Top Ten most Prestigious Public Universities

College Search & Selection
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<p>I think lots of you are overlooking the College of William & Mary, very solid for political science, humanities, business, and an excellent campus and surrounding area!</p>

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<p>^That’s not a university.</p>

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<p>Is this true? I’ve never heard of this before</p>

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<p>Personal anecdote, FWIW: I matriculated at Georgia Tech right out of high school and the place was *full *of people who were rejected from Virginia. That’s how I chose a school to transfer to, when I didn’t feel challenged at Tech. </p>

<p>Now of course, it was actually full of Georgians. But most of my friends were from out-of-state, as was I. So while I have no doubt that Tech’s average SAT math score is much higher than UVA’s, it tells only part of the story. YMMV
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<p>Not exactly, but it was mentioned in earlier posts, and sometimes when people say “university,” it could include just “colleges.” I mean “university” encompasses all programs, not just undergrad
it’s wonderful for undergrad.</p>

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<p>NB: William & Mary is most certainly a university, it just retains its original name. And: unlike the other schools being discussed here, it was actually private for most of its history. </p>

<p>[William</a> & Mary - About](<a href=“http://www.wm.edu/about/index.php]William”>About W&M | William & Mary)</p>

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<p>@jgraider - Yes, fortunately or unfortunately, Texas has a “top 10%” law. However, this doesn’t guarantee that a student will be accepted into his/her top-choice major
 it just means that he/she will be accepted to the university.</p>

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<p>^^Ahh
 You’re right, it is a university. I did not know that. </p>

<p>Well go ahead and throw that one onto my previous list as well.</p>

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<p>^That is true! Not many people around here (meaning where I live) realize that. Williamsburg is an awesome area!</p>

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<p>ahahaha I LOL’ed cuz I couldn’t help but think that the person writing this was the moron.</p>

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<p>schmaltz,
Collective opinion of ~2,000 academics seem to agree with John.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>UC-Berkeley 4.7
[big gap]</p></li>
<li><p>Michigan 4.4</p></li>
<li><p>Virginia 4.3</p></li>
<li><p>UCLA 4.2</p></li>
<li><p>North Carolina; Wisconsin 4.1</p></li>
<li><p>Georgia Tech; Illinois 4.0 </p></li>
<li><p>Texas 3.9</p></li>
<li><p>William and Mary; Penn St.; UC-Davis; UC-San Diego; Washington 3.8</p></li>
</ol>

72

<p>Why are we looking at the 25th percentile? 75th percentile is far more telling. I want to know how many smart people are at a school, not how many dumb people.</p>

<p>UC schools have a much broader student body than other publics.</p>

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  1. Haas doesn’t have pre-admit for frosh.
    
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<p>that’s a start at least.</p>

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<p>John still has to answer my request!</p>

<ol>
<li>Haas doesn’t have pre-admit for frosh.
Why’s that make it better?</li>
</ol>

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<p>^^^I think they wanted it to not be dependent on the people who could have gone to Harvard but decided to go with their state flagship instead, but on the guy who got into the best school he could.</p>

<p>And how can you justify “UC schools have a much broader student body than other publics?”</p>

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<p>1 UC Berkeley
2 Michigan
3 Wisconsin + UCLA
5 UVA
6 UNC
7 Illinois
8 Penn state
9 Georgia tech
10 Texas</p>

<p>the top six on this list seem to be the main competitors</p>

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Students have to prove themselves with college coursework. Not high school and AP tests. :)</p>

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<p>But that just places additional stress on the students, and I would argue that that just makes it worse!</p>

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<p>^ You can relax once you’re in. Besides, the competition for admission makes it feel more elite.</p>

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<p>Yeah, if I had to do it all over again, I’d make sure I attended high school in Virginia and then I’d go to William & Mary. What a deal! I never had quite enough ‘academic stamina’ to survive the undergraduate experience at Swarthmore, Princeton or Yale anyway. W&M totally feels like the private school it used to be, even more than UVA. And I don’t think any of the others on the lists in this thread resemble private schools in any way, shape or form. Except maybe the pre-eminence of certain graduate departments at Berkeley!</p>