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<p>Are you kidding? I have heard rumors to the effect that well-regarded private universities like USC, Notre Dame, Boston College, Northwestern, BYU, and Syracuse occasionally field football teams that compete successfully on a national level. Granted, none of them is quite as well-regarded as Stanford, but that’s not a fair comparison. I doubt that many people would choose any actual public university over Stanford at the same price. But I could see choosing Michigan or Berkeley over any of those colleges, even if they cost a little more.</p>
<p>Yes, their prestige relates to the strength of their faculty and graduate programs. But guess what? That great faculty, and those great grad students, are available to undergraduates who want them. My sister-in-law teaches at a public university. She is considered one of the top 5-10 people in her discipline (this according to the graduate students in that field, at a different university, with whom my kid is friends, and also based on the steady stream of awards and honors she receives). She teaches undergraduates all the time. Undergraduates majors are included in the life of her department. She has turned down many offers to teach at private institutions with more general prestige because she likes teaching the students she teaches at her public university. (She had visited many times at “top” privates, and does not believe that the students are that much better – but they are much wealthier, on average, and they have more leisure to devote themselves to academics.)</p>
<p>My kids’ academically oriented friends who went to high-quality public universities are absolutely on a par, or better, with similar kids who went to private universities. They have been admitted to the most prestigious PhD programs. They have impossible-to-get internships or jobs. That’s not the average outcome for students at their colleges, or course, but it’s an outcome that motivated students can go out and achieve.</p>