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<p>The “giant state university for everyone in the entire state” (e.g. Arizona State) can be useful to a student who slacked off in high school but got serious about academics too late in high school to get into a more selective university. If s/he really is serious about academics now, s/he could get into such a giant state university and find an academically oriented peer group and a rigorous major of interest and do well there, leaving the slacker high school record behind.</p>
<p>But these same giant state universities also offer plenty of opportunities to revert back to slacking.</p>