<p>Angstridden, I am so glad your daughter is enjoying UMD. There is nothing better in the world than seeing your child "light up," as you put it. My daughter is still a few years away from making any college decision, but I will say that lately I look at this child -- who is a high academic achiever -- and think, you know, I bet she would really enjoy and thrive at Illinois or Wisconsin or Michigan. She is settling in so well at our very large public high school, which allays many of my earlier fears of "big places" and makes me wonder if she really would enjoy a super-small LAC. She seems to like the bustle and excitement!<br>
I did not grow up knowing any prep school students, but I did go to Catholic schools my whole life. In Chicago, at that time, most Polish, Italian, Irish families went that route. I have always thought that religion and family tradition play just as important a role in these decisions, up to and including sending a child to a Catholic university or to a parent's alma mater.
The OP made some specific points about redtape at his state school, and I feel pretty sure this is a common frustration at state schools. But overall -- apples and oranges, people, apples and oranges. May the best fit win!</p>
<p>Inaccurate to try to characterize 'public' as one type of school.</p>
<p>I agree with many previous posts that public doesn't necessarily mean huge and impersonal.</p>
<p>In N.J., we have Rutgers, a fine school but VERY large and difficult to navigate. Our son is at The College of New Jersey, medium sized, personal and provides the individualized attention usually available at only small private schools.</p>
<p>I'm sure there are many other smaller, publics worth a look!</p>
<p>I think UMD has 55,000 students (graduate and undergraduate)! I am not sure..but I only think about 15,000 live on campus. Honestly I expected lots of hassles etc. but when I have had a concern its been taken care of, everyone is friendly and helpful.
And they are super organized too. Parents weekend was so smooth I couldnt believe it!
I am impressed!
So UMD is very large but its organized.</p>
<p>oops no 55,000 go to the football game!!!
I would have to check how many attend the school..maybe 25,000 undergrad.?</p>
<p>I don't think it's possible to effectively debate the merits of public vs. private in such general terms. Are the operating budgets really a valuable reference without the details on spending per student? Of course a school with 5X as many students as most others will have a much larger budget. But, the spend per student might be lower.</p>
<p>Angstridden: I am glad your daughter loves her school. I am glad my daughter loves hers, also. It is costing us about the same price as instate full-fare at University of Texas at Austin. Although UT is a top-50 school, and has lots of good programs, it is a different kind of experience. I LOVE what you call the "coddling" of my daughter's school. It is not academic coddling (although there are tons of support options if one needs academic support), but a social network system that "coddles". Coddle is a pejorative term, though, and I see this as postive. Each student is one of a group of 6-8 students assigned to two Orientation group advisors who "teach them the ropes" and spend a week before school starts involved in fun and useful activities. Students live in residential colleges and the college "masters" live in attached houses. When I visited this weekend, the college master chatted with me about my daughter - he knew her name, her interests, and had her and a small group of students over for dinner. There are no cracks to fall through. Unlike UT, where kids could disappear from school for weeks at a time with noone noticing, someone would notice at my daughter's college. This makes ME happy.</p>
<p>Ummm I did not say your school coddled. I have no idea what your school does though after reading your post it sounds like your school has a very good program to help students become involved. But I doubt if the system your school has is at most private schools.
You said in your first post that your daughter was out every night at shows etc and was in clubs etc and was getting close attention from her profs. You said you doubted she would get this type of experience at a large school.
I am telling you, you are wrong. My daughter is doing everything yours is at a large school. Including involved chats with teachers, joining clubs, seeing shows etc. PLUS other experiences your D. may not experience because her small school doesnt offer it.
It really does depend on the school.</p>
<p>I think its great that your D.'s school offers a program so kids can get involved. Ours does too only in different ways. From planned floor meetings where YES her RA knows her name, interests etc..to special programs for her honors groups (picnics, swim parties etc) to activities for the clubs she has joined , to planned University activities (midnight madness, a hypnotist and more)
Thinking big has to be impersonal is an incorrect assumption.</p>
<p>As far as price goes. My D. was offered a full ride at one school, large scholarship at another (all much smaller schools)and turned them down for the big U.</p>
<p>Isn't your daughter in the honors program at UMD? Honors colleges in large public universities often try to simulate small private colleges at much lower cost. This is a definite option to consider when planning.</p>
<p>She is in honors. And they do offer special activities for honors kids. But they also offer activities for other groups. Many of the things I mentioned are opened to all the kids.
