<p>My oldest D is currently choosing between two schools which offer roughly the same academic options and cost. One is large state university with traditional campus and popular sports teams.</p>
<p>If you or your child attends/attended a big State U, please tell my whether you/your child enjoyed the experience, and what you felt were the biggest advantages and disadvantages of a big state u. </p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>S enjoys his big state U. But, he would be more involved with campus activities if it was a smaller school and less “overwhelming.” He is not into sports but enjoys the surrounding music scene. He was a bit of “jack of all trades” in HS. In my experience, looking as his and D’s friends who are attending, those who have a main focus of EC’s in high school carry that through to college and do better in that environment. My “jack of all trades” D finds it easier to be involved at a smaller school.</p>
<p>My D was fortunate to have a choice between several excellent college options. Going in, she thought she wanted the small liberal arts experience. But in the end, she chose the big state U and has been VERY happy. She likes the diversity, the many opportunities/activities–the ability to try out many things. </p>
<p>Now, she is in the honors college, and lives in honors housing. So this provided a ‘school within the big school’ feel I like. She also had a good number of the big general ed requirements out of the way via dual enrollment/AP in high school. So, she has not had tons of huge classes, which can be the downside at the big U, especially at first.</p>
<p>She did have a huge math class, but the teacher was great and she honestly didn’t care that it was a big class–she thought the teaching itself was very solid. Her other classes have been small and she’s gotten a chance to know several profs well.</p>
<p>Her favorite things are the range of courses offered; again, because she has advanced standing, she’s not had trouble getting courses that she wants. She loves the big campus. She loves the cultural offerings/speakers/fun activities that are happening all the time.</p>
<p>Overall, it’s been great for her. Depends on the kid–not sure my other D would take advantage of all the offerings, so a smaller school may be better for her. Everyone’s different!</p>
<p>I will say my fear is that she’d be lost in the crowd, and that has not happened at all.</p>
<p>Both I and my son attended our flagship U. We are both independent personalities but with different introversion/extroversion ones. It is easy to participate or ignore any activities at a large state school. There is enough diversity among the student body there is room for many different styles. I have used the analogy of the blind men and the elephant, where each examines a different aspect and comes to different conclusions about the beast. Likewise the college experience at the big state U will be different for different students.</p>
<p>The flagship U of any state will include the best students of the state. Not enough room or money for those students to attend elite private schools. Typically an Honors College or Program to give smaller and more challenging first year courses. Plus a huge array of diverse courses to take- both for breadth and depth in the major. The ability to do reseaerch and see what grad students do. The ability to take grad level courses in one’s major as an undergrad. Being a public school the student body is likely to have people of many income levels. Less pressure to conform to a college ideal- there are so many to choose from.</p>
<p>ECs are overrated. They are something to occupy one’s time while in HS when there isn’t enough else to do academically or alone. In college one does what one wants to, not what looks good on the future application record. Club sports for those athletically inclined but not at the college level. Music likewise- opportunities for nonmajors to keep up with an instrument. Many activities there wouldn’t be enough students for at a small school.</p>
<p>The down side- most students will be from instate. There is likely to be more diversity in income levels and majors given the choices available at the big state U. Meeting agriculture and engineering majors in the dorm when one is into English/art/history (or conversely). Likely more OOS diversity at a private school. But perhaps less diversity when considering who chooses the school. Fun learning about areas of your state and finding common ground.</p>
<p>UW has very little Greek prescence- that could vary among other schools, both public and private. UW is also very liberal and draws a worldwide student body, albeit small numbers. A lot depends on the character of your state U. It may mean a lot to get away from the norms of your state. Large U’s are really a collection of small neighborhoods like a big city is. No problem with finding one’s niche. However, no handholding- independence required.</p>
<p>Last are to be concerned with. The relative caliber of the academics. Our state flagship ranks in top percentiles with many highly ranked grad programs. Therefore it would be difficult to recommend many private schools except the more elite ones for the academics (especially with the Honors program). Your state may differ and the private school’s academic advantages may outweigh costs et al.</p>
<p>This is from the academics are the reason to attend college set. Plus the need for a liberal setting. No problem with son not attending sports events. At the big U you can find likeminded students for every aspect of life.</p>
