What is your state's version of UW-Madison?
Posted by Old-Quote-9214@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 440 comments
Hi everyone,
I am from Wisconsin and in my state, University of Wisconsin-Madison is the flag-state university. In high school/college, people recognize "Madison", "University of Wisconsin", "UW-Madison," "UW" for that university. In my state, we have the University of Wisconsin university system and the other campuses are known by their acronyms/city name (UWM or UW-Milwaukee). We have a different system for community colleges.
I was wondering if this differs for different states. Does your state have the main state university all the academically studious, college-bound students apply for? How does it work for states with multiple university systems (example, "University of Statename" vs Statename State University)
JoeIA84@reddit
The State of Iowa only has 3 public colleges. But they do somewhat specialize
The University of Iowa (Iowa City) is the flagship (Hawkeyes for sports) and known for medical, law, writing, business, and liberal arts. If you say you go to Iowa this what all refer to.
Iowa State University (Ames north of Des Moines) is the Land Grant school with focus on agriculture, engineering, and sciences but does have liberal arts degrees (Cyclones for sports). People say Iowa State or ISU mostly.
University of Northern Iowa (Cedar Falls) was the Iowa teachers college but has expanded to include liberal arts, business, engineering etc (Panthers for sports). Everyone just says UNI when referring to them
spotthedifferenc@reddit
new york doesn’t have a flagship school, which imo hurts the rep of the SUNY system slightly. there’s no one school that’s “the one”.
buffalo, binghamton, and stony brook are the three best suny’s, with each one having a slightly different niche. if you look at them on a map they make a diagonal line across ny state with points at near equivalent distances.
albany is one step down, geneseo is somewhere in there, and then after that it’s a complete free for all.
GreenWhiteBlue86@reddit
Albany, like Binghamton, Buffalo, and Stony Brook, is a "University Center" of the State University of New York. All four of the SUNY "university centers" have dropped their old names of "State University of New York at ____", and instead call themselves something else that doesn't mention SUNY at all. Buffalo calls itself "University at Buffalo", Albany uses "University at Albany", Binghamton uses "Binghamton University", and Stony Brook calls itself "Stony Brook University."
spotthedifferenc@reddit
yeah. it’s still below the other 3
GreenWhiteBlue86@reddit
It depends on the field of study. For example, US News ranks Albany's graduate program in criminology as #5 nationally.
TheTurtleKing4@reddit
UMD. Maryland doesn’t have a “Maryland State.”
rebekahr19@reddit
New York has the predicament of having 3 large flagship state universities (Binghamton, u at Buffalo, stony Brook) but none are nationally well known. All three have good reputations in the northeast and would be known by nearby states but relatively unknown in the rest of the country.
Ok-Truck-5526@reddit
In Michigan, we —even we MSU grads — simply use Michigan as the name for the Universitybof Michigan.
NittanyOrange@reddit
For New York: n/a
CantHardlyWait414@reddit
Huh? SUNY has two flagships, Buffalo and Stony Brook. UB is probably the most on par with UW Madison considering its size and R1 classification.
NittanyOrange@reddit
That it has multiple flagship campuses means that it doesn't have a flagship campus.
CantHardlyWait414@reddit
They are literally called SUNY’s flagships by SUNY themselves. New York is 4x the size of Wisconsin.
NittanyOrange@reddit
...but the campuses aren't 4x the size of UW.
And the OP's description isn't solely about size. None of what OP described a campus in NY
CantHardlyWait414@reddit
No shit… that’s why there’s more than one…
OP asked if other states have a big, public, flagship R1 + D1 university, which NY has two of
NittanyOrange@reddit
The answer for New York is no.
CantHardlyWait414@reddit
As someone who quite literally works for SUNY, yes, we do! Only difference is NYS has more options for high ranked private universities than a state like Wisconsin.
NittanyOrange@reddit
Which campus, then, is the main state university that all the academically studious, college-bound students apply for?
CantHardlyWait414@reddit
UB
NittanyOrange@reddit
Though Buffalo is the most applied to school in the system, Stony Brook and Binghamton have a higher incoming class average SAT scores, and all of Stony Brook, Binghamton, and even Albany have lower acceptance rates. Stony Brook is also nearly the same size.
I just don't see the evidence that Buffalo is a flagship school in the way UW is in Wisconsin.
https://www.suny.edu/media/suny/content-assets/documents/summary-sheets/Admission-Information-Summary-Sheets.pdf
http://www.suny.edu/media/suny/content-assets/documents/powerofsuny/performance-management-system/DRAFT-Retention-Rates-Background-Report.pdf
NittanyOrange@reddit
Also, UT Austin is the clear flagship of Texas, which is bigger than NY. It's not really about population size
CantHardlyWait414@reddit
Texas has multiple systems, NY only has SUNY. In addition to UT Austin there is Texas Tech and A&M which are also big, public, R1 + D1 universities
NittanyOrange@reddit
...but no one without a TTech or A&M degree would even consider those the flagship university of the state.
r1singsun_@reddit
SUNY Albany?
NittanyOrange@reddit
If someone says, "I got to SUNY", pretty much anyone would assume just the closest one would be what you're talking about. It's not a dominant university/campus when you think of it in context of Buffalo, Binghamton, Stony Brook, etc.
mstrong73@reddit
Yeah I don’t think there is one really. My daughter is at. SUNY but everyone just calls them by their name not SUNY whatever. With some rare exceptions where there is a SUNY and a university In the same city.
baddspellar@reddit
Certainly not.
The two most highly rated campuses are Stony Brook and Binghamton. Stony Brook is the best STEM school of the SUNY system, Binghamton for liberal arts.
Tommy_Wisseau_burner@reddit
Stony brook
olemiss18@reddit
While we’re on this topic, my Alma mater, the University of Mississippi, is the one one I can think of that is better known by its nickname than by its actual name. Anyone think of another one?
Old-Quote-9214@reddit (OP)
What I find interesting is that there the Mississippi University for Women (history of the name of the school before what is kinda crazy) and it was in the eighties that they had to admit men. I read that that school's president is trying to change the name so that men could apply (75% of students are women)
olemiss18@reddit
Ah! Yes, the answer to my question was in my own home state! That university is probably known more commonly by locals as “the W”. To your point, the name has been a source of controversy lately. I think the most recent idea is to change it to Mississippi University for Workforce in order to keep “the W”, but that’s such a stretch.
HonkIfBored@reddit
tate schools are pretty common. They are called university systems with a flagship as the ONE that is the state.
Remarkable_Inchworm@reddit
New York has the State University of New York (SUNY) system. We've got a pretty wide range of schools all over the state, some of which are better at different areas of study.
SUNY Purchase has (had?) the best program for fine arts - theater and dance, etc.
SUNY Geneseo was the school for education majors.
There has been talk over the years about developing one or two of the SUNY campuses into more of a flagship university like Wisconsin - I think the ones that get mentioned most are Binghamton and Stony Brook.
TwinkieDad@reddit
Berkley is the one most recognizable without the qualifiers. California has multiple tiers: there are UCs, “Cal States”, and then community colleges. The UC system schools are University of California ___, but the “states” are not as uniform. San Diego State University; California State University, Fullerton; etc.
WarrenMulaney@reddit
Of course here is what's weird about the Cal State system...
Most are informally known as "(city) State) like Fresno State, Chico State, San Jose State.
But there are others that are "Cal State (city) like Cal State Bakersfield, Cal State L.A. or simply CSUB, CSLA.
Don't get me started on the Polys.
Imaginary_Ladder_917@reddit
I got my masters degree at California state Polytechnic University at Pomona. I really wanted to do my undergrad at California State Polytechnic University at San Luis Obispo but I ended up going somewhere else.
Drew707@reddit
Even though Pomona is a thing, if anyone said Cal Poly you'd immediately think SLO. Pomona needs a PR blitz.
littlemsshiny@reddit
Really?! I think Pomona. Maybe because I grew up in LA?
Drew707@reddit
Maybe? I'm from the Bay Area and if anyone told me they were going to Cal Poly it would mean SLO. SLO is 50 years older than Pomona, and Pomona was a satellite campus for a while.
