What are the best Public Universities or top public schools in the U.S.?

<p>can you guys just shoot me some universities that are considered to be top public schools? Are schools like binghamton, rutgers, stony brook, hunter any of them?</p>

<p>Rutgers and Stony Brook have top reputations in some subjects, even if they (especially Stony Brook) have lesser reputations overall.</p>

<p>UConn is regarded as the best public school in the northeast, and the University of Pittsburgh also seems like a school we don’t hear much about on these forums but has great programs in various disciplines.</p>

<p>USNWR Sept. 2011 Top Public National Universities</p>

<p>Rank School </p>

<p>#1 University of California–Berkeley
Berkeley, CA</p>

<p>#2 University of California–Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA</p>

<p>#2 University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA</p>

<p>#4 University of Michigan–Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, MI</p>

<p>#5 University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC</p>

<p>#6 College of William and Mary
Williamsburg, VA</p>

<p>#7 Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA</p>

<p>#8 University of California–San Diego
La Jolla, CA</p>

<p>#9 University of California–Davis
Davis, CA</p>

<p>#10 University of California–Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA</p>

<p>#10 University of Washington
Seattle, WA</p>

<p>#10 University of Wisconsin–Madison
Madison, WI</p>

<p>#13 Pennsylvania State University–University Park
University Park, PA</p>

<p>#13 University of California–Irvine
Irvine, CA</p>

<p>#13 University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign
Champaign, IL</p>

<p>#13 University of Texas–Austin
Austin, TX</p>

<p>#17 Ohio State University–Columbus
Columbus, OH</p>

<p>#17 University of Maryland–College Park
College Park, MD</p>

<p>#19 Texas A&M University–College Station
College Station, TX</p>

<p>#19 University of Connecticut
Storrs, CT</p>

<p>#19 University of Florida
Gainesville, FL</p>

<p>#19 University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA</p>

<p>#23 Purdue University–West Lafayette
West Lafayette, IN</p>

<p>#23 University of Georgia
Athens, GA</p>

<p>#25 Clemson University
Clemson, SC</p>

<p>#25 Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey–New Brunswick
Piscataway, NJ</p>

<p>#25 University of Minnesota–Twin Cities
Minneapolis, MN</p>

<p>#28 Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI</p>

<p>#28 University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA</p>

<p>#28 Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, VA</p>

<p>#31 Colorado School of Mines
Golden, CO</p>

<p>#31 Indiana University–Bloomington
Bloomington, IN</p>

<p>#31 University of Alabama
Tuscaloosa, AL</p>

<p>#31 University of California–Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, CA</p>

<p>#31 University of Delaware
Newark, DE</p>

<p>#36 Auburn University
Auburn University, AL</p>

<p>#36 SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry
Syracuse, NY</p>

<p>#36 University of Vermont
Burlington, VT</p>

<p>#39 Binghamton University–SUNY
Binghamton, NY</p>

<p>#39 Miami University–Oxford
Oxford, OH</p>

<p>#39 University of Missouri
Columbia, MO</p>

<p>#42 University of Colorado–Boulder
Boulder, CO</p>

<p>#42 University of Massachusetts–Amherst
Amherst, MA</p>

<p>#44 Iowa State University
Ames, IA</p>

<p>#44 University of California–Riverside
Riverside, CA</p>

<p>#46 Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL</p>

<p>#46 North Carolina State University–Raleigh
Raleigh, NC</p>

<p>#46 University of Kansas
Lawrence, KS</p>

<p>#46 University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Lincoln, NE</p>

<p>#46 University of New Hampshire
Durham, NH</p>

<p>My Top 10 would be UCB, UCLA, UMich, UWisc, UVa, W & M, GaTech, UNC, U Illinois, and U Texas-Austin.</p>

<p>Most of the best public schools are in the university of california system (in the ranking listed above, 5 of the 9 UG schools are in the top 10; and 2 are in the top 3. But off the top of my head i’d say:</p>

<p>Berkeley, UCLA, UVA, Michigan, UNC, UT, Wisconson, GaTech, UCSD, Washington, etc.</p>

<p>wrt the OP, none of the schools you listed would be considered ‘top publics’ the top publics mirror the decent, but not amazing privates. In UCLA’s range are USC and CMU; in Cal’s range are USC and maybe Rice, for example. But neither of them is in the range of Caltech or Columbia for example. (at least wrt undergrad.)</p>

