Top private vs public universities: quality of college experience and future job prospects
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Anonymous
An unreasonably high percentage of people here would unironically answer yes to this question. |
Anonymous
Oh please, people are talking about being able to graduate in 4 years as they don’t have to fight for classes they need. Quality and personalized advising for med, law, grad school. Smaller class sizes where you can have closer relationships with profs for LOR, and so on. |
Anonymous
| Have a senior at a T10 private and a junior at public UCB. Both have had huge support from alumni network. Junior picked UCB over privates and I was nervous at first but had the same level of support, if not greater. Has already landed post grad job offer. Was able to do much more on the internship side because of UCB location than my older which was in a rural location, which may have contributed to the increase in opportunities (plus I really don't think it matters if it's a private T25 or public T25 the reputation of all of those schools is strong and will open doors and alumni a any of them will be willing to help if you reach out). |
Anonymous
What about UM computer engineering vs Duke? Obviously UM is higher ranked for that, but Duke is Duke. |
Anonymous
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You really can’t answer this question in the abstract. So much depends on the schools in question.
For example, you see all of the people here mentioning alumni networks. But in modern college, a huge number of jobs are filled through on-campus recruiting. I recall a thread awhile back about career services offices, and so many people were saying they were useless, even at top (private) universities. This surprised me, because a public with a good business school I am very familiar with has excellent career services and I had assumed this was the norm. This is all to say so much depends on the environment. You’re more likely to find similarities between Ross and Wharton than between Wharton and Brown. The campus vibe and set up at Cornell may be more similar to UVA than say, I don’t know, Princeton. It just depends on the schools and what you want. |
Anonymous
If this is what you care about then consider publics that accept AP credits and have a good honors college you can get into. You’ll get all of this and more. |
Anonymous
https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/undergraduate-teaching?_sort=rank&_sortDirection=asc Duke. #10 Michigan #14 Northwestern #21 |
Anonymous
Or also just attend top publics which all have good four year graduation rates, place well into grad schools, etc. |
Anonymous
DP: No. However, if my kid with ADHD and anxiety needs to change majors or figure out how to get into a "full class", I would prefer it if they could actually talk to someone and work the paths to make this happen. At a smaller, private school (and by small I'm talking under 10K, doesn't have to be 2K), this is much more likely to happen. When they have a question, I want them to have an advisor (or group of advisors) they can go to who actually cares to answer the questions accurately and help the student find their path. Oh, and to have profs who work with your kid and try to help them do well in the class, when they are struggling, not just TA office hours. Had a kid like that, they graduated (after major changes, first major tanked their GPA) with 3.5+, started first job 2 weeks later and doing well4 years later. Had they been at a large state U, they very likely would have struggled much more and might have been so stressed/anxious they would have given up/done terrible academically. Instead, they learned life skills, succeeded academically and have a great career. I prefer to have them succeed, and some kids need a bit more help with that, including some really smart kids |
Anonymous
DP: 1000% Huge alumni network (ok not as big as Michigan) and profs who will know who you are and help you years later. |
Anonymous
| Privates>Publics |
Anonymous
THis 1000% The perks of a smaller private university are huge. Not having to fight for the courses you want/need, great advising and advisors that know your student. For ex: my kid was at a T100. Spent 1 year in Major X, then needed to switch. The "main advisor for Major X/School X" only knew my kid for less than 1 year, as they helped my kid figure out how to switch majors in April of Freshman year (on the day of Registration, 2 hours before reg none the less--so under intense pressure). That Advisor saw us at graduation and came over to talk. They knew my kid's name and remembered what major they were switching to. This isn't a school with 2k students, it's a school with about 8K undergrads. That's what some of us want for our kids. When you have an ADHD kid, Anxiety ridden kid with Zero EF (except what you have trained them in), sometimes we and our kids know they need a bit extra care. The benefits of providing that means they excel in life. |
Anonymous
They are already at a top private that doesn’t take AP credits. Can only use to bypass intro classes and you aren’t graduating faster as no credit. Wouldn’t want to anyway. Honors colleges will have some of the perks, agree with that part. |
Anonymous
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I think outcomes are often pretty similar—same job offers and salaries.
But I think the big difference is in the residential experience. On campus housing (and food) or apartment/self cooking with roommates. There are advantages to both but it seems like one of the differences btwn private and public schools. For example UC Berkeley and Virginia Tech might has on campus housing for first year only. |
Anonymous
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I went to Cal. My firstborn is at Williams.
Aside from cost, I think large publics reward kids with hustle and kids in the top 10-20% of their class. While there's little handholding, a school like Cal actually has a crazy amount of resources available to kids with the gumption to seek them out. And the kids at the top of publics, at least in California, are generally Ivy quality. Most of my peers saw little point to leaving California to pay more at a East Coast school. While I had some auditorium classes, I was also able to develop close relationships with a few professors in my major and minor. Class registration was a minor irritant and not the massive issue it's often made out to be on this forum. On the other hand, Williams provides a crazy amount of resources to its students. If one has to climb the Cal tree a ways to reap its fruit, Ephs have the fruit falling on their heads. And the professorial relationships are real. DC's profs have gone out of their way to help DC with internship and job opportunities. I also think Williams is more rigorous academically across the board. While there is definitely a lot of grinding at Cal, one could also skate by in certain subjects if they were content with B grades. At Williams, I don't think it's possible to skate by in any subject. I also think there are regional differences in perceived prestige. The West Coast has more quality public schools and thus more alumni from such schools. Few people look down on a Cal, UCLA, or Washington grad or assumes that they were necessarily the "best" schools the grad got into. But it seems like college prestige plays a larger role on the East Coast, where for a long time there seemed to be a perception that one should almost always pick the best, most prestigious college possible. (This, however, seems to be changing.) |