<p>Everyone thinks Berkeley is just a safety school, but that is a huge misconception! It’s really highly rated- even higher than many Ivys! It’s an amazing college even though its public! :)</p>
<p>[2011</a> World University Ranking | Top 200 Universities in the world](<a href=“http://www.4icu.org/top200/]2011”>http://www.4icu.org/top200/)</p>
<p>I’m going to vote for Miami of Ohio, which many people think is in Florida.</p>
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<p>Most “big state schools” have relatively “wide” ranges of student ability and motivation, compared to smaller private schools. California’s public schools are “narrower” in this respect than most states’ public schools, because there are so many of them (32, compared to, for example, Arizona, which has only three state universities), although their large size still makes them “wider” than most private schools. But other states’ public schools are often much “wider” than California’s.</p>
<p>It does mean that many state schools have a reputational problem due to their relatively low selectivity, even if they have offerings that are suitable for students at the top end of ability and motivation (along with offerings for the low end of their selectivity range). For example, Arizona State has a rather lowly academic reputation due to its low selectivity (and it does have to offer extensive remedial English and math courses for the majority of freshmen who need them), but I know Arizona State graduates who went on to places like a top PhD program for the major or a good job at a good company.</p>
<p>A big “wide” school may be a better choice for a safety than a small “narrow” school, since the latter may not have the offerings that best challenge a student who is far above the middle range in academic ability and motivation, due to being too small and not having enough demand for such courses.</p>
<p>In my (perhaps still naive) opinion, the only impactful difference between a top public school like UCB and top private universities is size. Most private universities have a couple thousand students. UCB has over 25,000. That difference alone is enough to account for all the other things that people harp about: class sizes, community, opportunities, distribution of student ability, etc.</p>