Imaginary_Ladder_917@reddit
Most people in Los Angeles would think of Pomona if you just said you were going to Cal Poly because it’s local.
RsonW@reddit
And now Humboldt State is Cal Poly Humboldt
Drew707@reddit
Oh, no shit? Really meta with the poly thing.
DeathandHemingway@reddit
I think it's just that some city names sound awkward as '____ State' and some don't. Like 'LA State' or 'Dominguez Hills State' sound kinda awkward.
WarrenMulaney@reddit
True but still not really sure.
Is there a difference between saying "Cal State Northridge" and "Northridge State"? They both roll off the tongue the same way.
DeathandHemingway@reddit
Some do work both ways, like Long Beach State could be Cal State Long Beach. I prefer Cal State Northridge to Northridge State, and pretty much everyone I've ever met who went there calls it C-SUN anyway.
MsLexicon@reddit
I have never heard Northridge State and would be puzzled if someone referred to it that way.
DeathandHemingway@reddit
Yeah, but it's not as bad as Dominguez Hills State would be. Sounds like a school in a CW show.
Like, I dont think it's really anything deep, people generally just think some sound better one way and some sound better the other so that's how they end up.
NPHighview@reddit
...and if someone tells you they went to "Cal" they mean UC Berkeley.
But pretty much all the UCs are excellent schools.
TheLonelySnail@reddit
Go Highlanders!
MsLexicon@reddit
Go Bears!
Imaginary_Ladder_917@reddit
And for a fun mouthful, California State Polytechnic University at San Luis Obispo!
kstaxx@reddit
I have never heard anyone say allathat. Usually I hear people say Cal Poly SLO
Imaginary_Ladder_917@reddit
I’ve only used it when taking to people who aren’t from California who have no idea what any of that means. But yes, when I lived in California it was simply Cal Poly SLO or Cal Poly Pomona
littlemsshiny@reddit
It’s Berkeley! You forgot the second “e.”
halfcafsociopath@reddit
U-Dub (University of Washington - Seattle)
Satellites are referred to similarly to the Wisconsin system, eg (UW-Bothell)
When I was at University of Illinois at Urban-Champaign people called it U of I or "Champaign" (ironically most of U of I is in Urbana). Also written as UIUC to distinguish it from UI-Chicago.
Feature_Agitated@reddit
Yep I was going to say “U-dub.” All the kids who want to party apply to WSU.
NitescoGaming@reddit
Pronounced "wahzoo"
taftpanda@reddit
Michigan really has three main groups:
The University of Michigan, also known as U-M, U of M, or just called “Michigan.” If someone says they go to Michigan, they mean UM-Ann Arbor. It has two other campuses in Flint and Dearborn. It’s sort of our premier public university.
Michigan State University, which is our land grant public school. It doesn’t have additional campuses, per se, but there are MSU “extensions” which are units of the university all over the state that do research and some classes, mostly agriculture related.
Then there are just the other state schools. The main ones are Central Michigan University, Western Michigan University, Eastern Michigan University, and Northern Michigan University, each called Central, Western, Eastern, and Northern, respectively. Plus, we also have the “valleys,” which are Grand Valley State University and Saginaw State University.
esk_209@reddit
UMD is 1 system with 11 campuses.
University of Alaska - Anchorage (UAA), UAF (Fairbanks), and UA-Southeast (in Juneau)
sammysbud@reddit
Technically, USM is the University System of Maryland (which includes all of the schools). Only College Park uses UMD as an acronym.
I work for UMB, and it is a part of USM but not UMD. It does get confusing bc UMB is kinda like a graduate extension of UMD, but a separate school like Towson or Salisbury.
Old-Quote-9214@reddit (OP)
is College Park the "main" school?
PhoneJazz@reddit
Yeah when someone says “I go to College Park” or “I go to Maryland” when asked what school, Marylanders know it means University of Maryland College Park. I dont really hear people use the initialism (U-M-D) when saying the school’s name. University of Maryland-Baltimore County, though, is always colloquially referred to as UMBC.
Alarming-Chemistry27@reddit
I do when speaking to people who are not from the DC area. I got a lot of people confused by calling the school College Park
The_Saddest_Boner@reddit
Yes
ginger_bird@reddit
And St. Mary's College of Maryland is a Maryland public college, but not part of the University of Maryland system
PlanMagnet38@reddit
Yes, but also not quite. Each school has its own mascots, coursework, etc. If a student wants to switch from one to another, it’s not a simple situation. UMBC and Towson and Salisbury and UMGC and St. Mary’s function as separate entities in almost all ways outside of sharing funding sources, employee benefits and such.
esk_209@reddit
I think that applies to most "system" schools. UC-Davis doesn't automatically transfer to UC-Berkley or UCSD.
brizia@reddit
Rutgers. There are 3 campuses, but everyone just assumes New Brunswick.
ColossusOfChoads@reddit
I remember being surprised to find out that Rutgers was public. We out west figure that if it's named after some dead dude, and doesn't include the name of the state it's in, that it's private.
brizia@reddit
It is not in a town called Rutgers; the main campuses are in New Brunswick, NJ. In fact, it was originally called Queens College and is older than the US. It was renamed Rutgers because Rutgers donate some money to the school
ColossusOfChoads@reddit
Oh, okay. I misread something someone else wrote. So it is currently named after a dead guy.
brizia@reddit
Yes. The official name is Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. It’s been Rutgers for 200 years I don’t see it changing anytime soon.
rawbface@reddit
As a graduate from Rowan I agree. Case in point, saying you went to "RU" means Rutgers.
jefferson497@reddit
RU is assumed Rutgers in NJ. Ramapo, Rowan and Rider are forgotten.
kartoffel_engr@reddit
Washington State University
University of Washington
DankBlunderwood@reddit
Our universities were set up initially with their own niches so cannibalization would be limited and the schools would be able to focus their resources, attract relevant professors, etc. In general:
KU has been the "professional" school. That is, they have one of the state's two law schools, the state's only medical school, the only architecture school, and oddly petroleum engineering is based there as well, don't ask me why.
Kansas State is the prototypical land grant school, organized under the Morrill Act. As such, they specialize in agriculture and engineering programs, particularly mechanical engineering, but also nuclear and several other disciplines. They have the state's flagship education program now as well.
Emporia State... yeah, about that... Long story short, it's currently being dismantled by the Koch brothers. It's unclear whether they will turn it into another Hillsdale, or just raid it for parts to take back to Wichita State, which they also basically own. They're trying to kill tenure in the state. If they succeed, all our universities will lose their accreditation. Anyway, this used to be the flagship teaching school. Good nursing program as well.
Pittsburgh State was founded as a sister program to the Kansas State Teachers College, specializing in technical education. That is, producing teachers of auto mechanics, wood and metal shop, etc. Now they produce lots of coding teachers, robotics, etc.
Washburn is unique because it was a municipal university and not organized by the state regents for its first century, so it has a law school that competes with KU law. Otherwise it seems to specialize in criminal justice and public services.
Fort Hays State and Wichita State I don't know much about, sorry.
The short answer is that they're all administered separately, there is no hierarchical structure.
Perdendosi@reddit
As you said, each state is different.
For example, in your neighbor to the southwest, Iowa, only really has three big public universities-- Iowa, Iowa State, and UNI. It doesn't really have a "system" the way that Wisconsin, Minnesota, or California have. But all of those universities are large, with all of them having more than 25,000 undergrads (plus grad students). Iowa and Iowa State are both R1 research institutions but with different focuses (Iowa--medicine, law, writing, etc., Iowa State vet science, ag, engineering). IIRC all of the large state institutions are governed under one board of regents But instead of smaller public colleges, Iowa has a history and tradition of small, liberal arts colleges and universities in rural areas. Neither Iowa nor Iowa State is really the flagship institution.
