mother or I talk to says that my school has the best pharmacy school around or they have never heard of it. I admit it is a smaller school (about 5,000 students) and their main focus is pharmacy, so maybe thats why nobody has heard of it.</p>
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Someone told me that as far as ranking it goes: ivy, state, regional, community colleges.
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<p>I'm still not sure exactly what your friend means, but if your concern stems from the above, then just don't worry about it. Over-simplicity is just one of the flaws of that list (which doesn't even make a lot of sense to me, gotta say). If you're happy with where you're heading and if you know you'll be able to study what you want, go for it. "The better school" varies person to person...sounds like you'll be just fine.</p>
<p>what's an example of a regional school?</p>
<p>Actually the ranking isn't quite like that from what I understand. From what I've been able to tell, a regional school would be something like Rice or Wake Forest. They're typically strong schools that are not very well known outside of the region, in Rice's case outside of Texas, in Wake Forest's outside the Southeast.</p>
<p>Are you going to SWOSU?</p>
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<p>YES!! How do you think SWOSU compares to OU's pharmacy program? The pharmacists at CVS say that thy will ONLY hire SWOSU kids and everyone says that their program is great. What do you think?</p>
<p>Growing up in Oklahoma, I've always heard that SWOSU was the best pharmacy school in this region of the country. </p>
<p>As for a regional university, I believe that means it is a university that is funded by the state, but is not as large as a state university such as OU or OSU. Northeastern State University in Tahlequah would be another regional university like SWOSU. Others that come to mind include Rogers State in Claremore and Southeastern State University. </p>
<p>Good luck! </p>
<p>Sarah</p>