Lots of pretty wildly inaccurate stereotyping of “big state schools” here. I went to one (Michigan) as an undergrad. Later went to two Ivies for grad school, then taught for some years at a third. I did attend a lot of football games at Michigan and I’m still a big Wolverines football fan—it’s just part of the culture. But then, as another poster noted in singing Stanford’s praises, football is big there, too. In contrast, that poster lamented his own “big state school” alma mater as utterly lacking in “school spirit,” meaning in part (I infer from the context) that no one cared about football.
I didn’t attend many beer parties at Michigan; I just wasn’t into that scene, though they certainly were there for anyone who wanted them. But there were just as many beer parties at the Ivies I attended, and probably more such parties per capita at the elite LACs my daughters attended.
As for intellectual, artistic, and politically engaging events, I would say such events were of a similar caliber at Michigan and at the Ivies, except that there were many more of them, and a greater variety to choose from, at Michigan owing to its much greater size. And as for political engagement, Michigan wins that comparison hands down. I grew more intellectually, socially, culturally, politically, in my years at Michigan than in any other period of my life, including my time at Ivies. I’m sure it was partly a function of age—18 to 21 are probably huge growth years for anyone. But my time at Michigan opened up whole new worlds for me, and it’s an experience I wouldn’t trade for anything. I not only got a quality undergraduate education, but I also gained a much richer personal appreciation for the arts, literature, philosophy, history, social theory, languages and cultures, and so much more—things that continue to define me to this day—along with a lifelong love of learning not only for its instrumental value but simply for the sake of learning what can be learned, and catching a glimpse of the outer frontiers of present-day human knowledge and pondering what might lie beyond.
Could I have had a similar experience elsewhere? Sure, probably, and at least to some extent. But I didn’t need to look elsewhere because I could attend my own state’s public flagship for what was then a pittance, which is about what my family could afford. And for the record, I’m not in the camp that says it doesn’t matter where you go to college. Yes, a talented and motivated student can have a successful career coming from almost any school, but as for the less tangible and more personal values of a college education, I do think there are real differences in quality, breadth, and depth. But drawing the line at public v. private or large v. small is just too simplistic, and just plain wrong. Our best public universities are every bit the towering citadels of learning that our best private research universities and liberal arts colleges are.