State Flagship Universities?

tokenadult · August 25, 2007, 9:57am

Here’s a list of what I believe are the “flagship” state universities in each state. I’d love to hear corrections from people who better understand the situation in each state. I get the impression that the term “flagship” is supposed to indicate the state university that gets the most funding, is perhaps the most selective in admitting students, and is regarding as the top state university in each state. I suppose in some states it is debatable which university should be so designated, and maybe in some states there is more than one “flagship” university. I’ll list links for some universities in some states I know. Please reply with additions or corrections based on your local knowledge.

California (CA)

University of California: Berkeley (“Cal” or “Berkeley”)

<a href=“http://www.berkeley.edu/[/url]”>http://www.berkeley.edu/</a>

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

Michigan (MI)

University of Michigan

<a href=“http://www.umich.edu/[/url]”>http://www.umich.edu/</a>

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

Minnesota (MN)

University of Minnesota Twin Cities

<a href=“http://www1.umn.edu/twincities/index.php[/url]”>http://www1.umn.edu/twincities/index.php</a>

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

Virginia (VA)

University of Virginia

<a href=“http://www.virginia.edu/[/url]”>http://www.virginia.edu/</a>

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

Washington (WA)

University of Washington (“U Dub”)

<a href=“http://www.washington.edu/[/url]”>http://www.washington.edu/</a>

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

Wisconsin (WI)

University of Wisconsin–Madison (“Madison”)

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

There are more states than those listed above. I am puzzled by the situation in some states with multiple state universities. What’s the “flagship” in your state?

Optisrule · August 25, 2007, 10:21am

U Mass Amherst (MA)

<a href=“http://umass.edu/umhome/index.php[/url]”>http://umass.edu/umhome/index.php</a>

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

kyledavid80 · August 25, 2007, 10:27am

Great topic.

I always considered “flagship” to mean the first university of its kind, but your definition works too.

tokenadult · August 25, 2007, 11:10am

Thanks for both of the replies. I see kyledavid80 is replying from California, and I wanted to check if Berkeley has distinct admission policies from the other UC universities.

Alexandre · August 25, 2007, 11:16am

I think “flagship” means the top of the line. It turns out that in most states, the flagship state school is also the oldest, but it isn’t always the case.

coureur · August 25, 2007, 11:26am

Flagship state universities also usually have their name in form of “University of (state name)” rather than “(state name) State University.”

Some other flagships:

Univ. of Texas (Austin)
Univ. of Oregon (Eugene)
Univ. of North Carolina (Chapel Hill)
Univ. of Florida (Gainesville)
Indiana University (Bloomington)
University of Hawaii (Manoa)

kyledavid80 · August 25, 2007, 11:29am

tokenadult: I’d say Berkeley has more distinct admission policies than the other UCs, in that it stresses a holistic approach – GPA, rigor of course load, and essays are of utmost importance. I’d say it’s easily the most selective UC (ranked #14 nationally in selectivity, according to US News).

Lesser_Perfesser · August 25, 2007, 11:45am

Oregon & Indiana are not “true” flagships by any means. Those two states (along with Iowa, South Dakota, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and a few others) have basically chosen to divide their major universities into two “sections” if you will, with one university mainly focused on agriculture, engineering and similar practical programs, and the other dedicated to liberal arts and sciences. Calling Indiana a flagship over Purdue, or Oregon a flagship over Oregon State ignores the fact that Indiana and Oregon are severely lacking in certain fields. I would even contend that UNC-Chapel Hill is not really a flagship university in the true sense, despite the admissions standards.

tokenadult · August 25, 2007, 11:54am

California (CA)

University of California: Berkeley (“Cal” or “Berkeley”)

<a href=“http://www.berkeley.edu/[/url]”>http://www.berkeley.edu/</a>

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

Florida (FL)

University of Florida

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

Hawaii (HI)

University of Hawaii at Manoa

<a href=“http://manoa.hawaii.edu/[/url]”>http://manoa.hawaii.edu/</a>

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

Indiana (IN)

Indiana University Bloomington

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

Massachusetts (MA)

University of Massachusetts Amherst (“U Mass”)

