Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At an OOS public you get all the assaches of your own state public school at a price usually comparable to a private:

1. Large classes

2. Registration headaches/impacted majors and classes

3. Housing headaches

4. 13th grade effect: most people come from in state and the atmosphere is more provincial than comparable or even lower ranked privates.

I would advise against OOS unless it's Michigan or a top UC, and even then I would think twice.

I mean, if you’re making the case for Rice or Georgetown, there is some validity to this. But even then, there is a whole lot to be said for what Ann Arbor, Charlottesville, or Chapel Hill provide that these schools can’t. But if your case is for Tufts or Wake Forest or others in the next tier of privates, I’ll take the publics 100 times out of 100. Neither the top end of the class nor the faculty can compare.

Can you expand on this because I don't follow. I think of these flagship publics as schools with a sprinkling of strong faculty that you are unlikely to interact with much and a few really spiky/impressive kids from in-state who wanted to save money or go to the flagship or whatever. But then you also get large classes, classes taught by TAs, a bunch of much less impressive students from across the state, no personal attention from the administration, etc. I definitely see some of the appeal in a prestigious state flagship, but there are also significant downsides. I just don't follow the 100 out of 100 conclusion. But it sounds like you could have more to say.

I just think you have a too-flat understanding of “flagship.” There’s a lot more high-scoring, ambitious kids at Michigan than at Maine. Going to an OOS flagship from Virginia, if you got into UVA, only makes sense for particular programs (especially areas where UVA is weak, like engineering). But if you live in New Hampshire, or Delaware, or Idaho, there’s a much wider range of OOS schools that make sense.

Anonymous wrote:Interesting recent thread on Reddit. Poster broke down stats for Texas high school graduates and where historically top 10 graduates from some of its high schools apply outside the State of Texas which includes both private and OOS publics together.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingToCollege/comments/1tkmnj7/top_10_grads_data/

https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingToCollege/comments/1tkmnj7/top_10_grads_data/

"Top destinations that aren't public institutions located in Texas:

Rice: 4.9%

MIT: 2.7%

Harvard: 2.2%

Stanford: 2.0%

Penn: 1.6%

Georgia Tech: 1.3%

Duke: 0.9%

Cornell: 0.9%

Hopkins: 0.7%

BYU: 0.7%

Top public destinations not located in Texas:

Georgia Tech: 1.3%

UNC / UCLA / Nebraska-Omaha / Michigan / Berkeley: 0.4%"

Interesting recent thread on Reddit. Poster broke down stats for Texas high school graduates and where historically top 10 graduates from some of its high schools apply outside the State of Texas which includes both private and OOS publics together.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingToCollege/comments/1tkmnj7/top_10_grads_data/

Anonymous wrote:At an OOS public you get all the assaches of your own state public school at a price usually comparable to a private:

1. Large classes

2. Registration headaches/impacted majors and classes

3. Housing headaches

4. 13th grade effect: most people come from in state and the atmosphere is more provincial than comparable or even lower ranked privates.

I would advise against OOS unless it's Michigan or a top UC, and even then I would think twice.

lol

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At an OOS public you get all the assaches of your own state public school at a price usually comparable to a private:

1. Large classes

2. Registration headaches/impacted majors and classes

3. Housing headaches

4. 13th grade effect: most people come from in state and the atmosphere is more provincial than comparable or even lower ranked privates.

I would advise against OOS unless it's Michigan or a top UC, and even then I would think twice.

I mean, if you’re making the case for Rice or Georgetown, there is some validity to this. But even then, there is a whole lot to be said for what Ann Arbor, Charlottesville, or Chapel Hill provide that these schools can’t. But if your case is for Tufts or Wake Forest or others in the next tier of privates, I’ll take the publics 100 times out of 100. Neither the top end of the class nor the faculty can compare.

Can you expand on this because I don't follow. I think of these flagship publics as schools with a sprinkling of strong faculty that you are unlikely to interact with much and a few really spiky/impressive kids from in-state who wanted to save money or go to the flagship or whatever. But then you also get large classes, classes taught by TAs, a bunch of much less impressive students from across the state, no personal attention from the administration, etc. I definitely see some of the appeal in a prestigious state flagship, but there are also significant downsides. I just don't follow the 100 out of 100 conclusion. But it sounds like you could have more to say.