<p>I attended Big State U, and one of my kids does now. They are a great opportunity for the right kind of student. Personal initiative and independence are very important. Getting good advising, research opportunities, accessing student activities–all of these might require more effort on the part of an undergraduate at a large public university.</p>
<p>While many on CC believe there is a lot of teaching by graduate students at Big Public U., that has not been our experience, outside of elementary level language courses, and even there, it depends on the language. There is increasing reliance on non-tenured permanent faculty, but these are PhDs who concentrate on teaching, not graduate students. Honors level courses for introductory courses are smaller, are taught by regular faculty and feature serious fellow students.</p>
<p>Work load depends on the major. My daughter and her roommate are plenty challenged, but they are STEM majors (pre-vet and pre-med). My D tells me there are students in other majors/fields who don’t seem to have to work hard. </p>
<p>While budget problems are a big deal at public unis right now, I don’t think the situation is any better at many of the less well-known smaller private schools. </p>
<p>The facilities for student activities are better at many big unis than at smaller schools, or for that matter at many very expensive, highly-ranked schools. It varies a lot by school. </p>
<p>In our case, the flagship public university was a good choice for our daughter because the vet school is on the same campus, so there are student activities, job shadowing and volunteer activities designed for pre-vet majors, and advisors are well-briefed on what is needed to get into vet school. If she had been interested in another field, perhaps she would have gone somewhere else. We, and she, have been pleased so far with course opportunities, course rigor and access to professors (outstanding in some cases).</p>
<p>I wouldn’t have put her at the top of the “personal initiative and independence” category at the start of the year (but not at the bottom, either), but she quickly learned to speak up, seek out help, get the information she needed, etc.</p>
<p>I have seen other students sink, or just not prosper, because they didn’t develop the skills necessary to take advantage of what large research universities have to offer.</p>
<p>Only you and your daughter can assess her readiness for the non-academic aspects of college.</p>
<p>I did big state U., I’m currently a professor in one (having also worked at way smaller private universities). And would be okay if my kids attended a big state u. I think it very much depends on the state U in question though: its calibre and who it draws in terms of faculty and students, its resources and typical class size (please avoid big state u.s who are moving to online courses!), and the sense of community (spirit, what-its-known-for, how many live on campus etc.). </p>
<p>And it depends on the kid. I know there is a running belief about introverts being better in smaller environments, extroverts handling big environments better. I’m honestly not convinced this matters. What does probably matter is whether a kid is okay on the independence scale and more importantly, can take initiative (which is not necessarily, or at all, correlated with introversion/extroversion). If you can seek out resources, opportunities for research, assistance when needed, its fabulous. I also think big state u., might work well for a student that needs a lot of majors to choose from (because they are undecided, or are likely to change their mind a few times). </p>
<p>Big pluses of big state U.: lots of course offerings, sections, professors to choose from. Endless resources to be had. Fit is perhaps less important in a smaller environment simply because a bigger more diverse environment you can ‘find your people’ (and the clubs/activities that suit ‘your people’). And while you might miss some regional diversity with a state U., I imagine it may be made up for in age, economic, and sociocultural diversity. </p>
<p>Some downsides I’d watch out for about big state u.: Ones with recent or impending budget cuts, where students complain they can’t graduate on time because they can’t get the courses they need, where lots of students commute or go home on weekends.</p>
<p>“Big State U” is the classic college experience! I’ve got one that dreams of just that and two that cringed at the idea of going to a place where they had to ride a bus from one end of campus to the other and have never been to a single football game at their current campuses. Big state Us have everything you need and every class one can dream about and some of the smartest people many students will ever encounter. As my father said to me you many decades ago “do you want to be a big fish in alittle pond or a small fish in a big pond?” to which I’m sure my ‘big school’ kid would say “I want to be a big fish in a big pond.” Don’t forget there are very clear disadvantages and advantages to a small school.</p>
<p>Small State U or LAC wouldn’t have worked for my D. She was a marching band kid and a 50 piece band in an 8,000 capacity stadium wouldn’t have the energy of the 300 piece with 60,000 wild fans.</p>
<p>I also believe that energy thing carries over on large campuses. We visited one of our better known small State LAC colleges where the facilities included classrooms smaller than her classrooms in HS, and the school was connected by one red-brick path. Seemed kinda boring to us both…</p>
