Why a Large Flagship/Public?

[Anonymous]

My large public school provided no academic or mental health support to struggling students.

[Anonymous]

No one knew or cared if someone was struggling or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids go instate to a public university and never see the other 9 kids that go there from their class, not any other classes that they may know. The point is, it’s large enough that there are literally thousands of people for them to meet and interact with. I’m sure there are plenty of kids who are rooming with a friend they know from home but there are just as many that don’t. Something for everyone.

I went to a college that was smaller than my high school and still didn't often see a high school classmate who also attended, and we actually liked each other. But we had different majors, lived in different dorms, met different groups of people, etc. We did drive home together for breaks though. If you were in a high school with at least 1000 students, how many did you know? You can see how easy it is to never cross paths with some people. So much more in a college with the density of a city.

[Anonymous]

Post after post about big state schools not being able to help "struggling" students. Is everybody crazy or something? What's up with all the damned "struggling?"

Parents coddle too much.

[Anonymous]

It depends, my home town’s high schools are huge and it’s just not possible to avoid high school crowd at the local branch of our state university. Staying home, in town where they grew up, hanging out with the same crowd doesn’t hurt but they miss out on new experiences. Majority marries high school sweethearts and settles right there after college. It’s a comfortable journey and keep parents happy too.

[Anonymous]

It saves money to live at home. Parents hook up with internships and jobs, often with future mates as well so no struggles.

[Anonymous]

Big flagship publics are NOT the right place for a DMV snowflake. These schools are for self starters who have good time management skills and don’t melt down at the first sign of adversity. I came from a large public school where I was in the top 5% of my class of 450 or so, and the first semester was a major eye opener. You need resilience and a level head to make it through, especially as a pre-professional student competing with other pre-preprofessionals. It can be pretty dog eat dog, but I think prepared me for the realities of real life and ultimately I graduated from med school at the top of my class. Just food for thought when you think of what kind of kids go to large flagship publics.

[Anonymous]

Lots of of leadership opportunities, large research budgets, low student debt. Loved my experience at a large public. My work and leadership experiences there helped me out compete other candidates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Big flagship publics are NOT the right place for a DMV snowflake. These schools are for self starters who have good time management skills and don’t melt down at the first sign of adversity. I came from a large public school where I was in the top 5% of my class of 450 or so, and the first semester was a major eye opener. You need resilience and a level head to make it through, especially as a pre-professional student competing with other pre-preprofessionals. It can be pretty dog eat dog, but I think prepared me for the realities of real life and ultimately I graduated from med school at the top of my class. Just food for thought when you think of what kind of kids go to large flagship publics.

Yeah, because kids who go to Stanford aren’t competitive or self starters.

The stupid fallacy that public flagships aren’t challenging is only matched by the stupid fallacy that private colleges coddle students. This is as dumb as the argument over whether making $500,000 a year is a hardship compared to making a $1 million a year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sure they’re cheaper but the idea of a school where 75% of students come from a single state seems entirely unappealing.

Unless it's the state you're from. I like my state and prefer to be around people from here then say be mixed in with nutso's in MAGA country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DS is at VA Tech and when we looked at schools he only wanted to consider big colleges. He liked the idea of meeting lots of different people, lot of activities, etc. He's pretty outgoing and it seems to be working out fine. But, I think it helps that he's in a pretty small major so he will still get to know faculty well. He hangs out with new people but also a close friend from HS. Which is also great. I don't get this disdain for having life long friends. Is it supposed to be admirable to dump everyone you care about just because you are moving into a different phase of life? Do you think spending time with old friends absolutely means you aren't making new friends too? If you do want to cut ties, it's easy to do at a big school. He says he doesn't see any of the many kids from his HS that go there since he doesn't seek them out. It was the same when I went to a mid-sized state school long ago. There were 5 kids from my HS there and only one I saw with any regularity because we ended participating in the same EC.

I don't think big flagships are great for all students. My DD wants a small LAC and the biggest school she'll consider is W&M. And I agree that for her that is best while for DS big was best.

Sophmore looking at VT for CS. Does VT have large stadium-size classes? Is it hard to take prereqs due to everyone trying to register for those classes? VT has 30K undergrads, but does CS feel small? Are most classes taught by TAs or professors?

[Anonymous]

Not sure why people think SLACs don't have tons of ECs. And obviously, it's easier to be in leadership at a SLAC if you're one of 25 seniors in an organization, as opposed to 250. And the notion that you're limited in what you can study? I suppose it's true that most SLACs don't offer animal husbandry or mining management. But they all have the same academic basics as the 30K student flagships.

As for meeting hundreds of new people, my sister went to an all-women's college with about 200 classmates and didn't know all of them. No human being makes more than about 200 actual friends/acquaintances in any social setting like a college. The fact that there are 10,000 other freshman to meet at Michigan doesn't really matter once you've met your 150-200. As someone else said, schools of that size are like small cities. No way will you encounter the vast majority of them much less be in touch with them 20 years later.

I went to a school with 1,200 fellow freshman. I'm in touch with about 150. I've had 3 non-super close friends (not people I invited to my wedding) ask me to take in their kids while they've been in DC for internships. They're obviously people who feel a connection with me after all these years. It's been a blast to catch up with them. I've worked with classmates who have brought me in on staff or as a consultant over the 30 years or so since we graduated. Our school was big enough to create a significantly sized alumni network but small enough that I was able to form strong bonds with lots of people. I wouldn't want any child of mine, even a self-starter go-getter like I was, to be at a school larger than mine as an undergrad.

Also, the state flagships tend to be among the least racially and economically diverse of the most selective schools available. The privates and the SLACs have the flexibility and political will to form diverse classes of students in ways that UT Austin and Michigan cannot.

[Anonymous]

"Are most classes taught by TAs or professors?"

I've never seen a TA teach a course, since they're TAs and not professors. What you probably mean is whether there are classes so large that the professor needs to have 3-10 Teaching Assistants to manage all the students. The TAs in some courses will lead a seminar (in a history class) or hold special section meetings in a biology course. They are the ones who keep tabs on whether you show up to the section meetings and they generally grade the exams. Sometimes, exams are graded "blind", meaing you are given a number so that your identity is not known by the grader. In those situations, the TAs just divide all the exams up among themselves.

[Anonymous]

As a brown URM I would never choose a LAC or SLACK because they tend to lack racial diversity. Public flagships have more people that look like me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids go instate to a public university and never see the other 9 kids that go there from their class, not any other classes that they may know. The point is, it’s large enough that there are literally thousands of people for them to meet and interact with. I’m sure there are plenty of kids who are rooming with a friend they know from home but there are just as many that don’t. Something for everyone.

I went to a college that was smaller than my high school and still didn't often see a high school classmate who also attended, and we actually liked each other. But we had different majors, lived in different dorms, met different groups of people, etc. We did drive home together for breaks though. If you were in a high school with at least 1000 students, how many did you know? You can see how easy it is to never cross paths with some people. So much more in a college with the density of a city.

My large fairly affluent public high school in the early 90s sent like 200 seniors to the same two public universities every single year. That's not even factoring in neighboring high schools, public and private, which fed hundreds, too. High school cliques most certainly continued into and all through college -- and it's certainly far easier now with social media and iPhones.