State pride: which is the "best" State for higher education, and why?

<p>David brooks is a kook!</p>

<p>
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Connecticut has the highest number of people with Ph.D.s of any state, as a % of the population. It also has the highest average teacher salaries

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That's only because CT is one of the wealthiest states, and says nothing about its educational offerings.

[quote]
UConn is one example, it's amazing that such a small state has such an excellent public university, easily the best of the public universities in New England.

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That's not saying much. In peer assessment, US News ranks UConn #34-41 among all public schools, which pretty much means it beat a bunch of hick states. Since CT ranks 29th in population, UConn also is not anything special on a per-capita measure.

[quote]
Besides, UCLA, Berkeley, etc., really isn't as good as people think - it's pretty far behind the Ivies.

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Berkeley and Stanford have top 5 programs in almost every single graduate field out there, which is matched only by Harvard. I'd say those are two great institutions of higher education, far better than all except one Ivy.

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Anyways, by the way, UCSD is the best university in California.

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Ever heard of Stanford, Berkeley, Caltech, and UCLA?</p>

<p>There is no competition: California. </p>

<p>Remember this also, the UCs are CHEAP and AFFORDABLE to everyone (yes, every middle class families that make 80k a year and dont wanna dish out 45k a yera for a private school). You go to massachusetts, and if u want to go to a public school, u get UMass. If you want best research universities, there is little doubt California dominates. </p>

<p>UCB,UCLA,UCSD,UCSF(people forget this one a lot) are 4 of the TOP research universities in the world (dont judge by U.S. News, judge by things like Times higher education, Shanghai Jiaotong, Philosophical Gourmet) </p>

<p>If you want private, you get Stanford(which along with Berkeley and Harvard are 3 of the most well-rounded universities in the world) and Caltech, both amazing research heavyweights. Of course, they seem to be "less prestigious" than the old school elites like Harvard,Yale,Princeton and MIT. But that is simply because the east coast school have been around longer.</p>

<p>Stanford and Berkeley alone, in terms of research output, would be able to dominate most states in America.</p>

<p>Saying UCSD is the best university in California is like saying BU is the best in Massachusetts. Oh sure, let's just ignore the heavyweights in Los Angeles and the Bay Area.</p>

<p>Well if we're counting rankings, NEw York has the highest number of universities (15) that are in the top 50 in the nation, as ranked by US News.</p>

<p>actually New York ties with Cali with 7 each</p>

<p>connecticut has...1 school? yale...theres no way ct is even in the running haha</p>

<p>^ Really?</p>

<p>
[quote]
By comparison, California had 14 schools in the top 50 national universities and top 50 liberal arts colleges, Pennsylvania had 12 and Massachusetts had 11.

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</p>

<p><a href="http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--collegerankings-n0819aug19,0,7686263.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--collegerankings-n0819aug19,0,7686263.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>"connecticut has...1 school? yale...theres no way ct is even in the running haha"</p>

<p>well, dont forget wesleyan, connecticut college, trinity and the coast guard academy</p>

<p>I think 4 states share the honor.</p>

<p>CALIFORNIA:
California Institute of Technology
Claremont McKenna College
Harvey Mudd College
Pomona College
Stanford University
University of California-Berkeley
University of California-Los Angeles
University of Southern California</p>

<p>MASSACHUSETTS:
Amherst College
Boston College
Boston University
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Mount Holyoke College
Smith College
Tufts University
Wellesley College
Williams College</p>

<p>NEW YORK:
Barnard College
Colgate University
Columbia University
Cornell University
New York University
Vassar College</p>

<p>PENNSYLVANIA:
Bryn Mawr College
Carnegie Mellon University
Haverford College
Pennsylvania State University-University Park
Swarthmore College
University of Pennsylvania</p>

<p>My 2 cents, given that I have lived in both California & Mass, and attended both Harvard & Berkeley...</p>

