Why a Large Flagship/Public?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I attended a LAC while the majority of my HS classmates (who enrolled in college; the majority did not) attended the two large unis in our state or one of the five regionals. Many returned to our hometown, landed jobs, married, had kids, were active in the local schools, took care of their parents as they aged, and are now grandparents themselves. While my life pretty much doesn't resemble theirs in many ways, I just don't get the vitriol here. It is certainly great for our hometown that folks return, pay taxes, and plow money back into the community. It's not necessarily what I sought in life, but I don't begrudge them for it.

Ah, so keeping sheep shackled to the local region is great for...legacy costs i.e PENSIONS AND HEALTH CARE for fat cat lazy boomers who retire to Florida or Arizona and live high on the hog in their late 50s 60s 70s 80s? Got it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I attended a LAC while the majority of my HS classmates (who enrolled in college; the majority did not) attended the two large unis in our state or one of the five regionals. Many returned to our hometown, landed jobs, married, had kids, were active in the local schools, took care of their parents as they aged, and are now grandparents themselves. While my life pretty much doesn't resemble theirs in many ways, I just don't get the vitriol here. It is certainly great for our hometown that folks return, pay taxes, and plow money back into the community. It's not necessarily what I sought in life, but I don't begrudge them for it.

Ditto. Why do people think it's so awful to be attached to your family, friends and community? I did move across the country in my 20s but regret that a bit now that I'm in my 50s and spend as much time as I can going back to my home state to see family and see how some old college friends have been able to have long, close relationships in the friend group I'm no longer a part of.

[Anonymous]

State schools aren't for everyone. If you came from a sheltered, small private school, the rough & tumble of the wider world is going to be a little jarring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I attended a LAC while the majority of my HS classmates (who enrolled in college; the majority did not) attended the two large unis in our state or one of the five regionals. Many returned to our hometown, landed jobs, married, had kids, were active in the local schools, took care of their parents as they aged, and are now grandparents themselves. While my life pretty much doesn't resemble theirs in many ways, I just don't get the vitriol here. It is certainly great for our hometown that folks return, pay taxes, and plow money back into the community. It's not necessarily what I sought in life, but I don't begrudge them for it.

Ditto. Why do people think it's so awful to be attached to your family, friends and community? I did move across the country in my 20s but regret that a bit now that I'm in my 50s and spend as much time as I can going back to my home state to see family and see how some old college friends have been able to have long, close relationships in the friend group I'm no longer a part of.

I agree. It's a bizarre attitude to take and totally at odds with how people in all other parts of the world act. In the end, all it does is compound loneliness and a lack of family cohesion. How is that a good thing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:State schools aren't for everyone. If you came from a sheltered, small private school, the rough & tumble of the wider world is going to be a little jarring.

I'm a PP who has a DC at UCLA who was deciding between UCLA, Michigan, and UT Austin. DC was in a very small private school from K-12 and that is why they sought out only large state schools. DC absolutely LOVES it there. But DC is a very outgoing self-starter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP,
They don't know any better and they don't have the money for private even if they had a clue. If you gave them money for private college, they'd ask if they could still send their kid to a large public U and use the leftover sum to buy a boat or a new truck. Their kid's top priorities in a college are: Partying, hookup culture, name recognition, following the local masses, and an easy degree. The moms and dads want their kids at a nearby party college so they can use it as an excuse to go tailgate with them. Things like small classes, quality professors, smart classmates are literally not on their radar at all. Seriously, not at all. The middle class are largely sheep and are very provincial and predictable. They watch a lot of reality and sports on TV, they drink Bud Light and boxed wine, and send their kids to local government schools. It is what it is. And don't forget, nobody calls their baby ugly. The degree mill their kid goes to is the BEST public U and their kid is "loves it!"

Troll[/quote

Defense mechanism. You're coping. The truth hurts.