Utah, where I'm at, has more of an Iowa-style system, with the exception that the University of Utah is definitely the flagship institution in the state, with the highest research budget, the most research active faculty, and the highest admission standards. Utah State University has recently been named an R1, though, and is making a run for prestige while also serving rural Utah with extension and outreach programs (much like Iowa State does). Utah has a couple of colleges that used to be small but have exploded into major universities recently--Utah Valley, Southern Utah, Utah Tech, and Weber State. Even though Utah State and Weber State use the "state" monicker, all state colleges and universities are governed by the same board, called Utah State Higher Education.
California being much larger, has a much more complex higher education system. The University of California system has 10 schools (like UC Berkeley and UCLA) and a governing board of regents, https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu, while the California State system has 25 separate campuses, with a separate chancellor and governing body. https://www.calstate.edu/csu-system/about-the-csu/Pages/default.aspx
UC Berkeley is simply known as "Cal" in athletics and is overall the most prestigious UC school. I don't think there's a flagship Cal State school, maybe San Diego State University?
ColossusOfChoads@reddit
Cal State Chico is the flagship, IIRC.
acertaingestault@reddit
This is the first time I as an East Coaster have ever heard of a university in Utah that's not BYU.
Emotional-Loss-9852@reddit
You must really, really not follow sports at all
acertaingestault@reddit
Correct
Emotional-Loss-9852@reddit
My follow up is did you think that this very, very religious school was a public school or did you think Utah just didn’t have any public colleges?
acertaingestault@reddit
Neither. I just thought BYU was the most populous college in the state based on the size of its reputation. Having now looked it up, it is second only to UVU, which I've never heard of before.
In the same way, I would've guessed that Harvard or MIT had more students than UMass because you hear about them more (and collectively they do, but not individually).
Drew707@reddit
I'd say by reputation SD or maybe Cal Poly (SLO), but it looks like Long Beach is the highest rated right now.
Wonderful-Speaker-32@reddit
Virginia is weird. We have 3 "academically studious" ones: UVA, Virginia Tech, and William and Mary that are all targets for people in different fields. We also have a few others that are considered good but not at the same level (GMU, VCU, JMU). All these are in state.
We don't really have a comprehensive state university system like California, Massachusetts, or Wisconsin for example. Some universities will have multiple campuses (e.g. VT has a satellite one in Northern Virginia), but it's still the same Virginia Tech.
PersuasionNation@reddit
William & Mary is weird in that for the longest time I thought it was a private school. Everything about it - the name, the look, the size, etc - looks like "private liberal arts college" to me.
ColossusOfChoads@reddit
"She said 'ooooooh no / William and Mary won't do...'"
Shenanigangster@reddit
Well it was private for about 200 years until the state formally took it over in 1906
Mr_Kittlesworth@reddit
So we should give people a few more months to catch up with that news
ballrus_walsack@reddit
I’m just hearing about it. Start spreading the news.
Wonderful-Speaker-32@reddit
Funny to me that this was posted in the same minute as another comment saying most people don't even know william and mary is public.
jquailJ36@reddit
I applied to William and Mary, but Washington and Lee took me early decision so I didn't have to wait. W&L and UVa take 17% of applicants, William & Mary take 32%, so it's not very challenging by comparison.
(Yes, I know. We even have a t-shirt: "We're not snobs. We're just better than you." Also a bumper sticker that says "Washington and Lee is THE University of Virginia." Give us a break, we're Division III, we have to have something to brag about. Or as I say talking college football at work, I don't have a dog in that fight.)
12BumblingSnowmen@reddit
GMU used to be UVA’s Northern Virginia campus, funnily enough, but the state split it off because they wanted a separate university in Northern Virginia.
TheRealRollestonian@reddit
I don't think it's necessarily weird, it's just that some schools were in the group of first universities in the United States. W&M predates the Constitution (and UVa), and most people don't even know it's public.
Instead of changing their names to UVa-Williamsburg, they just stuck with history.
Wise was Clinch Valley College as recently as the 90s. It has a unique agreement.
Wonderful-Speaker-32@reddit
Yeah maybe weird wasn't the right phrasing—what I meant is, it's different from how most state university systems are structured.
Mr_Kittlesworth@reddit
That’s because the system wasn’t really “structured,” so much as inherited. By the time Virginia (and other states) really started thinking of it, conceptually, as a “higher education system,” there were already many different, and differently chartered universities.
Meattyloaf@reddit
UVA has UVA Charlottesville and UVA Wise campuses, which is probably the closest what OP is asking about
sics2014@reddit
It's the same here. We have UMass Amherst, UMass Lowell, UMass Boston.
JonnyBox@reddit
Brother, UMass isn't even the best school in Amherst.
ColossusOfChoads@reddit
I have heard Amherst described as "Disney World for academics."
Particular-Cloud6659@reddit
I went there and have one kid there.
Average weighted GPA is 4.07 right now.
It's a bit harder to get in than is used to be. My kid has almost all As all high school at a pretty rigourous Mass hs, but lots of them are really low As. We are def not 100 % he'll get in.
The consider a lot of stuff like your work experience, how rigourous your school is ( to reduce impact of grade inflation), your essay, special talents, your recommendations, etc.
baddspellar@reddit
It's harder to get in if you went to one of the larger top rated school districts in MA. They don't want to take too many kids from Acton-Boxborough or Lincoln-Sudbury, for example
fraksen@reddit
I live in that district and my daughter applied to Lowell. Got a full ride plus a stipend if she would go. She chose WPI.
Particular-Cloud6659@reddit
Pretty sure thats not true at all. Why would you think that? They do want kids that are seriously considering Umass. If you are in the top 1-2 percent at Acton-Box and are the whole package (leadership in varsity level sports, volunteer, excel at a talent) they may question if you are serious but I dont think so.
Some kid with Harvard and elite level stats might be questioned by someone in acceptance before they get accepted. There is something they call demostrated interest.
Some kids just wanna do the I got accepted at 40 schools thing. I dont think that Umass cares too much about it compared to private achool say like Smith who are super aware of their accepted-but-declined-to-go number. [Yield rate]
But anyone that takes the time to write a good essay, say why they want to go to UMass, and has the stats to go Im pretty sure has a shot.
One thing they do consider is in-state.
baddspellar@reddit
My kids went to AB. We were told that by school guidance counsellors at senior parents' night.
Particular-Cloud6659@reddit
There is one difference that may be what impacts it but they should specify.
One thing they consider is if you would be the first in your family to go to college.
Our school's district has half the college degrees yours does.
Same stats but you did it with working class parents bumps you up.
They shouldnt discourage anyone like that. Seems pretty fucked up.
My (cant say) is a Vice Chancellor there. I am going to ask (them) this weekend.
baddspellar@reddit
That seems like a good explanation. Acton and Boxborough are towns of engineers and scientists, many of whom like me were first generation college grads who make just enough money that their kids get little or no need based aid. Public universities are very popular here
santoslhallper@reddit
I agree that UMass Amherst is what I would think if someone was going to UMass. I live in Boston. Plus, don't forget about UMass Dartmouth, with its abundance of brutalist architecture.
Curmudgy@reddit
Curious. If I heard someone of college age in the Boston area say they were going to UMass, I’d ask “Boston or Amherst”. And I’d be surprised if they answered Dartmouth (the UMass in Dartmouth, not the Dartmouth in Hanover).
pnew47@reddit
That's the Hanover in NH, not the Hanover in MA
Curmudgy@reddit
True.
santoslhallper@reddit
I meant if someone said they were going to Mass, I would think Amherst. I'd probably ask which one, but my first thought is usually Amherst and I can see UMass Boston from my window.
gman2391@reddit
If someone just says UMass it absolutely means Amherst. UMass Amherst is the flagship campus. It is fairly difficult to get into for a state school
hungtopbost@reddit
I’m still not sure I understand the difference between the UMass system (Amherst, Dartmouth, Lowell, Boston, Medical/Worcester) and the State University system, though (Bridgewater State, Framingham State etc).
lauruhhpalooza@reddit
I think it was easier to understand the difference when all the state universities were just state colleges a decade or two back.
dwintaylor@reddit
Excuse me, I believe it’s pronounced Zoo Mass.
JLR-@reddit
I thought it was U Mess
FeralGinger@reddit
UAss
superkt3@reddit
This is correct.
uhbkodazbg@reddit
It’s educational!
