<ol>
<li>U of M- The place for the really smart kids- only about 5 out of 200 kids in my senior class of 200 are going there. It’s prestigious and is known in MI as the school for the minority.</li>
<li>MSU- Generally for kids who decide not to go to U of M. Definitely more of a party school than uofm. Lansing is okay- state capital of MI</li>
<li>Western Michigan- in okay city-Kalamazoo, for average kids, good music program</li>
<li>Grand Valley State University- Growing more and more popular every year. There is about 15,000 students or so there. Has a really modern and sweet campus in an awesome city. Has huge, hooked up housing.</li>
<li>Saginaw Valley- Where I am going next year for my freshman year. Basically same as Grand Valley, just a little smaller.</li>
<li>Eastern Michigan- a commuter school generally</li>
<li>Central Michigan- party school, great education program, is exactly in the middle of the state, hence the Central Michigan name.</li>
<li>Wayne State- in Detroit, much diversity</li>
</ol>
<p>I would say Penn State is a top 10 public school (probably bested by UVA, UMich, UNC, W&M, UCLA, Berkeley, SUNY Bing, SUNY Geneseo, maybe UWisc). I think there are a many feeder campuses ~10, but all feed to University Park after two years is my understanding.</p>
<p>i agree with alwaysfailthful…suny schools will always be third tier schools compared to some of the best state schools (penn state, maryland, indiana, ohio state) because technically there is no flagship campus.</p>
<p>I would disagree with FSU being behind UF - but it depends on the program. Some at UF are better, likewise for Florida State. Generally, kids choose FSU over UF if they want:</p>
<p>Physics, Chemistry, Oceanography, Statistics, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Meteorology, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, Criminology, Information, Creative Writing, Public Policy, Business and Law.</p>
<p>Also, no question on these programs being better at FSU:</p>
<p>Dance, Film, Music and Theatre</p>
<p>UF has very good programs in Engineering, Animal Studies, Building Science and so on, and are preferable over FSU’s.</p>
<p>For example, My daughter selected FSU over UF - for academic reasons - due to a number of factors in the Chemistry area.</p>
<p>I used to live in Bridgewater, I went to the elementary school right next to the college.</p>
<p>Georgia</p>
<p>UGA- Party school that is pretty tought to get into. Usually only a handfull of students go there from my school.</p>
<p>GT- Tought engineering school, only a few go there.</p>
<p>Georgia Southern- the people who go here are the ones who dont get into UGA or GT. A lot of them end up transfering to one of them though. A big party school also.</p>
<p>Georgia State- All the academic buildings are in Atlanta, and the dorms are next to Tech in midtown. I have no idea why, but I would never go there because its in the city.</p>
<p>RHODE ISLAND: (don’t need to discuss Brown)</p>
<p>ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY Hidden jem–school of business, architecture, engineering, law school. Pretty campus, near Newport, RI, reputation within state has been rising over past 5 years, mostly out of state students, nice small town of Bristol, RI, on the water</p>
<p>URI-formerly known as big party school, not much to do off campus, good engineering, oceanography programs</p>
<p>BRYANT-known as a good business school, mostly commuters</p>
<p>Rhode Island College-known in state as school for teachers and nurses, mostly commuters, easy admission, not great academics</p>
<p>SALVE REGINA-in state rep. known for mostly females, for nursing, pretty campus</p>
<p>Re: Bridgewater State College. Don’t really know anything personally about it, however it’s popular among commuters from that area of the state. My son went there for his SATs and described it as “prison-like”. My d’s english teacher got her masters there.</p>
<p>^and Oberlin? You missed the school that grabs the State prize for best. … and Wooster, Ohio Wesleyan and John Carroll aren’t too shabby either… I’ll apologize in advance, though, if you only meant to supplement an existing list… there are simply too many posts in this thread to review the entire backlog.</p>
<p>tcnj- great school. we consider it to be the awsome liberal arts version of rutgers. they give amazing scholarships and in the area, is gaining an amzing reputation.</p>
<p>rutgers- um…its rutgers…thats enough said over here. but basically, HUGE party and sex school although pretty good academically. at my school everyone applies and noone gets rejected…everyones safety. its known for great pharm, philosophy, and engineering departments. </p>
<p>drew- great for the sciences but not known very well and we never talk about it here. </p>
<p>rowan, ramapo, stockton…the average schools- go to as a last last resort. some of the bottom people in the classe go to those schools because it was cheaper than rutgers. </p>
