<p>
[quote]
Name one person who benefitted from where they went to college specifically.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>If the specific college that one attends doesn't have any benefit, why do you suppose so many wish to go to a good university? For the same reason that you wish to attend Boston University, students want to attend specific schools that will benefit them as a person, whether it be socially, intellectually, financially, etc. That seems like a silly question.</p>
<p>EDIT: And attending the CGS doesn't make someone a retard.</p>
<p>If you honestly believe that why bother going to BU? why not just go to community college for 2 years then transfer to cheapest school? if it doesn't matter where you go?</p>
<p>take a look at the top 8 public schools according to us news. this would be the public ivy league schools.</p>
<ol>
<li> UC Berkeley</li>
<li> Virginia</li>
<li> Michigan</li>
<li> UCLA</li>
<li> North Carolina</li>
<li> William and Marry</li>
<li> Wisconsin</li>
<li> UCSD</li>
</ol>
<p>To me these are the clear top 8. Closely behind are schools such as UIUC, Georgia Tech, Texas, Washington. I would agree that in most americans mind if there was one public ivy, Berkeley would be it. While it doesnt look like an ivy league school, it is much bigger, its name invokes similar responses to those of Ivy League institutions. While at the undergraduate level, Berkeley lacks the personal attention and feel that many of the ivy's have, at the graduate level, Berkeley is better than most of the Ivy's save Harvard and possibly Yale.</p>
<p>On the other hand, UVA takes/gets so little support from public monies (the state of VA and taxpayers), that it's a wonder they can still consider themselves a public university. ;)</p>
<p>That's not unusual any longer Jack. State appropriations only make up 10%-20% of the total cost of running the academic division of most elite state universities. The universities must fund the remaining 80% and 90% of their academic divisions nowadays.</p>
<p>In contrast to UVA, Alexandre, the UNC system receives ~40% support from the state of NC. However, I don't know the exact division of where all the money goes (i.e., what percentage goes to the "academic division"). In contrast, I <em>believe</em> (and I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong), UVA receives only around 10% support from state funding.</p>
<p>To me these are the clear top 8. Closely behind are schools such as UIUC, Georgia Tech, Texas, Washington. I would agree that in most americans mind if there was one public ivy, Berkeley would be it. While it doesnt look like an ivy league school, it is much bigger, its name invokes similar responses to those of Ivy League institutions. While at the undergraduate level, Berkeley lacks the personal attention and feel that many of the ivy's have, at the graduate level, Berkeley is better than most of the Ivy's save Harvard and possibly Yale.
</p>
<p>These are only the top 8 according to the criteria US News uses, which as brought up many times actually has absolutely nothing to do with faculty quality, academic breadth and depth, and institutional resources (NOT the 'financial resourses' measure US News uses which is basically just spending per capita and doesn't account for institutional efficiencies and economies of scale available to very large universities). So to say these are clearly the top 8 is not true. The schools you mentioned below them are actually much stronger academically than some of the schools in that list. Your last sentence touches on the importance of recognizing this when you mention how Berkeley is stronger than all Ivies except Harvard and Yale at the graduate level. By the same token, schools like UIUC, Washington, and Texas don't have the small Ivy feel at the undergrad level either, but their academic programs are certainly on the same level, and often times higher, as most Ivies.</p>