Jorost@reddit
I would assume Amherst too unless they had specifically mentioned Boston or Lowell previously. And I'm from the North Shore so I usually forget that Dartmouth even exists!
baddspellar@reddit
UMass Amherst is a fine school. I have two masters from there. But as you say, Massachusetts is home of a number of top colleges and universities. MIT, Harvard, Wellesley, Amherst College, Williams College, etc
Gold_Telephone_7192@reddit
I guess CU Boulder just goes by "Boulder" and is probably Colorado's flagship university?
I know when I lived in California, we didn't have a single flagship school like that. The UC system has 10 universities that all go by "UC _____" except for UC Berkeley, which also goes by Cal or Cal Berkeley. Then the CSU system has 23 schools, with some going by "______ State" and some going by "CSU _____." California has tons of well-known and well-regarded state schools.
bluecifer7@reddit
No offense but I do love that the first Colorado post is transplant talking about California lmao
Intelligent_Host_582@reddit
I always thought it was kind of crazy when I was in Boulder that they called University of Colorado "CU" - Why not "UC" or "UCo"?
MollyWeasleyknits@reddit
CU would be the flagship in the state. If you say CU, you mean Boulder. CSU is its own thing and then satellite campuses of those are given their respective names. CU Denver, CSU Pueblo, etc.
The other big one is Colorado School of Mines which is the engineering school and most people will just call it Mines.
There are quite a few other universities in the state but I don’t think any of them rise to the level of systems.
Intelligent_Host_582@reddit
We always called it the Colorado School of MIMES, js
charlieq46@reddit
Mines is pretty small, only about 8,000 students max, but it is a good enough school to draw from all of the states, and internationally.
I would rank:
MollyWeasleyknits@reddit
Regis is private for sure. There’s also Colorado College and Colorado Christian that are private.
It really is incredible how many there are once you stop to think about it!
I’d personally bump DU up and Metro down just based on “prestige” but this is a good list!
Drew707@reddit
Berkeley/Cal is 100% the flagship, it's just the whole UC system is comprised of very good schools.
pudding7@reddit
I wouldn't call Berkeley the flagship.
Gold_Telephone_7192@reddit
Eh. I think UCLA is the most famous California school. But none of them are that much better of a school or more well-known to be considered the flagship.
woodsred@reddit
UCLA is probably more well-known because of sports, but in the academic world and historical context, Berkeley is definitely the flagship. Research volume and high-impact papers are quite a bit higher from Berkeley than UCLA. Even though undergraduate education is probably about equal between the two these days, Berkeley still carries more weight on a CV/resume than UCLA, especially for STEM and social sciences (speaking from academia outside of California).
Drew707@reddit
If you mean any California school, public or private, I think most famous--especially in the last 30 years--would be Stanford. USC would also rank up there. UCLA has had a strong athletic presence, and recently has had a slight edge on Berkeley academically I think, but historically, Berkeley is the oldest, the only one called Cal/California, UCLA was treated as a satellite campus for decades, and I'd think anywhere in this country if you called someone a "Berkeley type" it would evoke a certain image, where UCLA doesn't really have that.
ymchang001@reddit
UCLA is probably best known in part due to their athletics. Academically, UCLA and Berkeley are about on par. They're in the mix with Stanford and Cal Tech when discussing the top universities in the state. The other UCs don't have that kind of reputation outside of specific departments in some cases. Most applicants would only prefer UCLA over Berkeley or vice versa based on how far from home they want to go (and include other UCs as a backup on the common app).
nogueydude@reddit
Cal only refers to one school, I grew up in Southern California and UC Berkeley was the flagship for the state as far as we were concerned. We were USC fans though.
Here in Tennessee it's UTK
The_Saddest_Boner@reddit
People outside Colorado just call CU-Boulder “Colorado” just like people outside Wisconsin call UW-Madison “Wisconsin.”
It’s definitely the direct comparison
Gold_Telephone_7192@reddit
Do they? I had only ever heard of it called Boulder and it wasn't until I moved here that I heard it called CU Boulder. I've never heard it called "Colorado" except in sports terms.
The_Saddest_Boner@reddit
Interesting. That’s the exact opposite of my experience. Where did you live that everyone said “he went to Boulder for undergrad?”
Gold_Telephone_7192@reddit
I’ve lived in California and Chicago and people only knew it as Boulder. “My buddy goes to Boulder.” It’s pretty famously referred to as Boulder in that Chainsmokers song as well
mmlickme@reddit
In real life I’ve only heard “UC Boulder” but 100% understood the line “roommate back in Boulder” and it sounded natural hearing it said. But I always hear it irl as UC Boulder not “Colorado” or anything else
The_Saddest_Boner@reddit
Holy shit that’s really interesting. I was born in Chicago, lived there ages 18-25, had numerous friends and coworkers from there, my mom and her four brother, 14 of my cousins grew up there.
My brother has lived in LA for ten years, married a local and had two kids. Visit all the time. Dated an Orange County girl for two years and visited a couple times.
Not once in my entire life have I ever heard anyone just say Boulder. Not saying you’re wrong, but this is a surprise for me.
Does everyone you know say “he went to” Austin, Bloomington, or Chapel Hill? Or would they say he went to Texas, Indiana, or North Carolina? Or something like IU or UNC (which is also very common in my experience).
But never just the city name.
Gold_Telephone_7192@reddit
Yeah Boulder, Berkeley, Miami are a few I can think of but it’s rare.
witchy12@reddit
I've never heard CU Boulder just referred to as "Boulder"
It's either CU Bolder, or Colorado.
OldBat001@reddit
CU Boulder goes by "CU."
bearsnchairs@reddit
Berkeley branding is weird. For sports they are California or Cal. In an academic setting it is far more common to hear Berkeley.
Gold_Telephone_7192@reddit
True, that's a good point.
ColossusOfChoads@reddit
People who went to UC Berkeley, especially boomers and older, refer to it as "Cal." The rest of us call it "Berkeley." They would probably deny it, but I always had the impression that the moniker "Cal" implies that it's the singular one-and-only that stands above all the others, kind of like "the City."
Granted, I'm from down south. The implications might be different up in the Bay Area.
CornPuddinPops@reddit
In Texas there are actually 4 “systems” with 3 having a flagship school. UT has 9 universities UT-austin UTSA UT-Tyler Stephen F Austin ETC. they are all in one system with the flagship being UT.
There is a Texas tech system with 5 schools like angelo state and midwestern state being part of it. Tech is the flagship.
Texas A&M has a system with 11 universities TAM-CC and TAM-Galveston etc. College Station is the flagship.
The final system is Texas State’s with 7 smaller state sponsored schools all banded together to share resources. This is the system without a flagship. Included are: Sam Houston, Lamar University, Sul Ross and Tx State. They are all fairly equal and specialized.
Chandra_in_Swati@reddit
University of Texas/UT Austin.
CornPuddinPops@reddit
There are actually 4 “systems” in texas. UT has 9 universities UT-austin UTSA UT-Tyler Stephen F Austin ETC are in one system with the flagship being UT. There is a Texas tech system with 5 schools like angelo state and midwestern state being part of it. Texas A&M has a system with 11 universities TAM-CC and TAM galveston etc. The final system is texas state’s with 7 smaller schools all banded together to share resources. Included are: Sam Houston, Lamar University and Tx state are together with no real flagship. They are all fairly equal and specialized.
Morsemouse@reddit
I’m half surprised the Aggies didn’t try and say stupid shit.
chefnee@reddit
UTC: UT at Chattanooga , UTK: UT at Knoxville, and UTM: UT at Martin.
jquailJ36@reddit
I'm from Michigan. We have the University of Michigan, and Michigan State University. Do not confuse them. They are not the same. I guess the closest is UM has UM Dearborn, I think. I never paid much attention, the Ann Arbor main campus was my fallback application. I got accepted to the LSA Honors College, which is the...I guess overachiever thing to do? But I also got accepted to Washington and Lee in Virginia so of course I went there instead.
