Private vs Public universites
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Anonymous
OP here.. This is my thinking as well, hence the question about Private vs Public. Assuming the three schools named in the OP are about the same in overall ranking as well as CS rigor, would USC be a better school because it's private or save the money and go to UVA (if in-state)? Would a private school, especially a larger one like USC, result in a better, well-connected alumni network? Not using Berkeley, UCLA or Michigan (or Duke, Brown & Rice) in the comparison given their relative higher/better profile. |
Anonymous
Not necessarily. It depends on where you want to end up, but plenty of public schools have great alumni networks, and most schools have a state/regional network rather than a really national one, so USC will have a better network in California/West Coast, while UVA will have a better one in the DMV/upper South. I wouldn't choose private over public just because of that. Frankly, if the schools are truly basically the same, I'd take public and save the money for graduate school or a down payment on a house or whatever. |
Anonymous
Parents and kids may obsess over USNWR rankings, but I'd maintain that employers and the public in general don't have such fine distinctions in their head. No school mentioned by the OP are not really thought of as being academically distinguished from the others, and you could extend that aperture to either side of those schools and the answer would probably be the same. Sure, if you throw Harvard into the mix, my answer is going to be different, but not these schools or the schools around them. Differences between these schools will be thought of more in the connotations people keep in their heads. USC = sunshine, sunglasses, palm trees, cheerleaders, etc. |
Anonymous
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Reasons to choose a public: in-state price, big merit at a less-selective out of state public, and/or a special program not offered elsewhere. Sometimes, football.
Reasons not to choose a public: some publics, notably the UCs, have a reputation for difficulty with getting courses and graduating on time. Feeling like a number. The larger size of most publics may make them a poor fit for a student looking for a smaller experience. There isn't a one size fits all answer to the comparison between publics and privates. |
Anonymous
The University of Florida and UC Santa Barbara are now ranked 30 in USNews, so only 4 spots from UVA and 3 from UNC, and above schools like Georgia Tech. What programs or outcomes at these schools would be better than UT Austin at 42? I wonder about some of the elements that goes into these rankings, which makes me think you really shouldn't worry to much about small differences. For public vs private, I would say don't distinguish just based on that, but I would look at what the undergraduate experience is like. As someone else mentioned, schools like the UC System are not the best if you want individual attention, class availability, etc. If you look at sources like Niche, which uses inputs from students and graduates, they may not rate to high in those categories (including value for money). |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
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A lot of the UC schools got recent ranking bumps because they admit a lot of poor kids. USNews added a variable that gives schools credit for admitting kids who receive spell grants. However, I work with a number of colleagues who grew up in CA and laugh at the new high rankings for some UC schools.
For the same reason, W&M has dropped in the rankings. Same great school, but they don’t admit many Pell grant students, but they’re working on it. |
Anonymous
The entire University of California system averages 37% of students receiving Pell Grants. In Virginia, only Virginia State, Norfolk State, ODU, and Radford are above that level. UVA, VT, JMU, and W&M together average about 14%. Something is completely different between these states, obviously. |
Anonymous
| I'd look at the per capita endowment. Based upon this along, large privates can have more resources. Where great publics excel is in having a lot of research funding. |
Anonymous
| I think that the quality of the food tends to be high at privates with high endowments and high room & board costs. There are exceptions, though. |
Anonymous
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No, this whole line of reasoning is a ridiculous. Public vs. private universities have a whole range of quality, resources, and endowments. It would be a huge overgeneralization to say that private universities are on a whole better than public ones.
If you are working at a private versus public university or discussing some administrative differences that might affect financial aid or other university policy, then sure there are differences. Public universities are funded partially by the state and certain things have to go through state bureaucracies/state legislature preferences /state financial transparency policies. If you are a faculty member or administrator, then certain types of funding can be spent with more discretion at some private universities compared to some state universities which can affect how you do your job. But this doesn't really affect prestige as it applies to US news rankings or general ideas of prestige in the public. |
Anonymous
Privates get lots of research funding as well. Privates are not really privately funded. They get federal research dollars, federal student loan subsidies, and have tax exempt status. If you count all that, Princeton gets more than any university in Virginia in public provided benefits. |
Anonymous
Exactly, I've told both of my kids that schools ranked within 5 spots in either direction are essentially equivalent -- just not a big enough distinction to even think about. |
Anonymous
Probably more than 5 spots. I think it is even bigger as you go down the list. Even at the top, Princeton is #1 and Stanford #6. I'd say most cross-admits would choose Stanford these days. |
Anonymous
| Go to the least expensive and bank the difference or invest for grad. school. That's where the name really counts. |