Top 10 Public Colleges in the US
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Anonymous
Nearly a third of Michigan's endowment belongs to the healthcare system and has nothing to do with undergraduate education. For the remaining part, a significant chunk is going to belong to the Law School, Ross, etc. They don't share with undergraduate programs. It is an unfair comparison, but if you compare Michigan to Princeton, as you did, you will see that Princeton has an endowment of $27B with no medical system, no law school or business school, and only 8,600 students. Michigan has 46,000 students. So Princeton's endowment is 12X as large as Michigan's on a per student basis, and if you factor the points I made above, the difference is even more significant than that. Universities can and do divert money from undergraduates to fund research and graduate education (or from humanities programs to STEM programs, etc.). You are assuming resources are evenly allocated and they are not. |
Anonymous
Not sure why UWash Wisc Illini are considered top 10. Top 20 yes. UF in many circles has a top 10 rep. |
Anonymous
Considering the fact that Michigan is strong to excellent across all disciplines that it offers, it makes it even more impressive that ONLY 8 billion is reserved for those areas. I wasn’t comparing the size of Michigan’s endowment compared to Princeton’s endowment. More the fact that it does so many things so well. Perhaps Princeton was a bad example as the school’s offerings are much more limited. |
Anonymous
What circles are those? (Serious question, as several friends just moved to FL) |
Anonymous
The circles that take USNews as the holy grail. A few years ago, saying U. Florida would get laughed yet by these same parents. Washington, Illinois and Wisconsin are well-regarded due to their research programs. The vast majority of undergrads at these places are mediocre. U. Florida does not even have good research programs. |
Anonymous
The vast majority of students at Udub, UIUC, and Wisconsin are far from “mediocre.” Mediocre students, for the most part, are not getting into top 100 schools. |
Anonymous
The point in question was whether Michigan lacks comparable resources compared to the private schools cited. It might come close with Cornell, but it would not be close compared to MIT, Princeton, and Stanford. The "ONLY $8 billion" endowment you cite is spread across 46,000 students, and it is probably unevenly very unevenly distributed across them since the majority of endowment funds are restricted by the donor as to purpose. On a per student basis, that is far below what top private schools have. I am not disputing that Michigan is relatively strong across the board. |
Anonymous
Berkeley and W&M are two completely different schools working on two different models. I'm not sure how anyone could know which is more rigorous unless they did a time spent and result achieved study on each, and I'm pretty sure that doesn't exist. What I do know is that of all the national public universities, W&M and Berkeley are the top two undergraduate institutions for producing PhDs on a per capita basis, and by some distance. Since the top private undergraduate national universities for producing PhDs on a per capita basis are Caltech, MIT, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Stanford, I would say this is evidence that both Berkeley and W&M are relatively rigorous. |
Anonymous
Dumb post. |
Anonymous
MIT, Princeton, and Stanford are among the five best colleges in the US. That is not the point. My point was that Michigan does more with less than most top private universities. |
Anonymous
“ I am not disputing that Michigan is relatively strong across the board.” ….and that was my point. There is enough money in the endowment to fund those strong departments, even with highly rated medical, law, and business schools. I didn’t even mention dentistry, pharmacy, and a myriad of other programs that also have undergraduate programs. |
Anonymous
William and Mary gets overlooked frequently these days, perhaps because it is so unlike almost all other public schools, but I think Virginia is lucky to have it. |
Anonymous
Washington, Illinois and Wisconsin are well regarded because they turn out top flight engineers and computer programmers. |
Anonymous
How about for other students and majors? |
Anonymous
You’re literally wrong. Alumni giving is emphasized at my school, but legacy gets you zero credit in admissions. |