If money was no issue, would you opt for a private school or go public?

Question

Would you choose a university in a big city or a small college town? Would the rank of the school be your obsession or would you put other criterium first? How would you go about choosing your school for your undergraduate degree and why for each question?

Answer 1

If money were not an issue I would go to a university in another country, like Sorbonne, Cambridge, or Oxford. I believe in England, Oxford and Cambridge are public schools.

In this country, my rank would be Columbia, Princeton, Yale, Harvard, NYU, Northwestern, and Vassar. I think they are all private, but I favor private over public because of the size and the quality of education.

I would probably rank by obsession first because I admire the "old school" schools so much, and I love higher education in general. I love the north east area too. Plus I have already graduated from college, so curriculum would not be as important to me as my awe in the school would be. I would go back for fun and earn a degree or two in topics that interest me, perhaps in history, law, art, geology, education, etc.

If I came into a large inheritance, I would definitely look into going to one of the schools that I admire, packing up and moving my life over there, the whole nine yards.

Answer 2

a) private, but I don't have a good reason for that, just that most of the schools I looked into and liked were private.
b) big city... I don't drive and I am BIG on using public transit
c) rank only matters so much.... you can go to Harvard and hate it and end up getting D's because you hate it even if you are capable of getting A's.

When I chose my University it was a joint agreement between my parents and I, but now I wish I had gone with my heart and gone to a small, private, urban, university. I like my unviersity but it is very impersonal.

Answer 3

If money was no issue and acceptance was also no issue...

I'd probably choose a private college/university.

In no particular order:

1) Size/Location. Ideally, it'd be more than 2,000 students but less than 7,000 and be located just on the edge of a large city (in the greater metropolitan area). By large city, I mean Seattle, Los Angeles, Chicago, NYC, Atlanta, etc. (cities of those sizes, not necessarily those cities). I've spent my life so far in a rural area and a suburban area (that wasn't near any big city) so I'd like to be near a big city and try to take in some "culture." The campus itself should be largely residential or with students living just off-campus (i.e. not w/ their parents)

2) Professors. The number of professors that actually teach undergraduate courses. I have nothing against teacher assistants, but professors often have more knowledge and are often better at teaching.

3) Prestige of the school. I wouldn't quibble over choosing #4 over #11 (to me, they'd be equal) but I wouldn't want to go to a no-name/no reputation college. I'd also take into greater consideration how good the school is for my major.

4) In/famous graduates. This doesn't play in too much but can be a tie-breaker. Richard Nixon graduated from Duke. While undoubtedly a man with cunning intellect, his views on race and ethics definitely left something to be desired (even for a politician). Also, if I've personally known any graduate, I would take this into account.

5) Dorms/Food. Silly, I know, but if you're going to spend four years somewhere, it's nice to live and eat in style.

6) Efficiency of college administration. Some adminsitrators are great. Others don't seem to realize they get paid to do a job. I obviously prefer the former of the two.

7) Library. I'm a sucker for impressive libraries. Both for the books and the architecture.

8) Frats and Greek Life. I don't go for these things and I'd prefer to be around people who don't go for them either.

9) Reputation for Drugs/Alcohol/Partying. I understand some people like these things but I think that I usu. have better and more fun things to do with my time.

Answer 4

I chose to go to a private school in a relatively small town just cause I wanted the small class sizes and cause of the ranking of the school. I do like the more one on one attention but I'm beginning to regret not having more people to become friends with we only have 500 in our freshmen class. Anyways to answer your question I mostly looked at the ranking and job prospect for after graduation. The other ones were just personal feelings

Answer 5

If money was no issue i would go private, right now im attending a private uni and im paying out the *** for it, but i love it!! all my friends are at public schools ex. UT, TTech, A&M, UNT. And honestly non of them are doing as well as they thought they would. Classes are to large and professors dont give a crap if u go to class or not. Most private schools are smaller, you recieve alot of 1 on 1 help and if you ever need a reccomdenation its easy to find a professor who would be willing to write one for you. THis is a hard question because it all depends on you, if u want to go to college for academics or if ur goign to college just because its what your "suppose to do after HS". To find a college that is a fit for you u need to go visit campus. I orginally wanted to go to TCU and wow once i visited im so glad i didnt choose there, then i checked out UT and a few other major schools. To figure out what you wnat to study honestly isnt thtat big of a deal, you dont have to decide until your junior year what major u want to be. Unless you want to go pre-professional then look in the College Special Issues of U.S Weekly, and other major magizines that put out college editions and look about where colleges are ranked. I decided on a small private school inwhich it was ranked in many magizines, has a 100% acceptance rate into ones top choice medical or law school. Im going premed so this fit perfect for me the enviorment of a small school is great, ive applied for interships after my first semester and my professers knew me well enough and wrote some of the best recommedations ive ever recieved. Good luck with everything hope this helped some!! And if not go with your instinct, if u have your heart set on a college check it ou tand go there ! make yourself happy dont go to a school just b/c ur friends or family are going there or want u to go there!

Answer 6

Depending on your major, the University you attend and graduate from means everything in some instances. Just as a Yale graduate in law is more highly regarded than say a law grad from the University of the Ozarks.

Answer 7

I would have either gone to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor or NYU. I almost did anyway, but the free tuition waiver I got to attend URI was too much to beat.

Good Luck!!!