<p>Especially with honors programs popping up all over the place, state flagships can provide a very rigorous education.</p>
<p>A lot of people have already realized that. Many top students had chosen their state flagships with merit scholarship and good honors program instead of going to an Ivy. There were also many that did not apply to an Ivy school at all.</p>
<p>Yes, especially in basketball–Kentucky has always been a powerhouse!!!</p>
<p>I’m hoping my DS will understand that–he’s applied to several top privates, but he’s already in at our state Flagship(s) and they are amazing schools, so we’ll see what the end of the month provides in the way of any more admits and make the visits to do the quality choice decision (I’m rooting for flagship).</p>
<p>If you are in Virginia, VAMom, the Virginia schools are hard to pass up unless need is not an issue at all or great merit aid is available elsewhere. Alot of top Virginia kids just don’t realize how lucky they are-they just want to get out of town so to speak and feel that they have worked hard and are entitled to go wherever they want to go. Son did ED in 2005 to UVa although thought about applying to more expensive,private schools. Funny thing is that when son now thinks about possible graduate school, he talks about UVa(since he works in Virginia). Also funny how perspective changes when you’re no longer 17 and the cost of college or grad school is now on your own dime!</p>
<p>When will people realize that state flagships can be better than the Ivy League? </p>
<hr>
<p>The state flagships are awash with students who already do.</p>
<p>What people?</p>
<p>sevmom–luckily my DS does know how lucky he is that we have landed here in VA. We are a military family and DS attended school in 5 states and has grown up understanding the variety of levels of school systems. We stayed here because of the schools. He’s also not one who is itching to get away from us (guess we aren’t too annoying :)) since one of his school choices is a plane ride away and he really likes the school but the distance is daunting (even though we’ve told him the plane ride would be faster than driving to some of his choices right here in our state).</p>
<p>We’ve told him from day one that he needs to find the best fit for him. So we’ve given him the freedom to explore his options and we are confident he will choose well. He thanked us the other day for being supportive of him and his college search. He has friends who are being told by parents where they will go even though the student doesn’t want to attend the school (choice isn’t due to cost, but due to other factors). He knows cost is a consideration, but he has pursued scholarships that will serve him well wherever he goes.</p>
<p>VAMom, That is the best possible scenario for your son! I’m sure he will do well wherever he lands!</p>
<p>It’s more about experiences and opportunities than quality of education.</p>
<p>Sevmom and VAMom2015, yes your state does offer INCREDIBLE institutions which is why my D elected to attend UVa as an OOS student. Our home state, TX, has two excellent state schools as well (UT and A&M); however, both were simply too big for her. Thus far, she’s happy at UVa and even though we’re paying OOS tuition, it is still mote reasonable than some of her other choices (Northwestern, BC Honors, etc.)</p>
<p>With the huge state budget cuts, schools like UCBerkeley are raising tuition, cutting services, and already many students needed 5 years to graduate due to overcrowded courses. Hopefully UVA and Michigan can continue to offer quality programs.</p>
<p>As for the OP’s basketball reference, well, UKentucky has 17,000 students from which to draw a team. Princeton has 5,000, with much higher academic requirements. I’m surprised UK could only beat the Tigers by one measley basket!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Neither team draws its members from their student body. They go out across the country and the world, find them, and bring them to their campuses.</p>
<p>Not everyone lives in Virginia. In some other states, the flagship state schools are simply not in the same academic league as UVa – or Princeton, Brown, Columbia, etc.</p>
<p>Yes, I know all about Div. I recruiting, Gadad. Nonetheless, Princeton’s recruits need to reach a much higher Academic Index (within one level of deviation of the Princeton student body) than UK. The BB team must then compete with the PU student body, with the institutionalized grade deflation to graduate.</p>
<p>Plenty of people agree with the OP. My kids have no interest in a school with over 40,000 students and lots of rah-rah sports fans. (They are not interested in the Ivy league either, at least the first two.) And since the PA governor is proposing huge cuts to state and state-related schools, things will get worse.</p>
<p>I agree. For example who doesn’t absolutely LOVE Nevada Las Vegas. 28000 students, killer sports teams, sunny weather, and a short drive from LA. PLUS, a 1000 M+CR with a B high school average gets you in! Just TRY to top THAT Cornell.</p>
<p>Ivies have several big advantages:
- national drawing power (they get students from all over the USA and the world)
- excellent need-based aid (they can be even cheaper after aid for high-need students)
- small classes, few TAs, access to top faculty
- highly diverse, talented student bodies (selected for high stats + ECs + leadership + diversity)</p>
<p>I don’t think any state university can compete on all 4 of these, combined, with any of the Ivies. That said, for many if not most full-pay students, a state university is a better value. For some fields (such as engineering) they are competitive (at least) for quality as well as price.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Again a player who can dribble the ball well and shoot might not be capable of passing Princeton classes while might find lots of courses at U of K to breeze through.</p>
<p>Have you ever ponder why this was so huge a news?</p>
<p>[Caltech</a> basketball snaps 310-game conference losing streak [Updated] | The Fabulous Forum | Los Angeles Times](<a href=“Archive blogs”>Caltech basketball snaps 310-game conference losing streak)</p>
<p>Because it’s not everyones cup of tea to pass a course at CalTech. Princeton might not be as hard as CalTech or MIT but it is far far harder than U of K.</p>
<p>to mamabear1234:</p>
<p>it’s intertesting that your kids don’t like the 40,000+ students, with the rah-rah sports fans–that was my daughter’s first prereq.!!! (also–the honors, and large merit aid was a powerful incentive!) kids likes are all different!</p>
<p>ParentofIvyHope,Funny you bring up Caltech(D 3 in basketball ). Great documentary about their team. My 2005 hs son actually got a recruiting letter from them(probably many others did too and many others may do since they said they ran some numbers and his name came up) talking about how they wanted to start actually winning some games but needed some players who had actually played before. 6’6" son with 780 math SAT, 800 SAt math ll, 5’s on AP Physics, BC calculus,etc got on their radar. No way we could afford it (airfare, hotels, added tuition expense,etc) plus great Virginia options for school so did not even pursue it. He was socially not a good fit for Caltech. UVa much better fit financially and socially. Have a nephew going to an Ivy for bb-don’t kid yourself that the kids can only dribble-definitely recruiting going on and the kids do need to meet some standards. The strange thing I thought with the Princeton game today(which they barely lost) were the blurbs about how competitive it was to get accepted there academically. How about major D-1 basketball programs like Kentucky?Many athletes work very hard to get to a recruitable level, very few succeed.</p>