Everyone school is unique, each have their own personality, campus life, academic curriculum and culture. Like the start of any relationship, all of those factors need to be considered when choosing a mate/school... for the long term... if not you might have to break up, transfer, quit dating/school all together, etc. I chose the 'big state school,' when I went to college. (There a great deal of options, small liberal private, private big state school esque, a single sex school, career specific, online, religious, college on a bus, urban school- there is ridiculous amount of options of schools in the United States.) I considered other options, but because my dad and my sister went their, financial reasons, a D1 football team and a campus life I was fond of, I ended up going to the state school of the state of Missouri... Mizzou.
I have met a variety of people at various schools across the country ranging in every variable possible, and after discussing their school and campus life... these are the factors are advantages to 'big state schools.'
Pros:
1. Name recognition.
The University of... sets a basic standard of what the school is... So if you move to Oregon from Connecticut and employers... people... etc will have a basic standard to judge the university you attended because University of... has a general standard behind it. University of... schools are often large state schools, focused on research, as well as student life, there is often great regard for the University from athletic department and campus involvement, etc. If your degree was from say... Truman State University... people in Missouri know that is a good, small, public liberal arts school in Missouri, but people in Oregon would lump it in with the rest of the universities in the country that they have never heard of. (Okay... they did invent google and wikipedia, so the employer... person... or whomever could figure out more about your school but there is an advantage to automatically knowing a basic standard.)
With name recognition, there are plenty of schools that are known across the country that aren't known because they are generic state schools. Of course Ivy League schools are easily recognizable and even schools like Georgetown and Notre Dame are well known across the country. Simply, the University of... schools provide a basic understanding of the type of institution attended across the nation.
2. RESEARCH!
As a undergrad, I had no connection with the research done at the University of Missouri, other than the fact my brother told me stories about accidentally drowning mice and cutting their tails off in his research lab... but that is beside the point. Anyway, typically large flagship state institutions pump out TONS of research each year. It is often done by professors, graduate students and the sucker undergrad who cuts the mice's tails...like my brother... but the research is actually pretty cool. It makes state universities the leaders in a lot of research and gives legitimacy to the university mission of higher education. Now, you may never know they are doing research in the buildings you walk past every day... but often flagship state universities have professors who are leaders in their fields.
3. Campus Life!
To start off, first of all I am bias because I attended a large state university and I am attending one for graduate school, so I obviously, personally, see the benefit of student life at large public institutions. However... choosing a school is about finding what fits you not what some random blogger on the world wide web thinks is right... but anyway... here is my argument why student life a big public schools is superb.
a. Athletics
Now that may sound silly to you... because there are so few athletes compared to non athletes at schools of 30,000 + but.... athletics provide a HUGE sense of pride for institutions. People from all over come in to watch the football and basketball games, people dress from head to toe in school colors, your school's name and mascot are plastered across national television and President Obama makes a bracket and picks YOUR school to win a couple basketball games... (or something like that- I am still trying to grasp this nation wide bracket thing... anyway whatever, not important). Before you have the time to establish a deep and personal love for your university, there are 70,000 people packed in a toilet bowl shaped arena screaming your school's fight song and chants. That right there is a religious experience... I went to a Michigan v Ohio State game once... I think I got more out of that then out of 17 years of church. Athletics deepen true love and alumni support for your university. It all comes back to pride, being proud of your university and being a part of something bigger than yourself.
b. Cash money yo.
More students... more student fees... more money... more resources.
Now this isn't true for all schools... individual institutions set their own agendas for their campus and student life... but because the school is larger, the facilities are larger, there are more people working in student life and it is overall a bigger operation. I have spent summers at both American University and Georgetown University and these schools are inherently very different than the University of Missouri, so it is kind of like apples and oranges, but the facilities are Mizzou verses G-town and AU are night and day. It is less expensive to build in Mid-MO verses the nations capital, and this allowed Mizzou to construct some great student facilities.
c. More student life opportunities
Okay, lets talk some numbers ... when you go to a school that has 40,000 people verses a school of 4,000 people, the variety of organizations/clubs/Greek life/intermurals/etc is going to be much greater at a bigger school. Large public institutions often have well developed and dominate Greek organizations, have more opportunities to join specific organizations, student government has more resources, etc... There are more resident halls to live in, more people to interact with and a bigger campus to spread out on.
Now after all this is said... each school has pros and cons. If you go to a big school, even if you were the biggest fish at your high school, there are going to be bigger more cool fish in college and they are going to kick your fish butt in awesomeness. There is a lot more competition among organizations and campus life at bigger schools. Many departments of athletics are not self sustaining, so they take money from the school's general operation budget. Bigger schools mean BIG classes and way less personal contact. Research is not something undergraduates often interact with.
So the moral of this blog post... I am like a fairy god mother... is that there are some pretty cool benefits to attending a large public flagship state school, however it is not perfect and there are definitely draw backs. Pick the school that makes you feel right, that you feel like you could spend the next four years living at and enjoying, not for the name or the reputation, but for you. Ultimately, college is what YOU make it, not the person it makes you.
