<p>Texas Tech and UHouston are some of the schools that are seeking elevation to flagship status along with UT Austin and A&M</p>
<p>I think the comment about wide curriculum is part of it too.</p>
<p>In VA William and Mary is more selective than UVA, with higher test scores and lower percentage admitted. But UVA, which is bigger and has a broader curriculum is still clearly the flagship.</p>
<p>In addition Virginia Tech is probably more selective than many other state flagships, and yet because it’s not the top in it’s state, and doesn’t have the same breadth of curriculum, it doesn’t get the flagship label.</p>
<p>What about the state of Georgia?</p>
<p>In VT we have only one U that I’m aware of, UVM, the university of the green mountains. I know of 3 state colleges and our network of CCs. So I’d have to call UVM our flagship. An only and a goodie!</p>
<p>There can only be one flagship in any state. Some may debate which of two is the flagship. New York doesn’t have a flagship school, instead it has several top for the state public U’s that are more comprehensive/known/competitive than the others. California has Berkeley and perhaps UCLA competing its role. U of Indiana, Michigan, Iowa are the flagships despite schools running a close second or being far ahead of the rest of the state’s public U’s. Many states have a main public U despite being less remarkable than private schools instate or other flagship U’s. These are the public U’s in each state that are the most desirable of the ones in the state. The flagship will draw the best instate students, especially because of finances and are likely to have Honors programs with students of Ivy league caliber (most of the nation’s best students can’t go to the most elite schools- there simply isn’t room for them, nor does every top student wish to go to the Ivies). Being public means needing to cater to instate students- especially since taxpayers would object to their kids not being able to attend them due to OOS students, regardless of the actual financial support of the flagship.</p>
<p>Short answer- the ONE top public school in each state that is ahead of any others academically et al. Of course it will be the major research school, hence argument within a state sometimes for which school gets the designation.</p>
<p>Sorry, as much as I like MSU it doesn’t hold a candle to UM in terms of being a flagship. It’s easier to get accepted to MSU, and it isn’t as well-regarded nationally. That is not to say that MSU isn’t a fine school … it’s just that UM screams “flagship.”</p>
<p>Agree with the above. A note- a school doesn’t need to be highly regarded nationally to be the flagship- after all 80% of state flagships are not in the top ten flagship ranking (ie 40 out of 50). In fact, many second ranked schools in some states can outrank most flagships. Many of the east coast flagships are minor in comparison to the private schools in their state/region. This may be a reason some don’t understand the concept, especially if they are from the east coast. Further west and south states put more more into one public school to make it dominent and competitive nationally.</p>
<p>well… it looks like the concept of ‘flagship’ is still clear as mud!</p>
<p>Land grant schools are often different than flagship.
In Wa, the UW is the flagship & WSU is the Landgrant U.
No poly tech schools in Wa however.
[List</a> of land-grant universities - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_land-grant_universities]List”>List of land-grant universities - Wikipedia)
Kiplinger has a good list of top public schools.
[url=<a href=“http://www.kiplinger.com/tools/colleges/]Best”>Best College Values, 2019 | Kiplinger]Best</a> Values in Public Colleges, 2011-12<a href=“of%20the%20top%2025%20schools,%206%20are%20inCa”>/url</a></p>
<p>Not sure if it was mentioned in the thread, but UCB is FAR from a safety on any front and although the mother ship of the UCs (if for no other reason than it was the first), it is wholly inaccessible to many students. So, “flagship state” can mean many things.</p>
<p>^^^ laplatinum, your post seems to be implying that you expected a flagship to be a safety school that is accessible to many students. That’s at odds with the usual figurative usage of “flagship” (not just for colleges) to connote something like best or showcase. I think that typically a flagship state university is likely to have the most selective admissions of that state’s public colleges and universities.</p>
<p>The term “flagship” is a subjective one that does not have a precise definition and what definitions it has can be applied very loosely. Some states have very obvious flagship universities. It’s the biggest, best, and most well known of the state schools. For states like Delaware and Rhode Island, there is no contest. The same with schools like Maryland, VA, GA, Il. But there are states that do not have the hierachy set up with one main school and other streaming down in order of ranking and selectivity. CA and NY are in that category. Berkely is considered the “best” UC, but it is not flagship in the same sense that a lot of such schools are. NY has the 4 universities that squabble over the title all of the time and there is no clear consensus. None of the schools are nationally well known, so it doesn’ t really make any difference.</p>
<p>wis, how do you explain a state like Texas? Texas officially recognizes UT-Austin and A&M as its flagship universities. In fact there has been a fight among other institutions like UHouston and Texas Tech to gain “third flagship” status. Texas is not alone in recognizing more than one school as its flagship. The state of Florida regards both UF and FSU to be flagships.</p>
<p>Wise, you say that in Michigan that only U-M is the flagship. I actually read a piece of official U-M communication that states that U-M and MSU are both flagships for the state.
