<p>Let me do a better comparison, I think we can agree (hopefully) that Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut are two of the nation’s best public schools systems so it’s hard to get in the top 10% in these states (can’t do comparison between California because of the fierce competition to get into the UC’s). There are also plenty of private institutions in these states.</p>
<p>MA gets all of those students that attend the private universities in the state. My guess is that MA would experience net population loss without the students staying after graduation.</p>
<p>I’ve watched politics in MA for 30 years and it seems like it is an entrenched machine. I read about this sort of thing in other states so I assume that it’s just something that’s mostly tolerated in the public sector.</p>
<p>If MA wants more money towards higher-ed, then the best approach is a grass-roots effort as legislators will listen to their constituents if they speak loudly enough. The thing is that I don’t think the grassroots support is there. I think that the current level of funding for public higher education is consistent with what residents in the aggregate, want.</p>
<p>That made me laugh. And, frankly, so does the statement that UCONN is considered the best of the New England state colleges. New England does not have a reputation for elite state colleges, buy hey, we’re the best of that bunch! Okay…</p>
<p>I would be very happy for my kid to attend UMASS or UCONN but if he wanted to attend a public college that other colleges “live in the shadow of”, he’d be wasting his time attending either.</p>
<p>Mass is such an embarrassment. What the Globe article fails to mention is that DiMasi is the THIRD SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE IN A ROW to do the perp walk and be indicted. Unlike Flaherty and Finneran, DiMasi is likely to do actual jail time. He is just the latest example of the corruption and thievery in our state government. Is it any wonder that UMass is not all it should be?</p>
<p>I think UMass-Amherst is the better school in this case but it really depends on your financial aid situation. Amherst is a nice place to live, better than Albany IMO</p>
<p>pierre, congrats on Clemson! I have quite a few relatives who attended Clemson. My dad just went back for his 50th Reunion, which makes him a “Golden Tiger.” You are going to have a great time there!</p>
<p>I do wish MA took more pride in our state univ, and I really think the reason we don’t is what so many others on this thread said - it’s overshadowed by the big-name private schools. Investing a good deal of capital money to make the campus look nicer and keep it up to date - a la UConn - would be a good step. I don’t know that there is enough money or will to create a big-name sports program to inspire alumni & MA citizen loyalty.</p>
<p>But I do think UMass is a much better school than many people realize. Especially for $20k/year, when the privates in NE are $45k+. As a UMass sophomore recently wrote in the Globe magazine, a motivated student can get a good education at a variety of schools, and a lousy student can get a lousy education at an expensive school. If my D wants to go there, I will not discourage her.</p>
<p>wow… all the jealousy… UMass is a very good school, but it is not on UConn’s level. UConn has much better facilities, a better student/faculty ratio, and is much more selective. UMass competes more on the level of UVM or URI… UConn competes on the level of Purdue, Indiana, and Rutgers. In fact, UConn does not even consider UMass competition anymore. </p>
<p>“wow… all the jealousy… UMass is a very good school, but it is not on UConn’s level. UConn has much better facilities, a better student/faculty ratio, and is much more selective. UMass competes more on the level of UVM or URI… UConn competes on the level of Purdue, Indiana, and Rutgers. In fact, UConn does not even consider UMass competition anymore.”</p>
<p>What’s the quality of their geospatial computing research?</p>
<p>My GPA will be 3.3-3.4 (closer to 3.4), SAT 1880, taking it again on Saturday. I get the feeling UMASS Amherst is better all around also, I don’t think I could get into Binghampton, and they don’t have the program that I want anyway. Stoneybrook is in my back yard, so I’m not interested in that. The problem is going to be weighing the cost for OOS. I had a real comfortable feeling at UMASS, Albany was just ok.</p>
<p>“UConn has an amazing geospatial computing research”</p>
<p>Odd. We’ve hired a number of engineers from UMaine in this area but none from UConn.</p>
<p>UConn provides geospatial services and training on how to use the services but I didn’t find geospatial computing (engineering geospatial systems) with a google search. Perhaps you could point me to where they do geospatial computing since you’re such an expert on the subject.</p>
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<p>scoopie, have you taken a look at the University of Vermont or the University Of Pittsburgh? looking at your GPA/SAT scores it seems that you definitely have a chance at these schools which IMO are better for the same price of UMass-Amherst OOS.</p>
<p>well BCEagle91, you found the right spot for geospatial technology. However, I think that from a company viewpoint, the fact that you haven’t hired anyone from UConn isn’t a bad thing for the school. For example, I know people who have hired engineers from Virginia Tech but they have been worse than people the company has hired from RIT despite the fact that Virginia Tech is supposedly the better school. </p>
<p>I was just kidding about the geospatial computing thing but I’m sure some graduate out of UConn has an excellent foundation in geospatial computing haha</p>
<p>Moderator’s Note
For those of you wondering how this thread got so long - never fear. Threads with the identical opening post were started in the College Search & Selection Forum and in the Parents Forum. Both threads were quite active.</p>
<p>To keep the conversation going and to get everyone’s input on all facets of the discussion, we have merged the two threads.</p>
<p>“I was just kidding about the geospatial computing thing but I’m sure some graduate out of UConn has an excellent foundation in geospatial computing”</p>
<p>The folks that we hired all have Phds and I’ve seen the product that they’ve engineered. I doubt the availability of undergraduate programs in this very niche area as there isn’t enough time in the traditional CS curriculum for something so specialized. It’s something that an undergrad could pick up doing a research project though.</p>
<p>There are schools all over the country that have specific strengths and you’d never hear about them unless you were connected to a specific industry or research area. There are schools with specific majors or with particularly strong faculty in one area or another or majors only offered at a few schools around the country.</p>
<p>If we look at the NERSP tuition break report for 2008-2009, we see that there were 310 MA students that enrolled in CT state colleges and universities and 572 CT students that enrolled in MA state colleges and universities. CT compared to the rest of New England had 977 students attending other New England state colleges and universities. Other New England states sent 547 students to CT state colleges and universities. So there were more people looking outside CT than coming in. MA, on the other hand, had 1,629 students coming in from the rest of New England compared to 1,085 going out to the rest of New England for state colleges and universities. The report includes the top 20 transfer in majors per state so you can get an idea of the programs that may not be offered in other states.</p>
<p>The heck with geo-whatever special search computers. How about the dude at UConn who’s hot for building a time-travel machine? No, his name is not Peabody.</p>
<p>No, the BackStep Project was a little different. At the Pentagon they promised that any military guy who voted Democrat would be sent back 30 years, but all it involved was a transfer to a base in Kentucky.</p>
<p>By the way, when I was in high school, UMass was something like $300 (that’s right three HUNDRED bucks) per year in tuition, and STILL nobody wanted to go there.</p>