Different poster. Your question seems genuine so I mean this in a nice way, but I think you’ve bought into a lot of online forum stereotypes that aren’t unfortunately aren’t quite true.

For example, the strong faculty at schools like Michigan, UVA, and UNC are more than “a sprinkling.” It’s pretty much the norm. It is incredibly hard and prestigious to land a tenured position at schools like this. Most of the faculty come from top PhD programs. Many of them also have undergrad teaching requirements. Most courses are taught by tenured or tenure track faculty, especially at the higher levels. There are TAs for sure but for the majority of your classes you would probably have professors.

There are also far more than a “few really spiky/impressive kids.” Let me give you an example using two of the schools mentioned, UVA and Wake. On the 24/25 CDS, UVA has twice the number of kids reporting SATs, and its middle 50 range was 1410-1520. Wake—again with far fewer reporting, usually because the scores are on the lower end—was 1420 to 1500. The 50th and 75th percentile were higher at UVA, and with more kids reporting. The proportion at UVA of high test scorers is likely much greater than the proportion at Wake.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At an OOS public you get all the assaches of your own state public school at a price usually comparable to a private:

1. Large classes

2. Registration headaches/impacted majors and classes

3. Housing headaches

4. 13th grade effect: most people come from in state and the atmosphere is more provincial than comparable or even lower ranked privates.

I would advise against OOS unless it's Michigan or a top UC, and even then I would think twice.

I mean, if you’re making the case for Rice or Georgetown, there is some validity to this. But even then, there is a whole lot to be said for what Ann Arbor, Charlottesville, or Chapel Hill provide that these schools can’t. But if your case is for Tufts or Wake Forest or others in the next tier of privates, I’ll take the publics 100 times out of 100. Neither the top end of the class nor the faculty can compare.

Can you expand on this because I don't follow. I think of these flagship publics as schools with a sprinkling of strong faculty that you are unlikely to interact with much and a few really spiky/impressive kids from in-state who wanted to save money or go to the flagship or whatever. But then you also get large classes, classes taught by TAs, a bunch of much less impressive students from across the state, no personal attention from the administration, etc. I definitely see some of the appeal in a prestigious state flagship, but there are also significant downsides. I just don't follow the 100 out of 100 conclusion. But it sounds like you could have more to say.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At an OOS public you get all the assaches of your own state public school at a price usually comparable to a private:

1. Large classes

2. Registration headaches/impacted majors and classes

3. Housing headaches

4. 13th grade effect: most people come from in state and the atmosphere is more provincial than comparable or even lower ranked privates.

I would advise against OOS unless it's Michigan or a top UC, and even then I would think twice.

I mean, if you’re making the case for Rice or Georgetown, there is some validity to this. But even then, there is a whole lot to be said for what Ann Arbor, Charlottesville, or Chapel Hill provide that these schools can’t. But if your case is for Tufts or Wake Forest or others in the next tier of privates, I’ll take the publics 100 times out of 100. Neither the top end of the class nor the faculty can compare.

+1

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Michigan is not what it once was - leadership turnover (albeit most recently due to health-related considerations), the Sherrone Moore shenanigans overshadowing the athletic dept., and the emergence of many other competitive public universities as viable alternatives.

Bigger picture, the Trump Administration’s shielding (guess why!) of Michigan while it goes after the other large public universities will boomerang in the next Administration when Americans demand a reset of this country’s agenda from the current 1-group
DEI police state madness.

Michigan has had multiple athletic scandals and it has made no difference.

How are you measuring “no difference”?

No difference in the sense that it has not impacted its reputation.

In your estimation …

Are you a Michigan alum, or do you have family members who attend or attended?

What else would it be? Do you think I shelled out millions for a nationwide survey?

Anonymous wrote:Michigan is not what it once was - leadership turnover (albeit most recently due to health-related considerations), the Sherrone Moore shenanigans overshadowing the athletic dept., and the emergence of many other competitive public universities as viable alternatives.

