Why Are Public Universities Always So Big?

College Search & Selection
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<p>In the case of California public universities, it's simply a question of serving the sheer numbers of qualified aspiring collegians. </p>

<p>The California plan calls for the top 12% of graduating high school students to find a place at a University of campus. That's almost 50,000 high school seniors each year. If thes students were to have to fit into only one or two campuses, those campuses would be comprised of about 200,000 students each!</p>

<p>So there are were eight campuses, now nine with UC Merced (assuming one doesn't count UCSF medical school, which would be #10, or Hastings Law School which would be #11).</p>

<p>Also Public universities tend toward reseach universities. The non-research universities at the Cal States (24 campuses), to which the top 40% are supposed to qualify.</p>

22

<p>It's pretty horrible in Arizona. There are only four real universities- three public and one private (it's a Baptist school that barely anybody attends.) I'm not including the "weird" schools like Devry, of course......</p>

<p>I've heard of ONE LAC- but it's very very hidden and nobody has heard about it. They make colleges big here so that they don't have to build more and can serve more students. They pretty much divided it in a stupid way (north-central-south) though. You pretty much have to move if you live anywhere else. D:</p>