What is the major difference between Public and Private colleges?

“New York does not have a poor state university system - many of the state universities in NY are good to great. And private schools range all over the map - are you really trying to say that a degree from Binghamton or Stony Brook or Geneseo wouldn’t be as good as an education from Daemon College, Berkeley College (the one in NYC), Touro College, College of New Rochelle, DeVry…etc.? There are a lot of private colleges. They are all over the map.”

No, I am saying that SUNY is a poor system overall compared to good state systems. Yes, there are worse schools out there. I certainly have not said otherwise. I am amazed at how many people on this site who have never spent more than a day on the campus of an actual flagship in a good system are so quick to defend SUNY. Spend a few days at Michigan, Wisc, UVA, and the 30 or so state schools rated higher than the highest rated SUNY and then come back and tell me that SUNY is just as good. Some make many SUNYs look like extended high schools. That isn’t to say that great students don’t go to SUNYs. Some excellent students go to SUNY. I’m not talking about the quality of the students attending. i am talking about the quality of the education, availability of resources, the extent to which the resources are state-of-the-art/cutting edge or dinosaurs. Tour the engineering buildings at various universities. What do you see? Read about the history of SUNY. If you don’t know the history, you might be surprised.

@lostaccount I can say without a shred of doubt that the UNC system (third-best in the country after the UCs and VA schools) makes the SUNY system look like Kindergarten in comparison. UNCW and App State make the likes of SUNY Brockport and New Delhi look like preschool playgrounds.

Oh, and let’s not even get started on the CUNYs. UNCW and App State make those schools look like baby cribs.

@ Juillet: Can you please clarify for me what you wrote in post #17 about Columbia, that its new masters direct entry program doesn’t qualify you to be a nurse practitioner?
I thought you need a master’s degree to be an NP. So I think you are saying that this Columbia master’s doesn’t get you to NP. In other words… All NPs need a master’s degree, but all master’s degrees (MSNs) don’t get you to NP. Correct?