Ehhh, I dunno. North Carolina is larger in population than Massachusetts and according to Google has more colleges and universities than Mass. It also has one of the best public university systems in the country, but some of the lesser known schools are not represented.
If I were designing this I would have a forum for each state and list every university in the state with links to the relevant already established forum if applicable (again, no need to do away with the alphabetical listing although it is VERY unwieldy—just redirect the link under the state to the existing forum.) If a small school doesn’t warrant its own forum it could go under the state. There are a LOT of colleges and universities not represented here and some are pretty large. The tags are not a good solution IMO. Better to just use the existing framework and put them in the state forums. If my kid can pay in-state tuition at a public in my state I would like to look at them all, but they’re not all listed in the alphabetical listing.
So you have:
State Forums
Alabama | Alaska | Arizona | Arkansas | California | Colorado | Connecticut | Delaware | etc
Then nested under “Alabama” you have
Auburn | University Alabama | University of Alabama in Birmingham | University of Alabama in Huntsville | etc.
These links can just go to existing forums, but it’s a lot easier than wading through alphabetical listings and can help you focus where to search out schools. If a school doesn’t have a forum you could create one, or you could just let there be a general discussion under the Alabama forum.
and then you can also keep the alphabetical listing:
Colleges and Universities A-Z
Adelphi University | Agnes Scott College | University of Alabama | University of Alabama Birmingham | etc
It just makes sense. Having 5 states under the State Forums makes no sense at all. I think the alphabetical listing is cumbersome and tedious to wade through, but keep it if it makes people happy. Having 5 states listed under State Forums is just stupid. Either make it all 50 or get rid of it.