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<p>Same here. My son turned down elite private schools for the opportunity to play with the UCLA marching band in the Rose Bowl stadium. He saw it as the chance of a lifetime. He made so many friends, and has so many awesome memories as well. He is still there, earning a PhD in engineering, and it all started with wanting to play his trumpet. :)</p>
<p>I went to a Big State U and I regard the experience as mixed. I loved the atmosphere, the range of things to do, the social life and the athletic scene. I fell in love with college basketball and that is still a passion of mine. However, I did NOT find the majority of students to be at my academic or intellectual level. I picked this school as a music major (I had to audition in and, frankly, should not have been admitted) and when I bailed out of music after one semester, I was pretty horrified at the academic level of most of the freshman. Many of them don’t last more than a year, though, and by the time I got into my new major and upper level classes, I was fine. I think things are a lot different now with honors colleges and more ability to “find your tribe”.<br>
Both of my kids applied to Big State Us as safeties (including my alma mater) but neither attended. I think they both missed some of the good things like the athletics, but overall I think their schools (smaller highly-selective universities) were better fits for them.</p>
<p>I am still a big advocate of BSUs and think some of the better SEC schools, not to mention Texas, Wisconsin, Virginia, Michigan et al offer incredible educations and opportunities.</p>
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<p>I wouldn’t advise this. You’re going to need a resume at the end of your four years in college, no matter what school you go to! But it feels like BSU’s have more opportunities to offer in that area. </p>
<p>Being at a CTCL/LAC now, I just left a class very irked when a professor went off on a rant about how this LAC isn’t like the real world and the Big Schools are like the real world, and will prepare me for it (by acting distant, evasive, and letting grad students do all his work. He of course lost my last essay AND the email copy I had sent to him at the same time…so perhaps this was foreshadowing.) One of the two professors in one of my main departments (Art History) is not getting tenure and is leaving next year. That means there’s only going to be one professor in the whole department! </p>
<p>Bigger departments might honestly be available at BSU’s. It’s certainly part of why I’m going to transfer into one of them.</p>
<p>At College Day at my son’s “Big State U” they said “you can make a big school small, but you can’t make a small school big”. Another thing they said was that they offered a lot of different services (academic counseling etc…), but you have to seek them out, they are not going to come to you. His experience so far has been very positive.</p>
<p>My son attended Big State U. He really liked it there. He found smaller worlds within the large university, especially in his major department, where professors made it easy for interested students to become involved in research and to serve as undergraduate TAs. And he loved the big-time sports.</p>
<p>I was surprised by how good an experience he had.</p>
<p>DH and I both went to big state u’s. and had good experiences. Our two sons followed in our footsteps.<br>
Their h.s. had almost 3000 students. They couldn’t imagine going to a college smaller than their h.s. They have loved the big college atmosphere, the big college football, the campuses, the wide variety of classes. There’s just something about being a part of a huge number of people all who all have that one thing in common.</p>
<p>both my kids went to a small private high school, so I was concerned how they would adjust to a large state flagship.</p>
<p>They love it. They love the campus, the academics, the profs, the sports, the facilities…they also like the town the school is in…the off-campus hangouts.</p>
<p>My sophomore D’s experience at our state’s largest U (Buffalo) has been very good so far. She was definitely leaning toward small schools and there was an adjustment period, but once she met a few people, learned the layout of the campuses, and got into the general swing of college life she was good to go. She had the opportunity to transfer to a smaller private school this year, with scholarships, and didn’t take it. Her profs have been pretty good to outstanding (although she does select carefully) and the labs/recitations are run by grad students (usually PhD). Some of the lectures have been huge, some small…depends on the class. She says all of her profs respond promptly to emails, they also are available during office hours, and will always take the time to answer questions. There are many study centers and department centers that are staffed for students to get help with specific assignments and it’s just up to the individual student to make the effort to seek help when needed. There are definitely opportunities at the big school that she probably wouldn’t have elsewhere and a seemingly endless amount of things to do. Some of them have been resume builders (research, internships, and even her work study job is related to her intended field) and the school has a big alumni network who are willing to mentor students. She hasn’t used the career sevices office yet, but it looks like there is a significant amount of interviewing and recruiting/job fairs that take place right on campus and lots of workshops on resumes/interviewing/networking/grad school apps and test prep, etc. Some of her friends at smaller schools complain about lack of services/staff, boredom, or the expense of having to go off campus to find entertainment and other things, but I’m sure that varies by school and location. </p>
