What does a private education buy you?

[Anonymous]

Suppose you are choosing between two similarly ranked schools.

One is a state flagship, the other a private university.

Costs are about the same (unless the kid takes a victory lap, which would not receive the scholarship).

Please tell me your opinion about what one gets at the private that isn't available at a flagship state school. (Please don't just tell me to pick X, since secondary factors play a role, as well).

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Depends entirely on the schools

We can’t comment without knowing the schools in question

[Anonymous]

The endowment gap is considerable. In general, the top private schools can give the most generous need-based financial aid, fund opportunities like internships/research/study-abroad/travel/conferences on a wide and consistent basis, constantly renovate their facilities, make class sizes much smaller due to more faculty members and a lower student to faculty ratio, and be able to easy tap into their money for sudden demands and shifts (no capped/competitive majors).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colleges_and_universities_in_the_United_States_by_endowment#Endowments_per_student (you can sort the table top to bottom by clicking the arrow)

Princeton's endowment per student, $2.8 million, is much higher than that of UC Berkeley's .04 million.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Depends entirely on the schools

We can’t comment without knowing the schools in question

Nope. Looking for more holistic answers and want to avoid crazy slamming of one opportunity v another.

[Anonymous]

My friends at private schools tended to have a smaller, more personal experience. I wanted to go somewhere that had lots of choice and lots of people, so I went to a big public.

I endured 600 person lectures, but I think that was ok for me. I had no idea what I wanted to be when I was 17, so it was best to have lots of decent quality options for courses of study.

[Anonymous]

My gut says size. I went to a large private, and if I could do it over, I would have picked a smaller private.

I had a huge scholarship, so I wouldn't have saved any money by going to a state college, but I would have sacrificed the thing I wanted -- more intimate environment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My friends at private schools tended to have a smaller, more personal experience. I wanted to go somewhere that had lots of choice and lots of people, so I went to a big public.

I endured 600 person lectures, but I think that was ok for me. I had no idea what I wanted to be when I was 17, so it was best to have lots of decent quality options for courses of study.

That perspective has always confused me. In the long run, would having access to 2000 courses at Yale for undergrad vs. 4000 at UCLA make a major difference? Even small LACs offer 500-1000 courses annually, which rotate around each year. One only takes 30-50 courses to graduate, depending on the school. Isn't there a threshold where each additional class offered means less and less?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My friends at private schools tended to have a smaller, more personal experience. I wanted to go somewhere that had lots of choice and lots of people, so I went to a big public.

I endured 600 person lectures, but I think that was ok for me. I had no idea what I wanted to be when I was 17, so it was best to have lots of decent quality options for courses of study.

That perspective has always confused me. In the long run, would having access to 2000 courses at Yale for undergrad vs. 4000 at UCLA make a major difference? Even small LACs offer 500-1000 courses annually, which rotate around each year. One only takes 30-50 courses to graduate, depending on the school. Isn't there a threshold where each additional class offered means less and less?

PP here. My older sister pigeon-holed herself into a major at a smaller school and turned out hating the major, so that assuredly colors my viewpoint. When she wanted to use her earned credits to pursue something else, the options were really limited.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My friends at private schools tended to have a smaller, more personal experience. I wanted to go somewhere that had lots of choice and lots of people, so I went to a big public.

I endured 600 person lectures, but I think that was ok for me. I had no idea what I wanted to be when I was 17, so it was best to have lots of decent quality options for courses of study.

That perspective has always confused me. In the long run, would having access to 2000 courses at Yale for undergrad vs. 4000 at UCLA make a major difference? Even small LACs offer 500-1000 courses annually, which rotate around each year. One only takes 30-50 courses to graduate, depending on the school. Isn't there a threshold where each additional class offered means less and less?

Here is how it matters:

1. Well, when you don't know what you want to do, you don't know which matter.

2. When I was in grad school, I met plenty of people who had run out of advanced courses in their field by senior year.

3. At my elite private, by grad school I was taking a nontrivial number of lower-level graduate classes, which would not have been available at a small college.

[Anonymous]

Junior and senior level courses at my top LAC were designed to emulate graduate level intro courses (heavy independent research component, tons of academic papers to discuss and analyze, no formal exams but mostly writing assignments in a STEM field), so not having immediate access to officially labeled graduate courses wasn't a major factor. We were also required to do a senior capstone. I think my school ranks in the top 10 for life science PhDs on a size adjusted basis, and while I didn't ultimately pursue one, friends going to Harvard, Yale, and the like found the coursework to be easier there. YMMV.

[Anonymous]

sorry, friends going to Harvard, Yale, and the like *for their PhDs from my LAC*

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends entirely on the schools

We can’t comment without knowing the schools in question

Nope. Looking for more holistic answers and want to avoid crazy slamming of one opportunity v another.

There are some questions whose answers just are not useful. It really depends on which two schools. The general answer to this question really is not of benefit to anyone.

I guess the only general answer that I can give that might be of use to any real person trying to make this decision is this: if you are very religious, you will find more opportunities to integrate your education and faith at a private school. Most private schools were founded a long time ago partly to train clergy and to provide a congenial environment for the faithful, and some of that is still left over in some of them. It is also true that, if they are the same price, you are probably getting a big scholarship at the private. Other people are paying to provide smaller class sizes for your student.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends entirely on the schools

We can’t comment without knowing the schools in question

Nope. Looking for more holistic answers and want to avoid crazy slamming of one opportunity v another.

There are some questions whose answers just are not useful. It really depends on which two schools. The general answer to this question really is not of benefit to anyone.

I guess the only general answer that I can give that might be of use to any real person trying to make this decision is this: if you are very religious, you will find more opportunities to integrate your education and faith at a private school. Most private schools were founded a long time ago partly to train clergy and to provide a congenial environment for the faithful, and some of that is still left over in some of them. It is also true that, if they are the same price, you are probably getting a big scholarship at the private. Other people are paying to provide smaller class sizes for your student.

OK, thanks.

[Anonymous]

Please note that OP is looking at two universities of similar rank.

[Anonymous]

NP

Florida State or University of Miami