Bigger picture, the Trump Administration’s shielding (guess why!) of Michigan while it goes after the other large public universities will boomerang in the next Administration when Americans demand a reset of this country’s agenda from the current 1-group
DEI police state madness.

Michigan just won the NCAA men’s basketball championship. Academically, it’s top tier. Its huge endowment is only growing and it’s as popular as ever based on application numbers. It’s funny how some people here just can’t stop obsessing over the school. There is no other university in this country, public or private, that offers the overall experience that many desire.

https://247wallst.com/investing/2026/05/13/university-of-michigans-20m-openai-bet-is-now-worth-2-billion/

Anonymous wrote:At an OOS public you get all the assaches of your own state public school at a price usually comparable to a private:

1. Large classes

2. Registration headaches/impacted majors and classes

3. Housing headaches

4. 13th grade effect: most people come from in state and the atmosphere is more provincial than comparable or even lower ranked privates.

I would advise against OOS unless it's Michigan or a top UC, and even then I would think twice.

I mean, if you’re making the case for Rice or Georgetown, there is some validity to this. But even then, there is a whole lot to be said for what Ann Arbor, Charlottesville, or Chapel Hill provide that these schools can’t. But if your case is for Tufts or Wake Forest or others in the next tier of privates, I’ll take the publics 100 times out of 100. Neither the top end of the class nor the faculty can compare.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Michigan is not what it once was - leadership turnover (albeit most recently due to health-related considerations), the Sherrone Moore shenanigans overshadowing the athletic dept., and the emergence of many other competitive public universities as viable alternatives.

Bigger picture, the Trump Administration’s shielding (guess why!) of Michigan while it goes after the other large public universities will boomerang in the next Administration when Americans demand a reset of this country’s agenda from the current 1-group
DEI police state madness.

Michigan has had multiple athletic scandals and it has made no difference.

How are you measuring “no difference”?

No difference in the sense that it has not impacted its reputation.

In your estimation …

Are you a Michigan alum, or do you have family members who attend or attended?

Anonymous wrote:At an OOS public you get all the assaches of your own state public school at a price usually comparable to a private:

1. Large classes

2. Registration headaches/impacted majors and classes

3. Housing headaches

4. 13th grade effect: most people come from in state and the atmosphere is more provincial than comparable or even lower ranked privates.

I would advise against OOS unless it's Michigan or a top UC, and even then I would think twice.

This is one of those comments that reflects standard DCUM views but isn’t quite accurate. It isn’t entirely wrong but a lot is missing.

First, the cost of most OOS is really quite a bit cheaper than privates. Amongst the top 50 or so schools, total COA can be as low as $50k and a lot run in the $60-70k range. Compare this to the $90-100k for privates. There is plenty of difference. Some lower ranked publics have been throwing money at good OOS students.

Large classes, yes, but the usually scale down as you get into the upper years or in any many of the general education/elective courses which are quite vast. And even private schools are not immune to large intro classes for popular subjects. Is there a difference? Definitely, but it’s not so black and white.

Registration headaches and impacted majors? Exists but some publics also have very high 4 year graduation rates so it isn’t prohibitive. Also, plenty accept AP credit more generously which can help a student get higher registration priority (because they are “older” in the school’s view).

Housing and 13th grade effect? Largely depends on the school. Some are half or even majority out of state. Some are not super different depending on the states involved. Illinois kids don’t feel out of place at Wisconsin, for example.

As always, there is a lot nuance needed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Michigan is not what it once was - leadership turnover (albeit most recently due to health-related considerations), the Sherrone Moore shenanigans overshadowing the athletic dept., and the emergence of many other competitive public universities as viable alternatives.

Bigger picture, the Trump Administration’s shielding (guess why!) of Michigan while it goes after the other large public universities will boomerang in the next Administration when Americans demand a reset of this country’s agenda from the current 1-group
DEI police state madness.

Michigan has had multiple athletic scandals and it has made no difference.

How are you measuring “no difference”?

No difference in the sense that it has not impacted its reputation.