<p>Now the negatives…actually, the only problem she’s really had is with course registration. She already has junior standing so won’t have problems getting into the courses she need to graduate, but we found that some of the gen-ed and lower level pre-reqs were offered with limited capacity and at conflicting times. Part of the problem may have been that she changed her intended major second semester and had a new set of pre-reqs to complete within a limited timeframe as students formally apply for acceptance into her major after the third semester. Luckily, her schools has very good transfer articulation so it was pretty easy for her to simply take a few gen ed classes at other state schools, although it was an added expense. Because many publics have had steep budget cuts and increased enrollment, I would recommend you investigate that aspect a bit. Your D might want to use ratemyprofessor.com as a guide (not a bible, since any disgruntled student can post there too) for course/section registration until she meets an upperclassmen who can give her their feedback on profs/courses.</p>
<p>As others have said, for a kid who doesn’t mind being proactive and can manage to stay on top of things, I think large universities (public or private) are a wonderful thing. Over the past 18 months, I’ve seen my D mature into an independent, involved, self-confident young woman who is comfortable with a wide variety of people…and we’re from a small town without much diversity. Her critical thinking and research skills have been honed beyond my expectations in that short time and I attribute much of that to the school and her profs.</p>
<p>I went to a big state U and transferred to a small state U for my major. Here’s my take with my experiences</p>
<p>Big state U: a lot more independence, large classes= no favoritism, difficult to form relationships with professors as an underclassmen, lots of diversity, lots of activities, easy to get lost- as in literally get lost lol, can be scary at first (I’m more introverted), difficult to get into a class b/c of #s, can easily get ahead with AP credits, more research opportunities</p>
<p>Small state U: more of a “secondary school” feel imo (attendance is often taken and easily noted b/c of smaller class sizes), the smaller classes I found leads to favoritism, very easy to form bonds with professors, a lot less diversity, easy to sign up for classes</p>
<p>Conclusions: Overall, I preferred the big state U over the small one. I enjoyed the independence and the set standards seen in big state U classes. I found the secondary school feel of the small school to be extremely annoying but I was able to form good bonds with a few professors. I’ll never know if I could have done the same at the big state U since I transferred but I’d imagine that it’s more difficult since classes are just enormous.</p>
<p>I don’t think there’s any such thing as “THE big state university experience.” No more than there’s a single “small private school experience,” or a uniform “private research university experience.” It depends hugely on the school, the student, the major, and especially at larger schools, the niche the particular student finds—or doesn’t find. Honestly, it’s as unanswerable a question as “What’s THE major metropolitan region experience?” Totally works for some people, in some cities, under some circumstances, and not for others. But to generalize on the basis of the kind of anecdotal information that question elicits would be really, really unwise.</p>
<p>I had an outstanding undergrad experience at a large state university. But it happened to be one of the very best public universities. I entered in the honors program, which meant from the outset I had all small classes taught by top professors, and my fellow students all had Ivy-level stats. We also lived in dedicated honors housing, so my living-learning experience was not much different from what you’d find at the most exclusive LACs. I moved from there to a major in a department with, at the time, the 4th-ranked faculty nationally in its field, with about as many faculty as undergraduate majors—so I had ample opportunities to forge personal relationships with some of the very top scholars in the field, which helped immensely in getting me admitted to the very best graduate programs. Typical? Well, maybe not, but on the other hand not really outside the norm for top students attending top public universities.</p>
<p>The point is, it’s not about “public” v. “private.” Nor is it even about large v. small. You need to evaluate the school and the program, and gauge hoe well the individual student matches up, For what I ended up studying as an undergrad, there were not more than 2 or 3 colleges in the country at the time that could have given me a comparable or better undergraduate education in my chosen field of study; and I’m not sure any of those would have offered me more socially, or in opportunities for personal growth. That’s not true for everyone. But that it was true for me illustrates, I think, the dangers of generalizing on a few anecdotes, and in assuming that there is such a thing as “THE big public university experience.”</p>