The public university crisis

College Confidential Community
21

I am not sure financial potency is a public university vs private university matter. Universities in general are struggling to keep up with the financial demands and realities of today’s higher education landscape.

Most public flagships receive hundreds of millions of dollars annually from the state. Each $100 million instate funding is the equivalent of $2 billion in private university endowment.

That being said, there is no doubt that states are struggling to provide sufficient funding for their public universities, but many public universities have realized this trend early and have done a good job of developing their endowments. 30 years ago, not a single public university had an endowment among the top 25 nationally. Today, Michigan, Texas, UVa, Texas A&M, Cal and UCLA are along among the 25 wealthiest universities in the country. Michigan, Texas and UVa are three of only 23 universities in the US that have been bestowed Moody’s highest credit rating of Aaa. It should be noted than half the Ivies (Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth and Penn) were all bestowed lower ratings of Aa1.

Ohio State, Penn State-University Park, Pittsburgh, Minnesota-Twin Cities, UNC-Chapel Hill, Wisconsin-Madison, Michigan State, UDub and Purdue are are also in decent shape, with endowments in excess of $2.5 billion each. Today, approximately 40% of the hundred or so universities with endowments over $1 billion are public.

Like I said, in addition to their endowments, those universities receive anywhere from $200-$350 million from the state annually, which is the equivalent of an additional $4-$7 billion worth of endowment.

Also, I am not sure who it is who suggested that private universities have “less oversight”, but that is in fact not accurate. Private universities face their own bureaucratic obstacles and red tape inefficiencies, and from what I have seen, they are not any less crippling or daunting than those faced by public universities.

22

“I think UT-Austin holds its own, ha. For engineering, I would pick it hands-down over private universities.”

I think similarly of Georgia Tech.

23

“I think UT-Austin holds its own, ha. For engineering, I would pick it hands-down over private universities.”

I think similarly of Georgia Tech."

And Berkeley, and Michigan, and UIUC, and Purdue…

24

Only a small percentage of private universities have huge endowments and good financial aid. Even those that do have good financial aid can have varying ideas of what you can afford, which may not match what you think you can afford.

25

It also costs $20k less than MIT for full pay OOS.

26

@lookingforward

Berkeley and UCLA are hardly football colleges, to be fair.

27

Without having the financial picture of each and every family, I don’t see how you could make such a blanket statement that attending an out of state institution is just a waste of money. I live in PA. Cost of attendance in-state is the same or more than at other OOS universities. I could probable send my kid to a quality SUNY school that would provide a more intimate environment than Penn State for the same price.

I attended a small LAC. I got a great education, but does it garner me any leverage in the job market here in SE PA where everyone went to Penn State? Nope. Has my private college education given me advantages that perhaps I might not have received if I had gone to a public university? Probably. Are those advantages worth the $70,000 it would cost to send my son there private pay? I would say absolutely not.

28

I think a more fruitful conversation to have would be the huge financial disparities between the top 100 or so schools and everyone else.

I spent some time back in the day working for a nonprofit college advisory program and more than half of the kids went to schools outside of the top 100 - it was eye opening to see the discrepancies in the resources they are afforded.

29

I do admit some bias as I don’t really think of schools outside of the top 200, and while I went to a large in state public university along with two of my children, my spouse and one other child went to private universities. All were in the top 100. So yes I’ll limit my comments I made to approximately the top 200 colleges, public and private combined. I wouldn’t even bother with “for profits colleges”. So consider any colleges outside of the top 200 to be outside the scope of my comments.

30

@ucbalumnus that’s exactly what I meant. Going to a school like the Ivies give you so many opportunities that you wouldn’t be able to if you go to a large state school (small school, low faculty ratio, great reputation, great research opportunities/funding per student, and many more), and you can still enjoy all these benefits with great need based financial aids (no loan as in my case) without being buried in debt for a OOS public.

31

There are multiple OOS publics that will not bury a student in debt. LSU, Ohio U, Ole Miss College of Charleston offered my average students enough money to put their OOS cost of attendance well within spitting distance of our in-state flagship (who offered -o-). Why do we keep insisting on perpetuating this notion that OOS publics are dead in the water options. It’s crazy, do your homework, there are so many options, good affordable options, to obtain a solid education in the US, there is life beyond LACs and the top 25. Geesh.

32

My son was doing research in the biomedical engineering lab at UT-Austin as a freshman. There are many opportunities for students to get engaged at public universities.

33

@labegg What I trying to say is that you can afford private college as some people tend to think that they are extremely expensive and not affordable. And that you generally get better environments and opportunities as I said before. I am not trying to say that public school is bad academically but many of them are not doing great financially since they have so many students because that’s their goal (providing higher education to more students) while private schools generally have decent funding with much less students.

34

Only the wealthiest elite private universities. Most students at private universities attend non-elite ones that are not well-endowed, and subject to similar financial pressures as public universities worried about state funding cuts.

35

Just an FYI, UMich has the 8th largest endowment in the US and has an extensive Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP), which is even available to incoming freshman:

https://lsa.umich.edu/urop

36

The Ivies aren’t small schools. And they don’t all have equal amounts of need based aid.

37

What is the point of this thread? Why are we discussing something we’ve discussed in dozens (at least) other threads this year alone?

38

And Texas has the second largest endowment in the US. Texas A&M has the seventh. California has the 13th.

39

Keep in mind that the endowment at public institutions is typically spread across many more students than top tier privates. We should keep in mind several things: 1) most private colleges don’t have substantial endowments 2) endowment per student is a better indicator than overall endowment 3) just because a school has an sizeable endowment doesn’t mean it is focused on undergraduates 4) private schools aren’t really private (other than perhaps Hillsdale College) – they get government benefits in the form of tax exempt status, Pell grants and other financial aid and guarantees, and Federal and State R&D funding. In fact, some analysis has shown that the overall largest public benefit per student actually goes to private schools like Princeton.

40

This thread was not what I expected when I saw the title. I thought the primary message would be the need to increase funding for public universities. Instead it seems the OP would rather advocate for private institutions. That’s fine if that is their preference, but I feel they may be misguiding people, who are seeking help in the college application and decision-making process.