<p>that statement’s in regard to the US however, the top publics in the UK (oxford and cambridge) are supposed to mirror the top privates in the world in quality.</p>

<p>Clemson University.</p>

<p>and in the spirit of rivalry week:</p>

<p>not the University Of South Carolina :)</p>

<p>W&M is best for undergrad focus on teaching.</p>

<p>The Big Three Public Research Universities:
Berkeley
Michigan
Wisconsin</p>

<p>Next Three:
UCLA
Texas
Washington</p>

<p>Liberal Arts Powerhouses:
Virginia
North Carolina
William & Mary</p>

<p>Technical Powerhouses:
Georgia Tech
Illinois
Purdue</p>

<p>

If the only things that mattered were faculty reputation and department strength, then yes. Otherwise, Wisconsin has no business in the top 3. UVA, UCLA, UNC and W&M among other trump it by a mile.</p>

<p>“If the only things that mattered were faculty reputation and department strength, then yes. Otherwise, Wisconsin has no business in the top 3. UVA, UCLA, UNC and W&M among other trump it by a mile.” </p>

<p>I think you need to read UCB’s comments again. He has UVA, UNC, and W & M listed as well as top liberal arts schools. In terms of research, Wisconsin trumps the above three schools by a mile. Those same three school are also relatively WEAK in the natural sciences and are also lacking or pretty weak in engineering, which are both very important area of academe. Perhaps UCLA is comparable/slightly better than Wisky in these areas, while the other three are nowhere/barely on the radar screen.</p>

<p>A mile huh></p>

<p>MID 50% ACT RANGE
UVa: 27-32 (29.5 average)
Michigan: 27-31 (29 average)
UCLA: 24-31 (27.5 average)”
UNC 27-31 (29 avg.)
UW Madison 27-31 (29 avg.)</p>

<p>Maybe a nose but not a mile. and the faculty quality generally offsets that advantage in many areas. Esp STEM fields. But it is still very strong in liberal arts too. Esp social sciences and languages. And the overall experience is hard to beat. Great campus, great social life, great town, great sports and great spirit.</p>

<p>@UCBChemEGrad,</p>

<p>“Next Three:
UCLA
Texas
Washington”</p>

<p>Next Three:
UCLA
Ohio State, Washington, Texas</p>

<p>Ohio State at least tied with Texas and/or Washington.
TOSU’s research expenditures blow Texas out of water.
TOSU’s admission std in terms of ACT blow Washington out of water.</p>

<p>Ohio State (Admission 2010)</p>

<h1>ACT Composite: 26 / 30</h1>

<h1>ACT English: 25 / 31</h1>

<h1>ACT Math: 25 / 31</h1>

<p>Washington - Seattle (Admission 2010)</p>

<h1>ACT Composite: 24 / 30</h1>

<h1>ACT English: 22 / 30</h1>

<h1>ACT Math: 24 / 30</h1>

<p>Texas (Admission 2010)</p>

<h1>ACT Composite: 25 / 31</h1>

<h1>ACT English: 24 / 31</h1>

<h1>ACT Math: 25 / 32</h1>

<p>And among them, TOSU’s ACT score continues to rise, Composite: 26 / 31 for 2011 with Ave of 28.5.</p>

<p>I can agree with you up to a point Sparkeye7. However the point after, “Ohio State blows
” is where you lose me. lol</p>

<p>TABLE 4.**Twenty institutions reporting the largest FY 2008 R&D expenditures in S&E fields: FY 2007–08
(Millions of current dollars)
Rank
2008 Institution 2007 2008</p>

