Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wisconsin in in the State Capital, Madison.
Michigan State is in the State Capital, Lansing,
Ann Arbor is 20 minutes from the Detroit Airport.
Columbus, OH is a majar league city.
Georgia Tech is in Atlanta.
University of Florida is in the State Capital.

The list goes on and on, these are off the top of my head.

Try again. Florida’s flagship state school is in Gainesville. Last time I checked, Tallahassee is the capital of Florida. Not saying that there isn’t a Univ of Florida campus there. But it’s not the flagship.

OOCh! I do think U of Florida is definitely the flagship and considerably higher ranked.
But you're right of course that FSU is in Tallahassee, the capitol.

Florida is definitely the flagship, not Florida State.

Anonymous wrote:Pitt
South Carolina
Texas

Pitt is not the flagship. What about Penn State??

Anonymous wrote:A lot of large universities are not in big cities becaues they need space for research.
Some universities actually started out as "satellite" campuses for larger flagship universities that needed more space for research. For example, UC Davis was a satellite campus for UC Berkley for agricutural studies.

Also, it's good for the economies of the small towns to have a major university located in/close by. It means tons of jobs, both professional (like professors, medical staff, etc.) and non professional (bus drivers, custodial, etc.)
Land will be cheaper, so the university can buy more to accommodate growth.

Also, it helps to have lower housing costs and more availability for faculty and students

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reading the responses, I think not everyone is using the same definition for "Flagship."

Is a flagship always "University of X state?" Or is "X State University" ever the "flagship?" What about "Tech" (such as Georgia Tech?)

Not always. The Ohio State University is the flagship in Ohio and the University of Ohio is a private college. Same in PA with UPenn and Penn State. I think a "Flagship" can be a state school that is intended to be the premier school in a state and that, in rare cases, there can be two. Indiana University and Purdue University each function as a flagship in Indiana due to the division of subject areas, although if you had to choose between the two, IU would be the flagship. UCLA and Cal Berkeley could be similar, although I am less familiar there.

Some are in big cities and some are in cities that became big (OSU in Columbus and UT in Austin are the best examples of that, probably).

Boy, lots of people wrong on lots of facts in this thread.

Ohio University in Athens, Ohio is NOT private.

Pitt
South Carolina
Texas

Anonymous wrote:Reading the responses, I think not everyone is using the same definition for "Flagship."

Is a flagship always "University of X state?" Or is "X State University" ever the "flagship?" What about "Tech" (such as Georgia Tech?)

LSU is Louisiana’s flagship. At the time that it was founded, the University of Louisiana already existed, but it was later privatized and became Tulane. There is also now a newer University of Louisiana system in the state, but they’re renamed directional universities.

LSU is in Baton Rouge, which is the state capital and a good sized city for Louisiana, but of course not the major city (although really the New Orleans and Baton Rouge suburbs have just about grown together).

Anonymous wrote:When you ask Mr. Google…

In general, when people talk about flagship universities, they are referring to the most prominent public university of their state. It is usually the first public university that was established in the state and receives the most state support.

Ok, so for Georgia, is it University of Georgia (Athens) or Georgia Tech (Atlanta?)

As someone previously said, it's because most state flagships are land grant schools. In the 1860s, the federal government gave federal land to the states to use to create universities. Some of the land was sold to raise money. Some of the land was used to house the universities. Federal land in most places tends to rural, not urban. So they're well away from most major cities in most places. (The states could have bought different land to build their flagships on, of course. That's an extra expense, though, so most didn't.)

When you ask Mr. Google…

In general, when people talk about flagship universities, they are referring to the most prominent public university of their state. It is usually the first public university that was established in the state and receives the most state support.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wisconsin in in the State Capital, Madison.
Michigan State is in the State Capital, Lansing,
Ann Arbor is 20 minutes from the Detroit Airport.
Columbus, OH is a majar league city.
Georgia Tech is in Atlanta.
University of Florida is in the State Capital.

The list goes on and on, these are off the top of my head.

Try again. Florida’s flagship state school is in Gainesville. Last time I checked, Tallahassee is the capital of Florida. Not saying that there isn’t a Univ of Florida campus there. But it’s not the flagship.

OOCh! I do think U of Florida is definitely the flagship and considerably higher ranked.
But you're right of course that FSU is in Tallahassee, the capitol.

It is typical for the Capitol of a state to be somewhere other than the state's major economic centers to attempt to keep power from concentrating too much in one place, so some states may have used similar logic in placing flagship Universities.

Anonymous wrote:Reading the responses, I think not everyone is using the same definition for "Flagship."

Is a flagship always "University of X state?" Or is "X State University" ever the "flagship?" What about "Tech" (such as Georgia Tech?)

Not always. The Ohio State University is the flagship in Ohio and the University of Ohio is a private college. Same in PA with UPenn and Penn State. I think a "Flagship" can be a state school that is intended to be the premier school in a state and that, in rare cases, there can be two. Indiana University and Purdue University each function as a flagship in Indiana due to the division of subject areas, although if you had to choose between the two, IU would be the flagship. UCLA and Cal Berkeley could be similar, although I am less familiar there.

Some are in big cities and some are in cities that became big (OSU in Columbus and UT in Austin are the best examples of that, probably).

Reading the responses, I think not everyone is using the same definition for "Flagship."

Is a flagship always "University of X state?" Or is "X State University" ever the "flagship?" What about "Tech" (such as Georgia Tech?)

I’m confused, OP. Why did you ask the other parent if the kid was ready to go live in a big city in the first place? What a strange thing to even think about.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Madison is not a major city. Nor is Columbus. Lansing? LOL! The only major city in Florida IMO is Miami. Georgia Tech is not the University of Georgia. That school is in Athens. I think the people from University of Michigan would go crazy if I suggested they're really in Detroit since they're so in love with their small college town of Ann Arbor.

I would add Seattle UW and ASU in Phoenix to the list of flagships in major cities. And I guess people don't want for Hunter to count, so now I'll take NYC off the list.

And nobody has pointed this out, but some states don't have a major city, so I guess there is that.

Columbus is larger than Cleveland or Cincinnati. If the largest city in a state doesn’t qualify as a major city, then the lack of major cities may be the answer to your question