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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Research has an impact on the quality of the professors, course offerings and the program, as those are designed by the professors, as well as quality of TA's as those are generally graduate students who choose colleges based on research. More research-accomplished professors also tends to mean more difficult and rigorous coursework. So to say research has no impact is simply untrue. There's a reason the most selective colleges tend to be research behemoths, and colleges like Cal Tech and MIT have more grad students than undergrads. UVA is actually rather alone in selective national universities in terms of its lack of research, although Georgetown and Notre Dame are also two other national universities that lack research, and Washington University's (and to a smaller extent Johns Hopkin's) reputation is primarily based on its medical school research than other subjects.

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Well Dartmouth and Brown must suck as well for undergraduate study, then.  Lower research than UVA.

Private schools are better equipped to provide both research and quality education (i.e. Princeton).  At large public research universities, the large research program is financed to a significant extent by sucking it out of the undergraduate program.  At UNC the $1.1B in "funded" research includes $278M coming from institutional funds (per NSF data).  That's student tuition and fees at work, funding stuff that has nothing to do with instruction.[/quote]

UVA is not Darthmouth or Brown. To begin with, UVA has 16000 students, Darmouth has 4000 and Brown has 7000.

Compare Darthmouth/Brown to its peers in size and the value provided by research. Harvard, MIT, Stanford are similar sized and far more academically-respected throughout the world. That's not to say that Darthmouth/Brown students are academically less talented than Harvard/MIT/Stanford, but that the research conducted by Harvard/MIT/Stanford brings them great academic prestige around the world.

The "best" colleges are either heavily research-heavy universities or they are 1000-2000 student small LACs that provide extremely small class sizes. UVA is a large public state school, it is not a LAC.

External research funding directly aids universities with paying the salaries of professors, meaning less institutional funds needs to go to instructors. Ironically this means the opposite of your conclusion: its universities with weaker research that have to pay a larger portion of professors salaries from undergraduate tuition.

The reason to go to UVA over UNC is, again:
1. Probably marginally academically-better median student due to in-state/out-of-state ratios and NOVA school students in UVA
2. Much larger endowment which results in better future standing
3. North Carolina's Republican legislature has been obsessed with cutting funding for their public institutions over the last decade. Virginia has done the same but UVA has more funding from alumni

"Better undergraduate education", on the other hand, is heavily questionable. The schools are 16,000 vs 18,000 in size. In non-research heavy universities, certain major departments can be incredibly decrepit due to professors that don't design courses and programs to be up-to-date. Research opportunities matter for top-students that care about medical or graduate school. Smaller class sizes provided by small LAC's simply don't apply to UVA because its a large state school.

"Better reputation"  is, again, heavily questionable. Among USNews readers and DC metro area, UVA probably has a slightly better reputation. Among academics throughout the country and the world, UNC probably has a slightly better reputation due to its overall research, or a lot better reputation on a given field. Among laypersons, both are good state colleges with good basketball teams. [/quote]

Tuition and state appropriations can and are used to fund research.  External research grants cannot be used to fund teaching.  Money and time flows one way, away from undergraduates.  [/quote]

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