<hr>

<p>All S&E R&D expendituresa 49,554 51,909</p>

<p>Leading 20 institutions 14,645 15,363
1 *<strong><em>Johns Hopkins U., Theb 1,554 1,681
2 *</em></strong>U. CA, San Francisco 843 885
3 *<strong><em>U. WI Madison 841 882
4 *</em></strong>U. MI all campuses 809 876
5 *<strong><em>U. CA, Los Angeles 823 871
6 *</em></strong>U. CA, San Diego 799 842
7 *<strong><em>Duke U. 782 767
8 *</em></strong>U. WA 757 765
9 *<strong><em>U. PA 648 708
10 *</em></strong>OH State U. all campuses 720 703
11 *<strong><em>PA State U. all campuses 652 701
12 *</em></strong>Stanford U. 688 688
13 *<strong><em>U. MN all campuses 624 683
14 *</em></strong>MA Institute of Technology 614 660
15 *<strong><em>Cornell U. all campuses 642 654
16 *</em></strong>U. CA, Davis 601 643
17 *<strong><em>U. Pittsburgh all campuses 559 596
18 *</em></strong>U. CA, Berkeley 552 592
19 *<strong><em>U. FL 593 584
20 *</em></strong>TX A&M U. 544 582</p>

<p>Well, TOSU is now at around $850 million. And although similar size to TOSU, I don’t see Texas - Austin anywhere within the Top-20?! Neither Washington nor Texas are deemed as ‘Up-and-Coming,’ too!! :p</p>

<p>^^^Those are all old figures Sparkeye. Now it’s Hopkins and Michigan in the number one and two spots with over a billion. I believe Wisky is over a billion now too. Remember too that UTA does not have a medical school on campus that also adds a lot of money. I’m sure if you eliminated the medical school R & D, TOSU would be well below Berkeley (which also doesn’t have a medical school) as well.</p>

<p>^^ I know, but I couldn’t find this year’s figures. And I understand the medical school effect, but that also means both Michigan and Wisconsin would drop below $1 billion w/o Medical School / Center’s expenditures, no?</p>

<p>“I’m sure if you eliminated the medical school R & D, TOSU would be well below Berkeley (which also doesn’t have a medical school) as well.”</p>

<p>No, I think it will tie with Berkeley. And TOSU is well on its way to reach $1 billion next year based on the latest data! :)</p>

<p>P.S. As a physician, I firmly believe Medical School / Center as part of University academic constituencies. After all, a great medical center like OSUMC or UCLAMC require roughly $2 billion on operative cost for maintenance when the money could definitely be spent elsewhere throughout the school had it not for the needs of running a top-notch medical school / center.</p>

<p>I would not name any of those original schools as top publics. Based on those lists by earlier posters, Rutgers could <em>maybe</em> be considered a top public, and UConn and Pitt are really the only others in the Northeast. </p>

<p>I think that it’s because traditionally, top students in the Northeast attend Ivies or top LACs (and while these sorts of schools can only educate a small proportion of the student population, they set the tone for private education being superior up north). Also, there are so many Catholic colleges up North that some are interested in, and obviously, these are private. Just my opinion, based on all my upstate New York family, and my own research.</p>

<p>The first public college (UNC) is in the South, while the first college (Harvard) and university (Penn) are in the North. You could say this sort of set the tone for these regions.</p>

<p>And the lack of football-frenzy and Greek life as major aspects of college life (as it is in some big publics outside the north) means that fewer strong students flock to their publics, because the publics don’t offer this different social scene.</p>

<p>(Don’t get me wrong, I know Rutgers played in the first collegiate football game! But still
)</p>

<p>Also, sorry, but I hadn’t heard of Hunter (I don’t know my CUNYs and SUNYs!), so it might not have national acclaim that matches what there might be for it in your area.</p>

<p>Well, I know of a true “up-and-coming” public university in the nation - instead of suffering from State budget cut, it has never been on negative in terms of state support, and it continues to receive additional $107 million state appropriations for next fiscal year. Unlike say Washington (or rest of the country for that matter), which has been the exact opposite in the last few years as well as the immediate future:</p>

<p>[UW</a> CSE News UW budget cuts vs. tuition increases](<a href=“http://news.cs.washington.edu/2010/08/24/uw-budget-cuts-vs-tuition-increases/]UW”>http://news.cs.washington.edu/2010/08/24/uw-budget-cuts-vs-tuition-increases/)</p>

<p>*TOSU 2011-2012 State Appropriation: $493 million (not including other government)</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.osu.edu/osutoday/stuinfo.php[/url]”>http://www.osu.edu/osutoday/stuinfo.php&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>how did I know that this thread was going to turn into Sparkeye’s Ohio State’s propaganda? :p</p>