Not so. I went to a SLAC and I didn’t turn out any different than anyone else who went to a larger school. I will say when I was job hunting, no one had heard of my school so that definitely sucked. My kids are at a large state school where maybe ten others from their HS went and they only see them in passing, have met a great group of friends from all over.
And they love it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I attended a LAC while the majority of my HS classmates (who enrolled in college; the majority did not) attended the two large unis in our state or one of the five regionals. Many returned to our hometown, landed jobs, married, had kids, were active in the local schools, took care of their parents as they aged, and are now grandparents themselves. While my life pretty much doesn't resemble theirs in many ways, I just don't get the vitriol here. It is certainly great for our hometown that folks return, pay taxes, and plow money back into the community. It's not necessarily what I sought in life, but I don't begrudge them for it.

Ah, so keeping sheep shackled to the local region is great for...legacy costs i.e PENSIONS AND HEALTH CARE for fat cat lazy boomers who retire to Florida or Arizona and live high on the hog in their late 50s 60s 70s 80s? Got it.

I don't even understand this....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP,
They don't know any better and they don't have the money for private even if they had a clue. If you gave them money for private college, they'd ask if they could still send their kid to a large public U and use the leftover sum to buy a boat or a new truck. Their kid's top priorities in a college are: Partying, hookup culture, name recognition, following the local masses, and an easy degree. The moms and dads want their kids at a nearby party college so they can use it as an excuse to go tailgate with them. Things like small classes, quality professors, smart classmates are literally not on their radar at all. Seriously, not at all. The middle class are largely sheep and are very provincial and predictable. They watch a lot of reality and sports on TV, they drink Bud Light and boxed wine, and send their kids to local government schools. It is what it is. And don't forget, nobody calls their baby ugly. The degree mill their kid goes to is the BEST public U and their kid is "loves it!"

Talk about stereotyping and out of touch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I attended a LAC while the majority of my HS classmates (who enrolled in college; the majority did not) attended the two large unis in our state or one of the five regionals. Many returned to our hometown, landed jobs, married, had kids, were active in the local schools, took care of their parents as they aged, and are now grandparents themselves. While my life pretty much doesn't resemble theirs in many ways, I just don't get the vitriol here. It is certainly great for our hometown that folks return, pay taxes, and plow money back into the community. It's not necessarily what I sought in life, but I don't begrudge them for it.

Ditto. Why do people think it's so awful to be attached to your family, friends and community? I did move across the country in my 20s but regret that a bit now that I'm in my 50s and spend as much time as I can going back to my home state to see family and see how some old college friends have been able to have long, close relationships in the friend group I'm no longer a part of.

I’ve lived away from family and friends but our relationships didn’t end but I value them and made conscious efforts to keep the connections important to me. I also made new bonds in areas I moved to. You can be alone in your hometown without ever moving anywhere if you don’t work on your relationships. Proximity sure makes it easier but there is more to it than physical distance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:State schools aren't for everyone. If you came from a sheltered, small private school, the rough & tumble of the wider world is going to be a little jarring.

Better to have that in college than go to a sheltering college and then face reality after.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I attended a LAC while the majority of my HS classmates (who enrolled in college; the majority did not) attended the two large unis in our state or one of the five regionals. Many returned to our hometown, landed jobs, married, had kids, were active in the local schools, took care of their parents as they aged, and are now grandparents themselves. While my life pretty much doesn't resemble theirs in many ways, I just don't get the vitriol here. It is certainly great for our hometown that folks return, pay taxes, and plow money back into the community. It's not necessarily what I sought in life, but I don't begrudge them for it.

Ah, so keeping sheep shackled to the local region is great for...legacy costs i.e PENSIONS AND HEALTH CARE for fat cat lazy boomers who retire to Florida or Arizona and live high on the hog in their late 50s 60s 70s 80s? Got it.

I don't even understand this....

The PP explained it's good to keep most kids narrow-minded and tethered to the same region they grew up via local public degree mills because it keeps the tax base in place. In sum, it's self-serving because the young tax base in most of the country merely services the legacy costs of the baby boomer's fat retirement packages. Most of those retirees barely lifted a finger in whatever public job they had and retired with lavish taxpayer-funded pensions and platinum health care benefits. The country is bigger than just DMV, much of the nation is struggling and has increasingly limited opportunities, while the tax base too narrow-minded to move is fleeced to pay for retired boomers (many of which moved to Florida and Arizona).