I don't think Michigan State (NO RELATION NOT AT ALL SPARTANS AND WOVLERVINES DON'T MIX just kidding, but Mom, a UM grad, says I may only root for the Spartans if they're playing Ohio State) has satellite campuses? 90% sure CMU and WMU don't really, either. They're all separate schools. UM is I guess kind of the 'serious' one, but MSU if you want to, say, be a vet is better, Central, Western, and Eastern are kind of the second tier? And Michigan Tech is if you want/can get into a hardcore tech/engineering and research program and don't mind that right now on April 3 it's 33 degrees and snowing in Houghton, and in the summer there are mosquitoes the size of 737s.
JasminJaded@reddit
Our universities aren’t part of one system.
The two biggest schools are “the U,” which is the University of Utah, in Salt Lake; and “the Y,” which is BYU, in Provo (Brigham Young University.)
BYU has locations in other states: BYU Idaho and BYU Hawaii, so that’s about the closest there is.
Utah State, Weber State and all the rest are their own entities.
The community college is statewide but you usually attend multiple locations at once, and they’re only referred to by location when specifying is actually necessary. Otherwise it’s all just SLCC.
witchy12@reddit
For Michigan you have:
flossiedaisy424@reddit
You forget Wayne State, Northern Michigan, Ferris State, Saginaw Valley State and probably more that I also forgot.
witchy12@reddit
Yeah but those are less known and usually just go by the name of the university rather than a common nickname
emartinoo@reddit
NMU or Northern, SVSU, Ferris State's nickname is just Ferris, much like CMU and WMU's nicknames are just Central and Western. Wayne State doesn't have a nickname as far as I'm aware, but is far from unknown, with a higher enrollment rate than CMU or WMU.
LightningMan711@reddit
Here in North Carolina we have Carolina a k a the University of North Carolina a k a the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, as well as other "city" schools such as UNC-Charlotte and UNC-Wilmington.
____ozma@reddit
University of Colorado Boulder is the primary campus, CU Anachutz is the medical school, and CU Denver focuses mostly on business, social science, is a commuter school. I don't know what UCCS focuses on they're a new campus.
We have other major universities famous for other things. Temple Grandin is still a professor at CSU which is reputable for agriculture science. DU is a private university that produces the most annoying lawyers and theologians I've ever met.
OfficeChair70@reddit
ASU - ASU Poly/East, ASU (in Tempe, main campus), ASU West, ASU Downton, ASU Lake Havasu City, ASU Los Angeles.
lionhearted318@reddit
New York has two public university systems: SUNY and CUNY.
SUNY is State University of New York, and includes the public universities outside of NYC. Binghamton is arguably the closest equivalent to a flagship university we have, but not on the same level as what other states have. Like, you cannot refer to it as just "SUNY," nobody would know what you mean and Binghamton is not that ubiquitous that it's where everyone's mind goes when SUNY is mentioned. It is always Binghamton or "SUNY Binghamton." It is probably the overall best university in the SUNY system and the hardest to get into, but it isn't like that hard. Any honors student at a public high school can really get in.
There are three other main SUNY campuses: Buffalo, Stony Brook, and Albany. I don't know Buffalo well other than that I've heard it's a big party school and I don't think it's that hard to get into, Stony Brook is close to where I grew up and tends to be a popular school for STEM majors and medical students but has weak on-campus social life (it's also probably the second-hardest to get into after Binghamton), and Albany is probably just a decent school but I don't know much about it. Then there are like 15 or so smaller campuses throughout the state, with varying levels of prestige and difficulty to get into, many with different reputations. For example, SUNY New Paltz is known for stoners and hippies, SUNY Purchase is known for artsy kids, SUNY Fredonia is known for musical kids, etc.
CUNY is City University of New York, and includes the public universities inside of NYC. I think there is even less of a true flagship university in the CUNY system. The best known schools in the CUNY system are Hunter and Baruch, and they're probably the hardest to get into as well. Baruch in particular is known for being a good business school. But CUNY is a bit different as it mainly is attracting students who grew up in NYC or those who want to move to NYC, and many students tend to attend whichever school is closest to where they live.
The Macaulay Honors College program also means that students at any of the four-year schools in the CUNY system can participate in a more prestigious honors system regardless of the school that they attend. This makes it less critical to get into one of the "better" CUNY schools, since you can enter the Macaulay Honors College program at any of them. Regardless of that though, Hunter and Baruch are still the two best on an objective scale, most likely. However, the CUNY system cannot really compete with the private universities in NYC like Columbia and NYU, so it tends to attract students who want to go to school in NYC but cannot afford private school tuition, or cannot be accepted to these elite private universities. So I'd say CUNY has a little bit of a bad reputation, not outwardly bad, but just unfavorably compared to their neighboring schools.
I think we are just a state that has much more well-known private universities than public universities. The most well-respected and famous universities in the state are definitely Columbia, NYU, and Cornell, and they're all private.
Zealousideal_Cod5214@reddit
University of Minnesota - Twin Cities is probably our most recognized, but Duluth is also a pretty popular location for it too.
IsisArtemii@reddit
We have two, one for each side of our state:
U of W :University of Washington in Seattle
WSU :Washington State University in Pullman
rcjhawkku@reddit
In the Free State, officially the main campus is “University of Maryland College Park.” But there are also “University of Maryland Baltimore County,” and “University of Maryland Eastern Shore.” (Not to mention Towson State, Frostburg State, etc. because then we’d have to discuss HBCUs and HWCUs and let’s not go there)
There’s no “Maryland State” system.
OTOH, I was born in Kansas, where KU, K-State, and Wichita State are all independent.
Then I was in Indiana, where IU, Purdue, and Indiana State are all independent, though there is IUPUI (Indiana Univeristy, Purdue University Indianapolis).
So
It Depends.
DOMSdeluise@reddit
UT Austin and Texas A&M are the two flagship public universities here.
Morsemouse@reddit
With UT being the true flagship
Existing_Charity_818@reddit
If someone told me they were going to UT (University of Texas), I’d have to ask which campus. There isn’t one I’d default to.
That said, most people know that and would specify which campus when telling me. UT Arlington, UT Austin, etc.
Morsemouse@reddit
No, UT is just for the 40 acres. I would understand someone asking if it was Texas or Tennessee, but it’s always gonna be assumed to be Austin.
Emotional-Loss-9852@reddit
If someone asked me what campus I went to when I say I went to Texas/UT/The University of Texas I would crash out.
No one in history has ever said “I went to UT” for any campus other than Austin
youngpathfinder@reddit
This is not my experience. Living in Texas 30+ years people just say “I went to Texas” or “I went to UT” and 99/100 people here understand it’s UT-Austin. Maybe one time ever I’ve heard someone ask “which UT?”
Existing_Charity_818@reddit
Interesting, I’m gathering from these comments that my experience on this is not the usual one.
A&M, sure. College Station is the default. I haven’t encounter UT Austin treated the same way but it seems that’s just me
invinciblewalnut@reddit
every time I hear UT I think Tennessee. Probably because I had a friend go to “UT Knoxville” so now it’s stuck that way
MicCheck123@reddit
Interesting. I think a lot of non-Texans default to UT Austin, due to sports if nothing else.
Southern-Pitch-7610@reddit
I would def always default to the flagship, I would assume its the austin campus if not specified
LoveSaidNo@reddit
I think if you tell most Texans you went to UT, they would also default to the flagship campus in Austin. It would be more common to specify which campus you went to if you attended one of the affiliates. (UT Dallas, UTSA, etc.)
Inside_Ad9026@reddit
Interesting. I would always think Austin first. Before any of the other system schools. I grew up in Texas and that’s how it’s always been. UTA would be UT Arlington. UTSA San Antonio, etc. It’s like that for kids that I know currently, too.
TheMainEffort@reddit
Important that “UTA” is Arlington and “UT Austin” is the main campus when discussing though.
Firm_Accountant2219@reddit
I live in Florida. Our flagship state school is UF. We call it Florida.
Yeah, simple. I know.
flora_poste_@reddit
When you say UW here, it means the University of Washington.
