What's the difference between a State university and a university such as University of missouri?

Question

Are there any differences between a state university and a university such as university of Missouri other than the name?

Answer 1

A "state university" is a college or university that is owned and run by the state for the benefit of the citizens of that state. This differs from a "private university" or college that is run by an organization such as a church body or non-profit educational group or by a business/corporation.

University of Missouri is a "state university". Webster University in St. Louis is a "private university" that used to be church run but is now a non-profit. ITT Tech in St Louis is an example of a private profit oriented college.

None are automatically better or worse than the others by group. There are great state colleges (UC-Berkeley) and great privates (Harvard) and there must be a great for-profit (I can't think of one). There are also bad examples in each of these but I'm not going to name those. ☺ (and I don't mean to imply that U Missouri is among the bad - I didn't say that at all)

Answer 2

There are private and public universities and colleges. Sources of funding and governance are the main differences.
The difference between a college and a university is that a college just offers a collection of degrees in one specific area, while a university is a collection of colleges. When you go to a university you are going to be graduating from one of their colleges, such as the business college.

Answer 3

Also, quite often, if not always, the ___ State university has a more technical bent than the University of ___. It would be the agricultural and engineering school.

Answer 4

Generally speaking, universities have a stronger focus on graduate programs (PhD level) and research while state universities emphasize teaching undergraduates more than research.