<p>So by now a lot of people have seen the Richard Moll 1985 list of public ivies, but now, almost thirty years later, it is in need of an update. Some schools still are worthy of the title "public ivy" like UC Berkeley and UVA for example. But Miami University and University of Vermont are hardly "public ivies" </p>
<p>In your opinion, what are the public ivies of today? I tried to choose schools that are academically diverse, and for this reason, I did not choose some highly ranked schools like Georgia Tech, that are more geared toward specific majors and studies.</p>
<p>My list (in no particular order):</p>
<p>University of Washington
UNC
UVA
UC Berkeley
UCLA
University of Michigan
University of Wisconsin
University of Illinois
University of Texas Austin
William and Mary</p>
<p>Really, I beg to differ. You’ve named some of the outstanding public institutions of higher learning in the U.S., but not all of them. “Public Ivies” is a useful term if you’re trying to come up with an eye-catching title that will sell books. It has virtually no value for anything else.</p>
<p>“Public Ivy” probably most accurately describes Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, College of Human Ecology, School of Industrial and Labor Relations, and College of Veterinary Medicine.</p>
<p>There is no such thing a a “Public Ivy”, no more than such a thing as a “Southern Ivy” or a “New Ivy”. Those are just sensationalized titles designed to grab the attention of a naive audience. </p>
<p>As far as the top public universities are concerned, I would say that the list in the OP is about right. I think Georgia Tech, Maryland, Penn State and UCSD should also be included. There are so many excellent public universities.</p>
<p>UWash, Maryland, Penn State, UCSD, Vermont, Miami U, Ohio State are just average publics.</p>
<p>Public Ivy’s:
University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill
University of Virginia
University of Texas at Austin
University of Michigan- Ann Arbor
University of Wisconsin- Madison
University of Illinois- Urbana Champaign
University of California- Los Angeles
University of California- Berkeley</p>
<p>I toss my vote to Sikorsky and Alexandre. The term was just a marketing gimmick. Really, what information or insight does it bring? There are absolutely great state universities and colleges out there. But they are a different animal from Ivy League colleges. Better? Who can say. It’s up to the individual, as always.</p>
<p>Well, “Ivy League” was a marketing gimmick created by a newspaper guy at one time. The term is short and conveys what most think it does. Thus a good choice of term. </p>
<p>^^^Yes, I agree. The Ivy League schools are the Ivy League schools and that is it. Any other use of the term is simply a marketing ploy. But let’s all remember that the Ivy League began as a sports conference – there are many other tremendous schools out there. Every person needs to seek out the right academic, social, and financial fit and each school has its unique positives and negatives to assess.</p>
<p>I never saw Moll’s original list but I assume public Ivy simply means public schools having a level of prestige close to that of the Ivies themselves. To me, UC Berkeley and UVA are the only obvious choices with UNC still climbing but not quite there yet. If its 8 publics to match the 8 Ivies then I’d go with XtremePower’s list.</p>
<p>“Public Ivy” is a fairly ridiculous term especially since the range in prestige is both your list and the original list is huge. In terms of “wow factor” and overall prestige of the university Berkley is probably the only university on this list that can compete with a private Ivy like Harvard, or Princeton. I think that the creation of the term public ivy is a bit misleading because it implies that these schools are similar to ivy league schools, which as most of the universities in this list are large research universities, is not the case. However it is a nice tool to point out there are some very good public schools in the US.</p>
<p>However I do like your revised list. It would be a good candidate list for top public universities in the US.</p>
<p>Must work for the Saturday afternoon football crowd! </p>
<p>Of course, what most people have in mind when describing the Ivy League is … an athletic conference that prohibits athletic scholarships and comprises eight highly selective private schools that graduates most of its students after four years of undergraduate studies, and hardly accepts any JUCO or CC transfers. </p>
<p>Obviously, such description fits the suggested schools to a tee! Just as John Deere fits the description given to Bentley and Rolls Royce.</p>
<p>Columbia and Cornell do admit substantial numbers of transfer students, although they do not seem to indicate the sources of the transfer students (whether CCs or other four year schools).</p>
<p>No, the “public ivies” produce a large portion of the advances in science and most other fields, serve as significant intellectual assets to their states/nation, educate a large number of the best local students and the majority of leaders in their home states. And some have decent football teams. </p>
<p>These are some of the characteristics of Ivy League colleges:</p>
<ul>
<li>large endowments ($200K per student to over $2M per student )</li>
<li>need-blind admission with aid covering 100% of determined need for all students </li>
<li>national drawing power (with a majority of students from out of state)</li>
<li>small classes (60% - 75% with < 20 students)</li>
<li>high 4-year graduation rates (80% - 90%)</li>
<li>highly selective admissions (SATs averaging 2100-2300; 90% or more of students from their HS top 10%)</li>
<li>highly paid faculty (averaging > $120K/year for full-time professors)</li>
<li>high international name-recognition and prestige</li>
</ul>
<p>All (or nearly all) the Ivies meet all these criteria.
Which ones are unimportant enough to eliminate (or relax) and still be talking about the same kind of college?</p>
<p>There’s nothing really special about being and Ivy and, correspondingly, nothing particularly special about being a public Ivy either. Is Dartmouth better than Johns Hopkins? Is Princeton better than Stanford? The answer to these questions are hardly obvious. But even if one asserts that both are true, I think it would be ridiculous to claim that it’s due to the formers’ association with some league, which isn’t even really that old.</p>
<p>Just as their are a number of excellent privates out there, there are just as many (if not more) excellent public universities out there as well. A list of such schools and systems might include:</p>
<p>William and Mary
UVA
University of California - B.
University of California - D.
University of California - I.
University of California - LA
University of California - SD
GeorgiaTech
University of Washington
University of Minnesota -TC
Indiana University - B.
Purdue University
University of Illinois - UC
University of Texas - A.
University of North Carolina - CH
The Ohio State University
University of Alabama
Rutgers University
University of Pittsburg
the SUNY and CUNY systems, among others.</p>
<p>And its not particularly surprising, since strong investment in a public university can yield great economic benefits for a particular state.</p>
<p>As I arrived in the Columbus airport last week I noticed a big ad for Miami U which referred to it as “Ohio’s Public Ivy”. I thought that was interesting as OSU is actually a bit harder to get into, in terms of accepted student stats.</p>
<p>But here in Ohio, the difference between the two seems to be more about being in the city or the country and size, and I suppose available majors and sports stuff. Miami also has some guaranteed merit awards that attract a lot of students with those stats. Miami is also more $$ to begin with, however, in a recent year the most expensive public in the country for in-state students.</p>
<p>I also understand OSU passing Miami in difficulty of acceptance is relatively new.</p>
<p>Anyway, I also think the “public Ivy” label is kind of dumb. How about “Public Stanford”? ;)</p>