State Flagship Universities?

tokenadult · August 2007

Here's a list of what I believe are the "flagship" state universities in each state. I'd love to hear corrections from people who better understand the situation in each state. I get the impression that the term "flagship" is supposed to indicate the state university that gets the most funding, is perhaps the most selective in admitting students, and is regarding as the top state university in each state. I suppose in some states it is debatable which university should be so designated, and maybe in some states there is more than one "flagship" university. I'll list links for some universities in some states I know. Please reply with additions or corrections based on your local knowledge.

California (CA)

University of California: Berkeley ("Cal" or "Berkeley")

http://www.berkeley.edu/

http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/CollegeDetail.jsp?collegeId=988

Michigan (MI)

University of Michigan

http://www.umich.edu/

http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/CollegeDetail.jsp?collegeId=1195

Minnesota (MN)

University of Minnesota Twin Cities

http://www1.umn.edu/twincities/index.php

http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/CollegeDetail.jsp?collegeId=2312

Virginia (VA)

University of Virginia

http://www.virginia.edu/

http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/CollegeDetail.jsp?collegeId=2350

Washington (WA)

University of Washington ("U Dub")

http://www.washington.edu/

http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/CollegeDetail.jsp?collegeId=3879

Wisconsin (WI)

University of Wisconsin--Madison ("Madison")

http://www.wisc.edu/

http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/CollegeDetail.jsp?collegeId=1203

There are more states than those listed above. I am puzzled by the situation in some states with multiple state universities. What's the "flagship" in your state?

Optisrule · August 2007

U Mass Amherst (MA)

http://umass.edu/umhome/index.php

http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/CollegeDetail.jsp?match=true&collegeId=3560&type=qfs&word=U%20Mass%20amherst

kyledavid80 · August 2007

Great topic.

I always considered "flagship" to mean the first university of its kind, but your definition works too.

tokenadult · August 2007

Thanks for both of the replies. I see kyledavid80 is replying from California, and I wanted to check if Berkeley has distinct admission policies from the other UC universities.

Alexandre · August 2007

I think "flagship" means the top of the line. It turns out that in most states, the flagship state school is also the oldest, but it isn't always the case.

coureur · August 2007

Flagship state universities also usually have their name in form of "University of (state name)" rather than "(state name) State University."

Some other flagships:

Univ. of Texas (Austin)
Univ. of Oregon (Eugene)
Univ. of North Carolina (Chapel Hill)
Univ. of Florida (Gainesville)
Indiana University (Bloomington)
University of Hawaii (Manoa)

kyledavid80 · August 2007

tokenadult: I'd say Berkeley has more distinct admission policies than the other UCs, in that it stresses a holistic approach -- GPA, rigor of course load, and essays are of utmost importance. I'd say it's easily the most selective UC (ranked #14 nationally in selectivity, according to US News).

Lesser Perfesser · August 2007

Oregon & Indiana are not "true" flagships by any means. Those two states (along with Iowa, South Dakota, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and a few others) have basically chosen to divide their major universities into two "sections" if you will, with one university mainly focused on agriculture, engineering and similar practical programs, and the other dedicated to liberal arts and sciences. Calling Indiana a flagship over Purdue, or Oregon a flagship over Oregon State ignores the fact that Indiana and Oregon are severely lacking in certain fields. I would even contend that UNC-Chapel Hill is not really a flagship university in the true sense, despite the admissions standards.

tokenadult · August 2007

Lesser Perfesser · August 2007

The following would, I think, qualify as flagships as well:
University of Colorado (Boulder)
THE Ohio State University
University of Maryland
University of Connecticut
University of Kentucky
University of Tennessee
West Virginia University
University of Utah
Penn State
University of Illinois
University of Delaware
University of Wyoming (by default, ha ha)
Rutgers

tokenadult · August 2007

I just saw post #8 after I posted post #9. I'm interested in this issue of states in which there are multiple state universities, which perhaps specialize by subject. I'd be happy to make this list broad, that is inclusive of colleges interesting to engineering majors as well as to English majors, and wonder how that would change the composition of the list.

Lesser Perfesser · August 2007

States with (definite) multiple flagships:
Indiana - Purdue
Iowa - Iowa State
South Carolina - Clemson
Georgia - Georgia Tech
Alabama - Auburn
Mississippi (Ole Miss) - Miss. State

Debatable:
Oklahoma - Oklahoma State
Arizona - Arizona State
UNC - NCSU

Two more lone flagships: Louisiana State University, University of Nebraska (Lincoln)

phonyreal98 · August 2007

North Carolina
UNC-Chapel Hill

www.unc.edu

http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/CollegeDetail.jsp?collegeId=3635&type=qfs&word=UNC-CH

Scipio · August 2007

'Flagship state universities also usually have their name in form of "University of (state name)" rather than "(state name) State University."'

Another characteristic of flagships is that they usually have the big state law school, medical school, business school, other professional schools, and other prestigious programs. By contrast the non-flagship state schools are often land grant universities and are typically specialists in more work-a-day things like agriculture, teaching, engineering, etc.

wemel · August 2007

Here is a wonderful article written by the former Chancellor of UC Berkeley on the future of flagship universities:

http://cio.chance.berkeley.edu/chancellor/sp/flagship.htm

bluebayou · August 2007

you need to add UCLA to the California list since it's nearly as selective as Cal. [btw: The state tries to fund all UC campuses somewhat equally.]

tokenadult · August 2007

Thanks for the further replies. I'll be updating the list offline for a few hours; meanwhile I'd be glad to hear from other participants.

kyler242 · August 2007

Texas actually has two state flagship universities, Texas A&M being the other

wemel · August 2007

^ If you read the article from my previous post, the author says as much.

kyler242 · August 2007

^wemel, my apologies, it does indeed. At least now its spelled out explicitly in the thread for those like myself who didnt initially take time to read the article.

walt99 · August 2007

University of Nebraska (at Lincoln)

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