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<p>I tend to agree with this … almost.
If you are lucky enough to be a resident of a state with a top-notch public university (such as California, Michigan, North Carolina, Texas, Virginia, or Wisconsin), then chances are there really is no good reason to pay much more for any other school. But there are exceptions and they are hardly limited to just 8 schools. Any school that offers something worthwhile you don’t think you can get at your state’s best public university may be worth paying some premium to attend. </p>
<p>For some students, I do think it would make sense to pay a premium to attend Pomona or CMK. These schools offer an educational environment that is very different from what Texas or Berkeley have to offer. By several objective measures one could say either of these 2 LACs (and quite a few others) are better choices. If you are lucky enough to have a choice, you have to decide how much extra it is worth paying for these differences. A top private school like Pomona or CMK may even be cheaper after aid than UT. That is unlikely to be the case for an OOS public uniersity. </p>
<p>Suppose your family is rich enough that cost truly does not matter, and your qualifications are high enough for admission to Berkeley OOS. In that case, there must be at least 20-30 schools that are worth considering as interesting alternatives to either Texas or Cal. The reasons for picking (or not picking) any of them are diverse and complicated enough to keep up the traffic on this forum for a long, long time.</p>
<p>Metrics that seem to favor CMK or Pomona over Cal include:
selectivity (measured by GPA/rank and scores using USNWR’s method); average class sizes (% <20, %>50 per CDS numbers); ratio of full time to part time faculty (see stateuniversity.com); 4 year graduation rates and average debt at graduation (per kiplinger); geographic and ethnic diversity; placements to top professional schools (according to the WSJ “feeder school” study); PhD completions (Pomona > Cal, per NSF/IPEDS, I don’t know the CMK numbers); and average starting salary of alumni with terminal bachelor degrees (CMK>Cal>Pomona per payscale.com).</p>
<p>Metrics that seem to favor Cal over Pomona or CMK include: median mid-career salary among alumni with terminal bacheelor degrees (per payscale.com); the percentage of faculty memberships in national academies and research expenditures (per Washington Monthly); or the number of course offerings.</p>