The_Car_in_the_bar@reddit
University of Illinois has three campuses. The main being UIUC (Urbana-Champaign) the secondary being UIC (Chicago), and the smallest being UIS (Springfield.)
Southern Illinois University has two campuses, the biggest being SIUC (Carbondale) and the secondary one being SIUE (Edwardsville.)
Each cardinal direction has a school, Western, Eastern, and Northern, but they don’t really have additional campuses.
Colorado has CU Boulder (main campus) CU Denver, and UCCS (Colorado Springs) all under the University of Colorado system.
Colorado State University operates the main campus in Fort Collins and the secondary campus in Pueblo as well.
It’s common for most large public universities to operate smaller satellite campuses throughout the state if they have a large population and large cities.
Dragonflies3@reddit
UVA
Worldly-Kitchen-9749@reddit
University of California with 10 campuses and California State University with 21 campuses. Also a bazillion two year community colleges. .
Alarming-Chemistry27@reddit
University of Maryland (UMD) is in the city of College Park, MD.
Lots of people just refer to the school as College Park.
fraiserfir@reddit
If someone says they’re going to UNC in North Carolina, I assume Chapel Hill. Everywhere else in the UNC system will say the town name behind it in the acronym (UNCG, UNCW, etc). There’s also an NC State that’s its own thing
dontforgettowriteme@reddit
UNC grad here. UNC also has the distinction of sharing the title of "first public university in the US" with William & Mary and UGA!
William & Mary was founded first, of course (second in the country only to Harvard), but it started out under a British charter, then was private for a long time. During its tenure as a private institution, UNC and UGA were already churning out grads.
UGA received their charter in 1785, before UNC, but didn't have graduates until the early 1800s.
UNC admitted its first students in 1795 and graduated its first class in 1798, which means UNC was the only public institution issuing degrees in the 18th century!
ChilindriPizza@reddit
University of Florida
Old-Quote-9214@reddit (OP)
So not Florida State?
ChilindriPizza@reddit
UF is the flagship university.
Fair-Border-9944@reddit
Is this post for people who don't watch March madness lol?
Old-Quote-9214@reddit (OP)
I don’t but my brother does. He knows more ppl in athletics from my college than I do. 😭
thattogoguy@reddit
IU Bloomington, straight up.
Believe_In_Magic@reddit
University of Washington (also UW) is the biggest and highest ranked of our public universities, it has a few campuses, but the Seattle location is the main one. UW also has a fantastic medical school. I went to UW so it's the one I know the most about.
Washington State University is our other more well-known state school, it's not as highly ranked academically as UW and it's surrounded by wheat fields and Idaho, but they have specialty areas that are better than the other schools in the state, I know they have a great veterinary school. Most of my family went to WSU, then some to UW, and a few went elsewhere or out of state.
I think Western Washington is also very good academically, but it's smaller and not as well known. We also have Central Washington and Eastern Washington, neither of which I know too much about. Finally, there's Evergreen College, which is kind of it's own category.
Fun_Independent_7529@reddit
"The Evergreen State College" -- def a category of its own lol. I went there and loved it but it def has its downsides!
And when I hear UW, I for sure think our Dawgs, not Wisconsin!
Adorable_Dust3799@reddit
I'm in san diego and we have ucsd. The u of cal system has 10 campuses, Berkley is one of the better known, and Davis.
Feisty-Life-6555@reddit
Iowa has the Regents universities. Aka the public ones but they all have different names so it's easy to know who's who. I'd say the main one is University of Iowa but it's also the largest and original university in the state so it makes sense
LoriReneeFye@reddit
In Ohio, it's The Ohio State University.
Yes, we laugh about the "The" but some people make a big deal out of it.
I don't think all academically studious, college-bound students in Ohio apply to OSU, though. Some do, but many others leave the state to go to college/university elsewhere.
Chester_A_Arthuritis@reddit
I’ve heard before they use the “The” to differentiate from the plenty of other state colleges in Ohio. I have no evidence to back this up.
BaseballNo916@reddit
There is Ohio University in Athens but no one confused OU with OSU. The “the” is just pretentious.
Hot_Aside_4637@reddit
I saw an Ohio University shirt that read: "I got this shirt because I went to OU. You got your Ohio State Shirt because you went to Walmart"
Redditusero4334950@reddit
🤣🤣🤣🤣
Chester_A_Arthuritis@reddit
State colleges is what I mean. Ohio State, Kent State, Bowling Green, etc.
darwinsidiotcousin@reddit
UC and OU are state colleges... you don't need State in your name to be state funded. OU was the first University in the Northwest Territory and has never been private.
Chester_A_Arthuritis@reddit
I stand corrected then
darwinsidiotcousin@reddit
Dayton is in fact a private Catholic school though so you got that one
Chester_A_Arthuritis@reddit
The other guy mentioned Dayton, not me
QuercusSambucus@reddit
Those aren't just colleges, they're proper Universities.
Chester_A_Arthuritis@reddit
Sorry, ones funded by state government and not private
BaseballNo916@reddit
All of the universities you mentioned are state universities of Ohio. Kent State and Bowling Green aren’t private.
Chester_A_Arthuritis@reddit
I never said they were private
BaseballNo916@reddit
Chester_A_Arthuritis@reddit
Yeah, key word being “not”
QuercusSambucus@reddit
"The" Ohio State wants you to think they're the only proper State University in Ohio, but that couldn't be further than the truth. My uncle used to teach at U of Akron and it ground his gears constantly that Ohio State got all the good publicity and funding.
BaseballNo916@reddit
Yeah it’s ridiculous. The University of Cincinnati is also huge and has medical and law schools. It’s also older than OSU.
BaseballNo916@reddit
Kent State, Bowling Green etc don’t have “Ohio” in the title. Only OU and OSU do as far as I know.
Chester_A_Arthuritis@reddit
Yes, you’re getting me wrong. I meant the state colleges/universities in Ohio that exist, not specially with Ohio in the title. The “the” specifies they are the state university of Ohio, so to speak.
BaseballNo916@reddit
They’re not the state university of Ohio though. There’s 14 state research universities in the state, most of which offer doctoral degrees. OSU doesn’t have any special status. It’s not the “state university of Ohio” anymore than the University of Cincinnati or Kent State is.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_System_of_Ohio
angrysquirrel777@reddit
It originates from players in the NFL using it in their introduction videos.
Chester_A_Arthuritis@reddit
It’s literally in the name of the school.
angrysquirrel777@reddit
Sure, but why it's emphasized like it is is from football players
Chester_A_Arthuritis@reddit
That’s not the point
angrysquirrel777@reddit
Then I'm not sure the point you're making.
Plenty of schools have "The" in the start of their name and have made no attempt to use it as a distinguishing name. OSU does this because it became a thing from football players announcing themselves as a part of THE Ohio State University and the school rolled with it. Not because there are other schools in the state.
Chester_A_Arthuritis@reddit
https://ftw.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2022/11/25/ohio-state-why-called-the-ohio-state-answer/81244341007/
angrysquirrel777@reddit
Interesting, this is from 150 years ago though and not why it's used today. It looks like originally it was included in the name to distinguish it but that's true for tons of schools:
The University of Alabama
The University of Arizona
The University of Chicago
The University of Michigan
The University of North Carolina
The University of Oklahoma
The University of Texas
The University of Virginia
Etc.
My point is that the The is not used to distinguish it from other Ohio schools at this point in time. It was a formal part of the name since forever ago and then became a focal point, even though so many other schools have it there and they never became focal points, because football players decided to emphasize it as a point of pride.
Chester_A_Arthuritis@reddit
Well then I gave you a citation so I don’t know what else to tell you
angrysquirrel777@reddit
Yeah, I appreciate it. It's just saying that's technically why it has a "The" at the beginning of the name but not why it's called out nowadays.
argross91@reddit
I always thought they do it to distinguish between other OSUs (Oklahoma State and Oregon State)
DrBlankslate@reddit
When I hear them insisting on the “the,” I just laugh. It’s so pretentious.
