A growing number of parents and students are reconsidering the value of public institutions of higher education. For in-state residents, getting a bachelor's degree from a state-funded institution can be one of life's greatest bargains. The total annual cost - including room and board, books, travel, and all personal expenses - averages $19,000. That's less than half the cost of the average private college education and well below the price tag for the so-called elites.
What's more, many of these universities are considered "Public Ivies" - public schools that rival the elite private universities' academic quality, rigor, and prestige. "Public Ivy" is a term coined by writer Richard Moll, former director of admissions at Yale, in his 1985 book, Public Ivies: A Guide to America's Best Public Undergraduate Colleges and Universities. Moll has since expanded his list of eight schools to 30, including:
- Most of the Midwestern Big Ten universities, like the universities of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Ohio State
- A handful of schools in the Northeast, including the universities of Vermont and Connecticut, Binghamton, Penn State, and Rutgers
- Mid-Atlantic schools like the universities of Delaware and Maryland
- Southern schools, including the College of William & Mary and the universities of Florida, Georgia, Texas at Austin, and Virginia
- In the west, the universities of Arizona, Colorado, and Washington
- Six of the campuses of the University of California (Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Diego, and Santa Barbara)
Often cited as one of the disadvantages of these schools is their size, with very large classes and a lack of personal attention. Yet large class sizes in lower-level, introductory courses is often compensated for in smaller, more individualized classes in the junior and senior years.
However, as many educators and college graduates will tell you, you get out of college what you put into it, and graduating from an elite college is no guarantee that you learned all you could or that you graduated with the personal characteristics that lead to career success.
There are those who swear by the advantages of smaller class sizes and more personal attention students can receive in private colleges and universities. But with media headlines expressing concern that colleges and universities are heading toward making a college education unaffordable for the average American family, the virtues of a public college education should not be overlooked.