[Anonymous]

Public universities = weed out courses first year to force out thousands of qualified students from the most expensive STEM departments, to funnel them into cheap soft departments taught by cheap grad assistants and lecturers. And for the last 20 years, those funneled out are often domestic students, in favor of big spending international students. Anyone extolling the virtues of a public undergraduate degree is a sap. You can say it worked for you, fine, whatever, but recognize you're an outlier or just too dull to realize you received a half-ass college education. Maybe fewer people have heard of a SLAC, but nobody at a SLAC is purposely setting up half the freshman to fail out of biology or turning the school into a pseudo pro sports team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Public universities = weed out courses first year to force out thousands of qualified students from the most expensive STEM departments, to funnel them into cheap soft departments taught by cheap grad assistants and lecturers. And for the last 20 years, those funneled out are often domestic students, in favor of big spending international students. Anyone extolling the virtues of a public undergraduate degree is a sap. You can say it worked for you, fine, whatever, but recognize you're an outlier or just too dull to realize you received a half-ass college education. Maybe fewer people have heard of a SLAC, but nobody at a SLAC is purposely setting up half the freshman to fail out of biology or turning the school into a pseudo pro sports team.

So if those at public universities receive a half-ass college education, why do these lists look the way they do?

https://lesshighschoolstress.com/engineering/

https://lesshighschoolstress.com/lists/tech/

https://lesshighschoolstress.com/medicine/

https://lesshighschoolstress.com/astronauts/

https://lesshighschoolstress.com/biotech-pharma/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Public universities = weed out courses first year to force out thousands of qualified students from the most expensive STEM departments, to funnel them into cheap soft departments taught by cheap grad assistants and lecturers. And for the last 20 years, those funneled out are often domestic students, in favor of big spending international students. Anyone extolling the virtues of a public undergraduate degree is a sap. You can say it worked for you, fine, whatever, but recognize you're an outlier or just too dull to realize you received a half-ass college education. Maybe fewer people have heard of a SLAC, but nobody at a SLAC is purposely setting up half the freshman to fail out of biology or turning the school into a pseudo pro sports team.

So if those at public universities receive a half-ass college education, why do these lists look the way they do?

https://lesshighschoolstress.com/engineering/

https://lesshighschoolstress.com/lists/tech/

https://lesshighschoolstress.com/medicine/

https://lesshighschoolstress.com/astronauts/

https://lesshighschoolstress.com/biotech-pharma/

Because they are curated by a website called “less high school stress”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I attended a LAC while the majority of my HS classmates (who enrolled in college; the majority did not) attended the two large unis in our state or one of the five regionals. Many returned to our hometown, landed jobs, married, had kids, were active in the local schools, took care of their parents as they aged, and are now grandparents themselves. While my life pretty much doesn't resemble theirs in many ways, I just don't get the vitriol here. It is certainly great for our hometown that folks return, pay taxes, and plow money back into the community. It's not necessarily what I sought in life, but I don't begrudge them for it.

Ditto. Why do people think it's so awful to be attached to your family, friends and community? I did move across the country in my 20s but regret that a bit now that I'm in my 50s and spend as much time as I can going back to my home state to see family and see how some old college friends have been able to have long, close relationships in the friend group I'm no longer a part of.

They don't. Well, I certainly do not think this way. But the argument of public univ. vs. private is not about that, at all. It is wonderful to be connected to your community of origin. I know I am. But I also went away for college from said community where I was exposed to different types of people, backgrounds, regional cultures, traditions etc. etc. College should be about growth both inside the classroom but also inside the dorms and student centers and, well, you get the idea. It is wonderful to have a strong connection to one's family and hometown community but to have that in a vacumn without being also at one point exposed to different types of people, customs and places just does not seem ideal to me.