<p>This is my personal view of top public colleges in America. My schools aren't in any particular order so the first school on the list isn't the top schools. I'm simply naming public colleges I think give you the most 'bang for your buck' in a sense.</p>
<p>University of Michigan
Georgia Institute of Technology
University of California - Berkeley
University of Virginia
University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
University of Washington
University of Texas - Austin
Pennsylvania State University - University Park
University of Wisconsin - Madison
College of William and Mary
University of California - Los Angeles
Clemson University
University of Pittsburgh
Ohio State University - Columbus
University of Florida
University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign
Virginia Tech
Rutgers University - New Brunswick
University of Georgia
University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
University of Maryland - College Park</p>
<p>And I think these next public universities are on the rise to be top in a few years.</p>
<p>University of Alabama - Tuscaloosa
Texas A&M - College Station
University of Colorado - Boulder
Florida State University
Indiana University - Bloomington
North Carolina State University - Raleigh</p>
<p>These last universities i believe are on the decline. opinion based so i don't have evidence to back up haha but that's why this is a forum. No disrespect to any colleges on the list!!</p>
<p>Michigan State University
University of Delaware
Purdue University - West Lafayette
University of Missouri
University of California - San Diego</p>
<p>I think these last universities are coming from right field to really be popular names in the coming years.... sleeper picks if you will</p>
<p>University of Utah
University of Mississippi
Virginia Commonwealth University
University of Central Florida
East Carolina University</p>
<p>No hard feelings toward any schools. just having good fun and posting for fun!!!! Don't over react to this. lets hear which schools you guys think are the top public universities or declining schools or up and coming schools!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</p>
<p>Since I’m looking into both colleges, will you please elaborate as to why you believe Alabama is on the rise and (more importantly) why Delaware is on the decline?</p>
<p>alabama is attracting tons of nmf because of there large scholarships. udel seems to be staying put at where they are and others school i think will begin to push ahead of them. also the reason i have ucsd on decline is because of all the uc’s</p>
<p>I’m a PA resident who seriously considered PSU before saying no. Very tough decision for me to turn it down and I think it never gets the respect it deserves as a top public.</p>
<p>Dont understand how Purdue could be on the decline as it continues to be highly ranked in several departments. IU is not really on the rise academically, just in its popularity with East Coast students, which may change as they reduce the merit for OOS students.</p>
<p>UCB, assuming you were referring to the Peer Assessment rating of the USNWR, you are a little off. According to the latest PA ratings:</p>
<p>University of California-Berkeley 4.7
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor 4.5
University of Virginia 4.3
University of California-Los Angeles 4.2
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill 4.2
Georgia Institute of Technology 4.1
University of Texas-Austin 4.1
University of Wisconsin-Madison 4.1</p>
<p>All other public universities have sub 4.0 PA ratings.</p>
<p>dantheman, I have issues with every part of the USNWR ranking, particularly the way it compiles and publishes data. The PA is obviously very flawed, no doubt about it. However, it is the only large-scale reputational rating of undergraduate education quality. It should not be regarded as more than an opinion poll to begin with.</p>
<p>I agree wholeheartedly, and I think it is really tough to rank colleges in general. They are just so different from one another and what is an excellent college for one student could be a disaster for another.</p>
<ol>
<li>UC-Berkeley: 4.5</li>
<li>UNC-Chapel Hill, UVA: 4.4</li>
<li>UM-Ann Arbor, College of William and Mary: 4.3</li>
<li>Georgia Tech, UCLA: 4.2</li>
<li>UT-Austin, University of Washington: 4.1</li>
<li>Purdue, UIUC, UW-Madison, Virginia Tech: 4.0</li>
</ol>
<p>This ranking more or less corresponds with the PA rating with a couple of shuffles here and there. I think this ordering corresponds with teaching quality a lot more, which is a definitely an emphasis at UNC and UVA. No matter how you slice and dice it, Berkeley is the best public school in the country and the 3rd best in the world after Cambridge and Oxford.:)</p>
<p>UCSD is definitely not declining. IIRC its faculty have been picking up a lot of major awards recently, and the NRC rankings that were released in 2010 showed UCSD doing very well.</p>
<p>UC Santa Barbara, UC Irvine, and UC Davis should be among the top as well - they are easily comparable to or better than most of those first listed. I’d say UC Riverside and UC Santa Cruz are on the rise; it’s hard to tell with UC Merced.</p>