Reply to Top 10 Public Colleges in the US

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]There is no question that for [i]the undergraduate student of the liberal arts and sciences[/i], the College of William and Mary offers the most rigorous, highest quality education of any public university in the country.  [/quote]
Perhaps for liberal arts, but definitely not for natural sciences or even social sciences. Berkeley, UNC, and Michigan outdo's the Virginia publics by far. [/quote]

[b]Liberal arts includes natural sciences and social sciences.[/b][/quote]

+1  W&M has top-notch undergraduate teaching in liberal arts and sciences.  With only 6000 undergrads and a tiny handful of grad programs,  it's  not going to compare with top-tier research 1 universities in terms of research productivity etc., but there's no public school like it for quality of undergrad academics.  Each year, we regularly employ 20-30 interns/recent grads from many different colleges (in the region and throughout the US) and W&M students--in the social and natural sciences-- are reliably among the very strongest--especially in research/data analysis/writing. I'm angling for my kids to apply there.
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Lets look at the original statement

[quote]There is no question that for the undergraduate student of the liberal arts and sciences, the College of William and Mary offers the [b]most rigorous[/b], highest quality education of any public university in the country.
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W&M is not more rigorous than Berkeley. Top students at Berkeley can take classes that don't even exist at W&M.

Higher quality? You could argue that, due to smaller classes and more accessible professors. Or you could argue against that, considering the professors at Berkeley are Nobel laureates and world-renowned, and the professors at W&M are very much not that and are under-paid if anything. [/quote]

Oh lord that one Berkeley booster is back…you’re public school isn’t that special, UMich, UCLA, UVA, and Georgia Tech are all in its tier. Sorry that you have to realize that not everyone thinks Berkeley is the greatest things since canned bread.[/quote]

Way to sneak Georgia Tech in there.[/quote]

Georgia Tech does belong in that tier.[/quote]

Georgia Tech has no humanities majors. It’s a niche school.[/quote]

First, that is not true.  See below.  Second, there should be more than one path to being a top school (or else schools like MIT and Caltech can't be considered top schools, which is silly).  Third, it is a school with a clear vision of what it is and its role.

African Studies (Minor)
Applied Language and Intercultural Studies (BS)
Chinese (Minor)
Computational Media & Digital Media (BS/MS)
Computational Media (BS)
East Asian Studies (Minor)
Economics (BS)
Economics (Minor)
Economics and International Affairs (BS)
Energy Systems (Minor)
European Studies (Minor)
Film and Media Studies (Minor)
French (Minor)
German (Minor)
Global Development (Minor)
Global Economics and Modern Languages (BS)
Health, Medicine, and Society (Minor)
History (Minor)
History, Technology, and Society (BS)
International Affairs (BS)
International Affairs (BS/MS)
International Affairs (Minor)
International Affairs and Modern Languages (BS)
International Business, Language, and Culture (Minor)
Japanese (Minor)
Korean (Minor)
Latin American and LatinX Studies (Minor)
Law, Science, and Technology – Pre-Law (Minor)
Leadership Studies (Minor)
Linguistics (Minor)
Literature, Media, and Communication & Digital Media (BS/MS)
Literature, Media, and Communication (BS)
Microeconomics of Strategic Analysis (Minor)
Middle Eastern and North African Studies (Minor)
Naval Science (Minor)
Performance Studies (Minor)
Philosophy (Minor)
Political Science (Minor)
Public Policy (BS)
Public Policy (BS/MS)
Public Policy (Minor)
Russian (Minor)
Science Fiction Studies (Minor)
Science, Technology, and Society (Minor)
Social Justice (Minor)
Sociology (Minor)
Spanish (Minor)
Sports, Society, and Technology (Minor)
Women, Science, and Technology (Minor)[/quote]

Minor ≠ major

MIT has a school of humanities.[/quote]

Read the list more carefully to see majors.  MIT has a School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences - https://shass.mit.edu/ . Georgia Tech has a College of Arts -  https://iac.gatech.edu/ .  If you look at the programs within these, they are very, very similar.  If you look at the percentage of students majors in these areas, they are also very similar, albeit very low compared to a school like Yale. [/quote]

I still don't see any "straight" humanities majors without an applied connection in the list--what from above do you consider a humanities major?  Of course tech schools have a school of humanities, arts and social sciences since they have minors and these composite applied majors and tech majors still want to take some humanities courses even if they don't minor in them, but I don't see traditional humanities majors such as English, History, Philosophy, Spanish, French, Latin, Classics, Art History etc.  And their composite ones that have a bit of humanities each have an applied social science focus.   Again, I don't see this as a problem--it's a designed feature of such tech schools--they are playing to their strengths.
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