There are lots of options and opportunities.</p>
<p>Angst-</p>
<p>I think I understand the point you were trying to make earlier in this thread, which is that "private isn't always better". And, conversely, public isn't always better either. One of the things to keep in mind is that it might not be a good idea to throw kids from a small 10-to-a-class private school into a huge state U for college. In such an instance, the kids from those small schools might prefer to be in a smaller LAC or private U. The same might hold true for the reverse.</p>
<p>I think there are very valid reasons for selecting from either set of choices.....and it seems that everyone who has posted has a happy kid (at publics and privates). So, I guess there isn't an absolute.</p>
<p>Momsdream, It's interesting--D goes to one of those small 10 (0r) 14 to a class private schools, with about 100 seniors, and that's the biggest school she has gone to so far. There were about 6 kids in her 6th grade graduating class and maybe 30 in her middle school graduating class. She literally shuddered when I told her how many ungraduates there were in some of the larger colleges/universities. So yes, she's mostly interested in smaller LACs or private Us. But some of the kids she goes to school with are tired of being in such a small place and really want to go to the huge universities like U MD.</p>
<p>I went to a tiny school myself. My graduating class had 21 students in it. All of our classes had fewer than 10 students. But LACs were out of the question for me for two reasons.</p>
<p>1) They do not have a global reputation. Most employers in Europe have never heard of most LACs. My intent was to work in Europe after graduation, so LACs were out.</p>
<p>2) I wanted to take classes that are just not offered in LACs. LACs have faculty's of 10-15 professors per department. As such, they can only offer very limited number of classes. At major research universities, departments have 50-75 professors per department, and they offer a much larger sellection.</p>
<p>That is why schools like Chicago, Columbia, Michigan and Penn appealed much more to me than schools like Amherst, Heverford and Swarthmore.</p>
<p>Most of the students at my high school had the same take on college.</p>
<p>As for the resources availlable to students, like I said, it really depends on the university, not on whether the university is Public or Private. </p>
<p>But in the end, as many posters on this forum have been saying, it all boils down to fit. One thing is clear... a good public university will offer as many opportunities as any private university.</p>
<p>I'm not clear on why schools like Columbia and Chicago (and even Penn) are being lumped in with Michigan. They are nowhere near the size. In terms of size, Penn, Chicago and Columbia are closer to Amherst than Michigan....not to mention that they're private.
Alexandre, I guess you're just saying that these schools appealed to you, though they are quite different. </p>
<p>When I think of large public Us, I don't think of schools in the 4-10K range.....I think of the 20k plus schools......YIKES.</p>
<p>Actually momsdream, I was refering to how universities use their resources and size of faculty. In that regard, all major research universities are similar, public or private.</p>
<p>YIKES ---- what ? Are you saying YIKES because you think a 20K + school is inferior to a smaller private school?</p>
<p>I am amazed that we are still having this discussion. To me, a quality school depends on the majors that you want.</p>
<p>For example, the university of Maryland has reknown programs in business, engineering and Journalism (somewhat) and in curriculum development for schools. Most of the other programs are NOT standouts.</p>
<p>All of the public universities in Maryland are a hassle to get your classes and a hassle to register for unless you are in the honors program.</p>
<p>I am finding that schools are starting to develop niches. Some have strengths in certain subjects. </p>
<p>Bottom line: Check out the school and see if the school fits the needs of the student</p>
<p>Thats quite a generalization you are making there taxguy regarding registering for classes. How do you know that?</p>
<p>Bottomline: I agree with your bottomline.</p>
<p>Momsdream: the undergraduate liberal arts colleges at these U's are close to Lac size, but there's no doubt tht the facilities/faculty/research capabilities are very similar between UMich and these other schools. As I've said before, my S's top two schools were Umich and Columbia, and I thnk he'd have been extremely happy and challenged at either.</p>
<p>Amused, that's not necessarily true.</p>
<p>Students wishing to receive their degrees from Emory University but are unable to get into Emory College may go to Oxford College for their first two years. After completion of the second year, as long as a GPA of 2.0 is maintained, transfer is automatic.</p>
<p>Without financial aid, the tuition for Oxford is around $20,000. In terms of actual education quality, that is severly overpriced.</p>
<p>Oxford is no better than Georgia Southern University. In fact, it's probably worse because Georgia Southern is a full-fledged university. GaSoU tuition is around $2,000.</p>
<p>There are many very high quality public universities in the U.S. (e.g. UC Berkeley, UT Austin, UM Ann Arbor, UI Urbana Champaign, etc.). Degrees from there are just as attractive as degrees from Emory, Brandais, or NYU.</p>
<p>Then again, there are many very high quality private universities in the U.S. as well (e.g. all the Ivy Leagues, Caltech, MIT, Duke, Stanford, etc.).</p>