<a href=“http://umass.edu/umhome/index.php[/url]”>http://umass.edu/umhome/index.php</a>

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

Michigan (MI)

University of Michigan

<a href=“http://www.umich.edu/[/url]”>http://www.umich.edu/</a>

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

Minnesota (MN)

University of Minnesota Twin Cities

<a href=“http://www1.umn.edu/twincities/index.php[/url]”>http://www1.umn.edu/twincities/index.php</a>

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

North Carolina (NC)

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (“Chapel Hill”)

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

Oregon (OR)

University of Oregon

<a href=“http://www.uoregon.edu/[/url]”>http://www.uoregon.edu/</a>

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

Texas (TX)

University of Texas at Austin

<a href=“http://www.utexas.edu/[/url]”>The University of Texas at Austin;

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

Virginia (VA)

University of Virginia

<a href=“http://www.virginia.edu/[/url]”>http://www.virginia.edu/</a>

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

Washington (WA)

University of Washington (“U Dub”)

<a href=“http://www.washington.edu/[/url]”>http://www.washington.edu/</a>

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

Wisconsin (WI)

University of Wisconsin–Madison (“Madison”)

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

You can see I’ve tried to list distinctive conversational names for the colleges when I know them. To say “U of M” is quite ambiguous–in this part of the country it could mean U of Minnesota or U of Michigan–and I’m not sure my own alma mater even has a distinctive name like that. I really like “U Dub” for the University of Washington.

Lesser_Perfesser · August 25, 2007, 11:56am

The following would, I think, qualify as flagships as well:
University of Colorado (Boulder)
THE Ohio State University
University of Maryland
University of Connecticut
University of Kentucky
University of Tennessee
West Virginia University
University of Utah
Penn State
University of Illinois
University of Delaware
University of Wyoming (by default, ha ha)
Rutgers

tokenadult · August 25, 2007, 11:57am

I just saw post #8 after I posted post #9. I’m interested in this issue of states in which there are multiple state universities, which perhaps specialize by subject. I’d be happy to make this list broad, that is inclusive of colleges interesting to engineering majors as well as to English majors, and wonder how that would change the composition of the list.

Lesser_Perfesser · August 25, 2007, 12:03pm

States with (definite) multiple flagships:
Indiana - Purdue
Iowa - Iowa State
South Carolina - Clemson
Georgia - Georgia Tech
Alabama - Auburn
Mississippi (Ole Miss) - Miss. State

Debatable:
Oklahoma - Oklahoma State
Arizona - Arizona State
UNC - NCSU

Two more lone flagships: Louisiana State University, University of Nebraska (Lincoln)

phonyreal98 · August 25, 2007, 1:08pm

North Carolina
UNC-Chapel Hill

<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;

Scipio · August 25, 2007, 1:25pm

‘Flagship state universities also usually have their name in form of “University of (state name)” rather than “(state name) State University.”’

Another characteristic of flagships is that they usually have the big state law school, medical school, business school, other professional schools, and other prestigious programs. By contrast the non-flagship state schools are often land grant universities and are typically specialists in more work-a-day things like agriculture, teaching, engineering, etc.

wemel · August 25, 2007, 1:27pm

Here is a wonderful article written by the former Chancellor of UC Berkeley on the future of flagship universities:

<a href=“http://cio.chance.berkeley.edu/chancellor/sp/flagship.htm[/url]”>http://cio.chance.berkeley.edu/chancellor/sp/flagship.htm</a>

bluebayou · August 25, 2007, 1:27pm

you need to add UCLA to the California list since it’s nearly as selective as Cal. [btw: The state tries to fund all UC campuses somewhat equally.]

tokenadult · August 25, 2007, 1:49pm

Thanks for the further replies. I’ll be updating the list offline for a few hours; meanwhile I’d be glad to hear from other participants.

kyler242 · August 25, 2007, 1:53pm

Texas actually has two state flagship universities, Texas A&M being the other

wemel · August 25, 2007, 2:09pm

^ If you read the article from my previous post, the author says as much.

kyler242 · August 25, 2007, 2:27pm

^wemel, my apologies, it does indeed. At least now its spelled out explicitly in the thread for those like myself who didnt initially take time to read the article.

State Flagship Universities?

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