Chester_A_Arthuritis@reddit
Oh yes, very much so
Icy-Arm-2194@reddit
There is a problem in that Oklahoma also has Oklahoma State University (OSU) and University of Oklahoma (OU). The latter severely fucked with what I thought was a safe wedding date as I googled "when is OU homecoming" and it said Oct 25th. Apparently even living in Ohio they seem to think I meant Oklahoma. Now I get to try and find hotels for guests on OU homecoming weekend for a wedding south of Athens
BaseballNo916@reddit
In Cincinnati most people go to the University of Cincinnati. Some people go to OSU but usually just because it has a specific major or it’s party school reputation, it’s not like it’s sought out for its academic reputation like UCLA is in California for instance. University of Cincinnati isn’t academically prestigious either except for certain programs like music, design, and engineering. I’m actually not sure if there is a state university in Ohio that people go to for it’s academic reputation and not just because it’s the biggest in the area.
angrysquirrel777@reddit
Ohio State is gaining an academic reputation though. It's becoming harder to get into and is climbing national rankings. It's not elite but it's far from a party school.
argross91@reddit
What’s interesting is OSU has satellite campuses, but all are only 2 years and then you have to transfer to Main Campus (minus a specific Agriculture program). UW and Penn State for example have regional campuses that grant degrees and have sports
Particular-Move-3860@reddit
U of M ... University of Michigan (Ann Arbor)
In New York, the prestige university is Columbia, but that isn't a state uni.
In the SUNY system (State University of New York), the most prestigious are:
• SUNY Buffalo (UB), the largest. •. SUNY Binghamton (BU), the smallest •. SUNY Stony Brook (SBU), the second largest and geographically closest to NYC; renowned in several academic and research fields •. SUNY Albany (ASU), a leader in nanotechnology research; also extensive governmental/public administration program and public service
On_my_last_spoon@reddit
New Jersey doesn’t follow the “U of” model everyone else does. The most well known of the NJ State schools id of course Rutgers. Most people doesn’t even realize that’s a public university! The next largest is Montclair State (the only one with State in the name!). Then it’s Kean, Rowan, and a few others I don’t feel like looking up now! None of the schools are connected in any way either.
RsonW@reddit
Cal
UC Berkeley
Cal Berkeley
Berkeley
ToXiC_Games@reddit
CU vs CSU? Or maybe CU vs DU? I don’t know, I barely track the Pios and that’s only hockey.
AdInevitable2695@reddit
I would say University of Connecticut (UCONN) is our "flagship" university, but it's mainly known for its sports and student life rather than academics. For those more academically-focused we have Yale, Wesleyan, Sacred Heart, Quinnipiac etc, but those are all private schools.
As for the naming of public schools, other than UCONN there's Eastern, Central, Southern, and Western Connecticut State University. Eastern and Western are shortened to "East CONN" and "West CONN", Central and Southern are typically referred to as "Central" and "Southern".
There's also 13 community colleges that used to have unmatching names. They've recently all merged to be one college with 13 different campuses. For example, I went to Naugatuck Valley CC, it is now called Connecticut State Community College: Naugatuck Valley Campus, or CSCC Naugatuck Valley.
Anustart15@reddit
UConn, not UCONN. It's not an acronym. Also worth pointing out that UConn has multiple campuses with the Storrs campus being the flagship campus.
glacialerratical@reddit
Also, at least at Eastern, it's Eastern and not East Conn. EASTCONN is an organization that does adult education, career training, GED, etc.
AdInevitable2695@reddit
I'm only an associate's degree holder for a reason ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
ThingFuture9079@reddit
Yes. OSU - Ohio State University.
Seven22am@reddit
Ummm I think you mean THE Ohio State University.
SteelRail88@reddit
tOSU
OSU is Oregon State
Emotional-Loss-9852@reddit
OSU is Oklahoma State in the south and Midwest lol
SteelRail88@reddit
As an OU fan, I think of them as "little brother," if I think of them at all.
But seriously, I think OkState or just State
ThingFuture9079@reddit
The only part in the midwest where that doesn't apply is Ohio and Michigan.
Emotional-Loss-9852@reddit
Midwest is probably the wrong geography for me to use, more the Great Plains region.
BobsleddingToMyGrave@reddit
Michigan- MSU or U of M, Michigan tech.
Michigan state university or University of Michigan.
44035@reddit
We have the U of Michigan, which is a world class university. But many of our other universities are great in their own ways.
djninjacat11649@reddit
Michigan state is also a rather major one for a lot of biology, medical, and nuclear science I know
SirTwitchALot@reddit
MSU was the first ever land grant university in the country
Ceorl_Lounge@reddit
If context shows you're talking about schools it always means the Ann Arbor campus too. If you mean Flint or Dearborn you absolutely need to specify.
Smoopiebear@reddit
Berkeley.
RespectableBloke69@reddit
Duke, UNC, NC State
revdon@reddit
University of Alaska Fairbanks
University of Alaska Southeast
University of Alaska Anchorage
Go Nanooks!
DolphinSouvlaki@reddit
Here practically everyone just uses the acronyms.
FSU, UF, UM are the traditional “big 3.” But in recent years UCF has grown massively, with USF being probably the next in line. FIU, FAU, FGCU are smaller but growing as well.
Anything smaller than that just gets called by its whole name and is rarely brought up unless it’s actively a big part of your life
MoriKitsune@reddit
UNF and FAMU are also known by their acronyms, and are pretty big, though not quite on level with the top 5.
The State University System of Florida includes 12 univerisites total: FAMU, FAU, FGCU, FIU, Florida Polytechnic University, FSU, New College of Florida, UCF, UNF, USF, and the University of West Florida.
The rest are local community (ex. FSCJ and SSCF) or private colleges (ex. UM and JU)
wanderful_soul22@reddit
In Alabama we had two major universities people would go to. University of Alabama(UA ) which was in my hometown of Tuscaloosa. Or Auburn University (AU), which is in Auburn. Both are amazing schools, Auburn is more widely used for veterinary medicine/environmental sciences. University of Alabama has a great law school and UAB (university of Alabama at Birmingham) has a phenomenal medical school. We also have a university of Alabama Huntsville.
techster2014@reddit
Louisiana here. We have Louisiana State University (LSU) and a lot of LSU at xxx. Then, we have the university of Louisiana system that includes, UL Lafayette, UL monroe, LA Tech, and others. Then several stand alone entities (mcnese state, Northwestern, tulane) both public and private.
dmb129@reddit
I’m from South Carolina. Our big university is University of South Carolina. Acronym is USC. If anyone says USC, they mean our state university - not the University of Southern California. It’s our big academic school. Its rival is Clemson University. You’ll see a lot of merch with the Carolina Gamecocks (Go Cocks! - I am not joking) vs Clemson Tigers. It’s black and dark red vs orange and purple. Very easy to tell fans apart.
wetcornbread@reddit
Pennsylvania has mainly just Penn State. But there are satellite campuses located all over. My sister went to PSU Harrisburg campus.
North Carolina has the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill but has other campuses like UNC Charlotte. And then there’s NC State in Raleigh.
mmlickme@reddit
Before I moved to the East coast, my whole life I thought of Duke as The school of North Carolina. So UNC is a weak example
drillbit7@reddit
Duke alum here: the Duke University Store actually sold (still sells?) bumper stickers asserting that Duke is THE university of North Carolina.
mmlickme@reddit
Ok quiz flagship school of Texas is ?
drillbit7@reddit
To me UT Austin. I might give Rice some points as an academically challenging school but it doesn't have the same rivalry like Duke-UNC or UT-TAMU to make jokes like Duke does.
mmlickme@reddit
Agree totally. I believe it’s uniquely American also to think about schools in two lights, being strong academically and/or sports-wise. A lot of private schools, like Rice, are excellent prestigious institutions but don’t have the name recognition in the sports conversation. To some people schools are lines on a bracket or options on the betting app lol.
Rice is Duke would be in NC if Duke’s men’s basketball team didn’t make them contender for best in the state/gaining nationwide attention. If Rice had the sports, they’d be considered Texas’s school. I grew up in Houston too so I like Rice
However, for myself I graduated UT Austin I do bleed the burnt orange for bevo and the boys
TheYeast1@reddit
Well it’s also private and extraordinarily expensive. Plus fuck Duke energy for the coal ash cancer coverup and the Duke board for denying all of the cool light rail ideas since it wouldn’t connect to the Duke campus.
wetcornbread@reddit
Duke is a private research school. UNC and NC state are public schools.