<p>I think Cali wins ever so slightly... you cannot get around the fact the the public system in Cali is absolutely phenomenal... they have more than just one flagship-calibre public school... even the lower ranked UCs are better than most other states' top public universities... </p>

<p>True, Cali seems to have far less private schools given its size... but the ones they do have are excellent... Stanford easily equals Harvard, Caltech = MIT, pomona = williams or amherst, USC beats BU... </p>

<p>Mass comes a close second, followed by NY... both MA and NY are hurt by the fact that you would expect them both to have a far better public system than they have...</p>

<p>Public and private quality emerge from very distinct backgrounds, usually with little in common except location. For example, most folks realize that even though New York is one is first or second in the nation in terms of its general financial clout and tax base, its public colleges are not fully on par with state colleges in California or Michigan or Ohio. The simple fact is that the privates in the Northeast got a head start over the publics, who have been treated like despised stepchildren by their legislatures for generations. Sometimes, the edutional reputation of neighboring private schools can motivate local publics to "keep up with the Jones." That seems to be the case with Cal Berkeley-Stanford, NC Chapel Hill-Duke. That clearly WAS the case with CCNY-Columbia until the 1970s municipal fiscal crisis initiated the steep decline of the CCNY system. As for Massachusetts, their state legislature apparently never felt the need to keep pace with Harvard, MIT and all the LACs in the state.</p>

<p>Harvard = Stanford, Caltech = MIT, Pomona,claremont colleges = Amherst,williams , Berkeley stomps on anything resembling a public university and the remaining private universities, same goes for UCLA and UCSD.</p>

<p>Yeah, don't forget Claremont McKenna and Harvey Mudd when talking about the Claremonts.</p>

<p>Really, California's got such top private schools that it doesn't matter if certain other states have <em>more</em>, because ours are so GOOD (and our public schools totally win).</p>

<p>our privates are just as good as yours and we have more. I will give you that your state university is much better though, but I still say Mass. wins. if your going by private universities alone....</p>

<p>people, for being so smart, youre forgetting the obvious- of course california is going to have the most schools, based on size and population needs. that alone voids this topic. also, there are no other options for smart people who want to stay somewhat close to home- where are they gonna go, nevada? idaho??? </p>

<p>which is why massachussetts is that much more impressive- small state, great schools, while competing with the other great schools in the northeast.</p>

<p>if we're gonna talk ratio of great schools to population and square milage, i'll say it again: gotta make a case for ct, the 3rd smallest state, and 29th in population (cali is 1, mass is 13)...5 of the most competitive schools (yale, coast guard, wesleyan, conn, trinity). </p>

<p>just common mathematical sense...........</p>

<p>but based on these numbers, i gotta give it to massachusetts. or else you gotta strech the boundaries around new england to give it a comparable size against the behomoth that is california</p>

<p>READ THIS ARTICLE</p>

<p><a href="http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--collegerankings-n0819aug19,0,7686263.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--collegerankings-n0819aug19,0,7686263.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>You already posted this on this thread. New York may have the most, but Massachusetts has better quality (and so does Cali) so you wont change my mid, New York is a respectable third</p>

<p>You should know that few people on this board care about top 50 or top 100 schools, let alone LACs. If you look at the top 25 universities, only 5 states have multiple ones: MA (Harvard, MIT), CA (Stanford, Caltech, Berkeley, UCLA), NY (Columbia, Cornell), PA (Penn, CMU), and IL (Northwestern, Chicago).</p>

<p>Gotta be Mass. It's where education started and it reigns pretty well today.</p>

<p>Not true, imblue!!!!! North Carolina has Duke, UNC Chapel Hill, Wake Forest, and Davidson, all of which are top schools. </p>

<p>The research triangle (Durham/Chapel Hill/Raleigh) has the highest concentration of PhD's per capita in the world. :) </p>

<p>"Not caring about LACs" is silly. You can probably get a far better undergraduate education at Davidson than at Berkeley, for example.</p>