You mention Indiana and suggest that IU is the flagship. Yet Purdue is usually ranked higher than IU, the curricula is split between the two universities with not a lot of overlap and the two combine together to offer IUPU campuses as part of their role as the apex of Indiana public education.</p>
<p>How about Nevada? UNR and UNLV have equal status. UNR gets to call itself “Nevada” in sports due to its older status, but that’s about it. Your not going to get a single flagship in a state where Northern Nevada/Reno and Southern Nevada/Las Vegas are two different and competing worlds. If either school feels like a step child in today’s Nevada, it would be UNR.</p>
<p>Here’s the part I don’t understand…you come up with a blanket “one flagship per state” but even the state university systems in certain states disagree with you. </p>
<p>if you are taking informally rather than by an form of edict, well, I guess I could buy it…there is an interpretation that states what you suggest. but there is also one that is in no means less prevalent that suggests otherwise and often does recognize two schools as flagships.</p>
<p>again, it’s more about a definition of the institution: state wide identity, heavy research component, high academics, economic engine for state that is the issue…in some states, one school carries on that role, in others two does.</p>
<p>“flagship state universities” is more important as a group than a concept of what is considered the top public school in a given state…the term is used to have a meaning, a special kind of public university with a set of attributes (as the ones listed above). nobody is arguing that one of a state’s flagships might be better than another…Michigan is a good example where U-M is clearly higher ranked than MSU. But MSU fits the decryption of what makes a flagship tick very well. And if MSU were in many states in the nation, it could easily be the top ranked public university. MSU’s status (as in other schools I mention) comes from how they function as opposed to their ranking in regards to a sister in-state institution. In other words, MSU makes it on its own status, its ability to fit the criteria and one doesn’t have to look at U-M for comparison purposes to see it: both of these schools fit the descriptors.</p>
<p>Think about the word “flagship” and the classic definition. How many different ships in the fleet at sea can be in charge? The term was developed for universities with this in mind. NY doesn’t have any clear leader school. Other states fight about it. It IS subjective, hence the discussion. Flagship is singular- the ONE school perceived to be the leader among the state’s public colleges. Perhaps the role changes depending on circumstances, just as the flag can be passed from one ship to another.</p>
<p>i agree with you about the original term, flagship; and i realize that the santa maria had it, but neither the nina or pinta did. it was one. and it did lead. with flags waving.</p>
<p>and as a result, i think you’d be on safe ground saying that when originally used, it did mean that one state university that was at the head of the pack. </p>
<p>but the world of higher education in the US changed dramatically in the post-WWII years, its sheer growth and scope putting it in a wholly different place.</p>
<p>many of the land-grant universities that came into existence in the post-Civil War era started as colleges and had a far narrower scope than the “flagship”. but all that started to change in the early 1950s. throughout that decade, a large percentage of these schools received university status and also began taking on roles far more akin to the original flagships.</p>
<p>the paradigm had to change with the new situation.</p>
<p>so i think a shift took place, a granting of co-flagship status to these land grant schools. and I do believe that the factors I identified as flagship, by nature…size, scope, research, admission standards, state wide focus, economic engine for their states…began to be applied to these land grants, these second flagships, if you will.</p>
<p>yes, wis, as both of us said, it really is a matter of interpretation and yours has validity as does mine. But as far as the “official” part, when the states themselves are tabbing two schools as flagships (and a number of states do), I’ll go along with their notion and not be wedded to the notion that there must be one only.</p>
<p>flagships, IMHO, are much more schools that follow certain descriptors, a commonality that runs between them coast-to-coast, rather than a mere rank among the universities in state. </p>
<p>It’s a duck kind of a thing…MSU, Purdue, TAMU, FSU, UCLA, UNLV, Auburn, and a number of others walk like a flagship, squawk like a flagship…which means they pretty much are flagships.</p>