<p>princeton- um…yeah…its princeton </p>
<p>community colleges- in my school you are seen as a complete idiot if you go to these. once in a while someone does because of money, but most people at our school have at least 15 credits from the local one when they graduate high school anyway. better off going to one of the unknown 4 year colleges in NJ. </p>
<p>overall, most people with any ambition go out of state. if you want to be close to home…go to a place in penn or ny</p>
<p>I went to a high school with a HUGE asian population in a suburban southern cali area. I’m speaking mostly from an Asian point of view. </p>
<p>UC Berkeley and UCLA - obviously top notch schools academically; very well respected.</p>
<p>UCSD - gaining a lot of momentum academically, but lack of a social scene.</p>
<p>UC Davis - Very solid academically, but still lagging behind Berkeley, LA, and SD. </p>
<p>UC Irvine - Perhaps get the most undeserved bad reputation of the UC’s. Lots of Asians go there, but you get the sense that many wish they would go to Berkeley or UCLA instead (or even USC)! Many Asians end up attempting to transfer to a “better” university (and only a few succeed). Often known as the University of Chinese Immigrants, but has recent gained the nicknames of University of Chinese Ingrates, the University of Chinese Idiots, and University of Chinese with Inferiority complexes. </p>
<p>UCSB - Asians don’t care about that school.</p>
<p>UC Riverside - Derided as the University of Chinese ■■■■■■■.</p>
<p>USC - Once derided as the “University of Stupid Chinese”, USC too is gaining rapid momentum academically. Nowadays, stupid (or poor) Asians go to Irvine or Riverside (most likely, the latter). And of course, the Cal States as well.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Northwestern- fun, prestigious college with excellent academics and “Big Ten” athletics-- most people choose this over UofC</p></li>
<li><p>UofI -Urbana C—one of the best publics in the nation with awesome engineering and business with a great price, profound school spirit, and awesome athletics-- however located in a cornfield</p></li>
<li><p>UofC — “where fun comes to die” — pretensious student body that loves talking about UofChi’s “unique economic theories” and teaching methods when in fact they are teaching the same concepts from the same d.amn textbook as anywhere else. Known for its lack of sports, ugly girls, ghetto-located campus, and general disdain for Northwestern since it’s clearly a rival school.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Btw I saw someone rank TX schools for their hot girls so I’ll give it a go.
UTA (seems to be the general public opinion)
all other schools
Last: Rice University (I go here)</p>
<p>lol There are definitely hot girls here, but damn…</p>
<p>“Other Penn State campus schools - If you don’t get into Main Campus, you go here. They’re okay, nothing special, not too good academically.”</p>
<p>actually most students in these other campuses are automatically sent to main campus after the 3 or 4th semester because most of these small campuses have 10 or so majors except for harrisburg, erie etc.</p>
<p>my brothers freind went to Penn State Abington for 3 semesters (1.5 years)
and in the 4th semester went automatically to main campus.
She graduated in 01 w/ a B.S. in Chemical Engineering.
i heard she is pretty succesful. getting a M.S. frm Michigan.</p>
<p>In CT, UConn is the main state school, but being so huge, with impersonal class’s, many students seem to dislike it. My daughters GC said she sends a lot there, but many come home on the weekends and hate it. If you aren’t a party person and don’t like isolation, it can be hard. She suggested for some students with very good grades,that liked smaller class’s, Central CT State University. It gets good reviews in many areas, Princeton Review had it as a great value, etc. I was surprised when I researched it more, that it could be a very good bargain and some of the professors were honored in certain areas. One young woman at my daughters school went into their honors program, she received half tuition and then full for pulling an A average, had honors housing with some perks, got to go abroad with the same package (not done many times at some colleges) and was challenged in her class’s. Maybe the college on a whole doesn’t send a great number of students to prestigious grad schools, but she knew of some that went to Yale, Univ. or Penn, Trinity, Wesleyan, etc. A few classmates went to UConn for grad school to save money. All and all though,if money is an issue, it can be a good bargain. I didn’t hear as many glowing reports for Southern Univ. but my husband knows of one young woman that loved their honors program. People tend to dismiss certain schools without a lot of thought, and sometimes you might be surprised at a “hidden gem”.</p>