<p>I first heard the term about two years ago then forgot about it, my question is what do you think they are, no set number, just a list of the top public schools in the country:</p>
<p>I'll Start (14 is probably a bit much):</p>
<p>Williams and Mary
UNC
UCLA
UC Berkeley
Michigan
Wisconsin
Washington
Texas
New College of Florida
Illinois
Maryland
Georgia
Ohio State
Virginia</p>
<p>The original list from the book was was:
Williams and Mary
Miami (Ohio)
The UC System
Michigan
UNC
Texas
Vermont
Virginia</p>
<p>Currently, people use the term "Public Ivy’ to refer to selective flagship public universities at which one supposedly can get an Ivy-quality education at a state school cost.</p>
<p>In it’s original meaning, the term “Public Ivy” referred to a small group of the more selective public universities which have attracted students from the Northeast for many years. Thus, they had a certain amount of social prestige as well as academic quality, which made them an acceptable alternative to the Ivies and other Northeastern private colleges/universities (perhaps, particularly if one failed to be admitted to an Ivy.) These included Michigan, Wisconsin, Virginia, William & Mary, North Carolina, Vermont, and Miami of Ohio.</p>
<p>It’s a term that is misused by students who attend public schools. No public school is anything close to any ivy league school. Other terms you will hear are “Top 20 private school.” The translation for that is, it is ranked much lower than the private schools.</p>
<p>Simple. An “Ivy” is one of the 8 private schools in the Ivy League athletic conference.<br>
Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, and the University of Pennsylvania. </p>
<p>The term “public Ivy” is a figure of speech coined by Richard Moll, who wrote a guide to public universities in 1985.</p>
<p>@tk21769, I like how you listed Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and the rest in alphabetical order. I’m not sure if it was intentional, but I was slightly amused.</p>
<p>Post # 8: “It’s a term that is misused by students who attend public schools. No public school is anything close to any ivy league school.”</p>
<p>Though I prefer to restrict the term “Public Ivy” to its original meaning, there is something to be said for the more recent use of that term. While the overall quality of students and the available resources at the top public flagships might not match those at an Ivy, there is no denying that it is certainly possible for a top student to get an education as good as or better than any Ivy league university. Certainly, this is the case for engineering at schools like Berkeley, Michigan, or Illinois. In music, for example, the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University is considered the top music school in the country. A serious student of Asian studies, economics, history or any number of other fields at Berkeley, Wisconsin, Michigan, or Indiana can get as good an education in their majors as a student in those fields at an ivy. This is true of many other fields as well.</p>
<p>My list of 15 Public Ivies
(based on USNWR)</p>
<p>University of California–Berkeley Berkeley, CA<br>
University of California–Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA<br>
University of Virginia Charlottesville, VA<br>
University of Michigan–Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI<br>
University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, NC<br>
College of William & Mary Williamsburg, VA
University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign Champaign, IL<br>
University of Wisconsin–Madison Madison, WI<br>
University of Washington Seattle, WA<br>
Pennsylvania State University–University Park University Park, PA<br>
University of Florida Gainesville, FL<br>
University of Texas–Austin Austin, TX<br>
The Ohio State University–Columbus Columbus, OH<br>
University of Maryland–College Park College Park, MD<br>
University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, PA</p>
<p>Let’s look at this from the other side. Do any of the Ivies offer the breadth of experiences that you can get at one of the top publics like UC Berkeley, U Virginia, UCLA, U North Carolina, etc? IMO, depending on the applicant, one can make an argument for the publics. </p>
<p>Think about this in academic terms, but also think about those 150+ hours that you will spend every week outside of the classroom. Is social life important to you? Do you enjoy the athletic life that you can find at a top public? Do you like being part of a smaller elite group that has its own special catchet within a larger university? </p>
<p>For many students, the Ivy experience is fine, but the benefits are potentially more due to the school’s branding than to the quality of the undergraduate’s experience. If you want the full balance of great academics, great social life, and great athletic life, then the Honors programs at several publics could be a better fit and possibly at a much lower cost.</p>
<p>While public schools may not offer student bodies as overall competitive as the Ivies, the top publics most certainly do offer the resources of the Ivies. Some of the top publics actually exceed many of the Ivies in terms of faculty quality, academic depth and breadth, endowment, libraries, museums, research facilities, computing resources, etc.</p>