Chickadee12345@reddit
Pitt is also a state school. But for those of us in the eastern half of PA, we forget about that side of the state.
drillbit7@reddit
PA is weird since Pitt, PSU, and Temple are all incorporated as private non-profits that receive substantial state support and offer instate tuition discounts.
life_experienced@reddit
What about a school like Shippensburg, which I think is public? Where does it fit in?
wetcornbread@reddit
Not a flagship school. It’s a PSAC school which is the state college system.
Cute_Repeat3879@reddit
The University System of Georgia consists of 26 institutions. Only the one in Athens is the University of Georgia. There are four designations within the system: Research Universities, Regional Comprehensive Universities, State Universities, and State Colleges. An institution's designation is dependent on the degrees offered.
Rhine1906@reddit
The four R1 research universities (that means they receive the highest levels of research funding and publication via a few metrics) are: UGA, Tech, Kennesaw State (in Kennesaw, GA) and Georgia State University.
All serve a prominent role/niche: UGA is the flagship, GT is the Engineering/Computer Science powerhouse, Kennesaw is following behind that and GSU is strong in media, arts and biomedical research. GSU also has a majority minority population and is the only R1 in the cluster to do so and the only state institution outside of Georgia’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU, all created when Black Americans were not admissible to white institutions). It also serves a heavy low-income population with the largest share of students who qualify for Federal Pell Grants. It’s basically what we call an Access Institution, which is rare among R1s.
Outside of the R1 group, Dalton State College is unique for being classified as a Hispanic-Serving Institution with 1/3 of its students identifying as Hispanic!
Just some fun facts for everyone! Also, I think you can figure out where I’m doing my doctorate 😂
Cute_Repeat3879@reddit
For the record, there are three HBCUs that are part of the University System: Albany State, Fort Valley State, and Savannah State.
Rhine1906@reddit
Yes, thank you for highlighting that important detail!
According-Bug8150@reddit
Which is why Georgia College in Milledgeville, which is a State University, but isn't Georgia State University in Atlanta, ended up with the official name "Georgia College and State University."
Artvandelay29@reddit
I grew up in Georgia and (still) absolutely hate how Georgia College brands themselves.
Derwin0@reddit
Even worse is how the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta was rebranded as Georgia Regents University.
Artvandelay29@reddit
Yeah, after rebranding to “GHSU.”
Derwin0@reddit
Supposedly money was being saved by merging the different schools involved.
miclugo@reddit
I'm not sure whether the title for "silliest Georgia institution name" goes to GCSU or Georgia Gwinnett College. Why not Gwinnett State College (a la Clayton State University) or Lawrenceville State College (a la Kennesaw, Valdosta, etc.)?
Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit
As I understand it, it's because of how it evolved from a community college in that county, just as how Perimeter College at Georgia State University used to be "Georgia Perimieter College," and before that was called "DeKalb Community College."
According-Bug8150@reddit
It's doofier than that. It used to be the University of Georgia - Gwinnett campus. So a bunch of students started out getting UGA diplomas, and overnight discovered they were going to get Georgia Gwinnett diplomas because the campus split off and took two of the words from the middle of their previous name.
Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit
Wacky!
miclugo@reddit
I forgot about Perimeter College! And I live near one of their former campuses and it was Perimeter College when I moved in. I also thought that was a silly name, because calling the college Perimeter doesn’t tell you which part of the Perimeter it’s on - keeping DeKalb in the name would have made more sense.
I also feel this way about “Perimeter Mall” and “Perimeter Center”.
Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit
Yeah, "Perimeter" isn't the best name. It kind of reminds me of business names that annoy me when they include "Solutions" or "Concepts."
FWR978@reddit
Yeah, it makes it hard to keep track of which is which.
We have the University of Georgia. Georgia State, Georgia Tech (which is the Georgia Institute of Technology), and Georgia Southern.
All of these are radically different schools
Derwin0@reddit
We also had a Georgia Regents University, but luckily they renamed it back to Augusta University recently
miclugo@reddit
Worth mentioning that among public universities in Georgia I think some of the best students will aim for UGA and some for Georgia Tech, depending on their academic interests.
Konigwork@reddit
I’m a UGA grad (and proud of it!) but I still think that out of all the similar degrees offered between the two, you’re probably better off going to Tech. Tech definitely has the more…academically inclined students, and up until recently it was a pretty safe bet that the faculty and programs were a step above too. Athens has certainly turned it around over the last couple decades, we’re even getting a medical school!
Derwin0@reddit
Zell Miller’s HOPe scholarship program was a huge success. Turned UGA from a fallback school in the 80’s to a premiere academic school that’s hard to get in to by eliminating the brain drain as he called it.
Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit
As a GT grad, this gave me a chuckle!
miclugo@reddit
I'm not from Georgia originally - moved here when I was 30 - and I haven't known many college students or honestly even alums of the schools, so your perspective is probably more accurate than mine.
the-wifi-is-broken@reddit
To my chagrin as a GaTech grad, UGA. In Minnesota, Uof M (usually twin cities)
azuth89@reddit
University of Texas at Austin is the big flagship, though A&M college station lives in a weird near-parity and is better regarded in some specific fields.
Both have full systems of other schools around the state which have varying degrees of lesser prestige. University of Texas Arlington is near flagship in its own right compared to say....Tarleton (part of A&M) or UT Dallas.
Rojodi@reddit
State University of New York, SUNY. I graduated from SUNY Schenectady County and SUNY AT Albany or UAlbany
_hammitt@reddit
As a former academic: pretty much every state has a flagship university. New York is the only state I can think of off the top of my head with no flagship. But Madison is an exceptionally good one - not every state has something that good, and in some states the most studious, college bound kids will be looking out of state or private and hoping for scholarship dollars to make it affordable.
drillbit7@reddit
New York is weird they gave most of the land-grant money to Cornell and Syracuse rather then establish a University of New York/New York State University. 4 of the schools are university centers (Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo, Stony Brook) with Binghamton probably being the most academically selective but lacks a football team you'd expect from a state flagship. In 2022, the governor designated Buffalo and Stony Brook as the official flagships.
TrillyMike@reddit
University of Maryland, which is technically University of Maryland College Park cause we got the same system, there’s university of Maryland Baltimore County(UMBC), university of Maryland eastern shore, etc.. everyone just call the main one Maryland tho
TrillyMike@reddit
But I guess we also have Towson university which is a public school, and like naval academy is here
lovimoment@reddit
Oklahoma has OU and OSU. Originally OSU was an agricultural school, but now it’s a full university. Education-wise they’re equal, although they have certain colleges or other that are stronger, but OU is still bigger.
Our regional universities (NSU, NEO, etc.) aren’t part of either, and most credits transfer.
phcampbell@reddit
We have the University of Tennessee system, with several satellite campuses that once were independent colleges: UT-Chattanooga, UT-Martin, etc. If someone says they go to UT, it’s assumed they mean the main campus in Knoxville. Then we have a series of state colleges and universities that fall under a different governing system, such as Middle Tennessee State University and East Tennessee State University.
Watchfull_Hosemaster@reddit
UMass-Amherst. It's the flagship and if somebody says UMass, it should mean that specific campus. We have others like UMass-Lowell, UMass-Dartmouth, and UMass-Boston along with the UMass Medical School which is in Worcester. The UMass system is the premier state run university system.
Then there are the second tier schools like Westfield State, Salem State, Framingham State, Worcester State, etc. These are generally hybrid schools with a lot of commuters but also plenty of on-campus students.
But you mentioned the studious, college-bound students - many people will apply to the private colleges and universities. There is an overabundance of very high end colleges in Massachusetts.
dew2459@reddit
MA also has a third tier with community colleges.
In the past decade or so MA has made a big effort to align community college programs/degrees so graduates can seamlessly transfer into BA/BS programs at state universities if they want. I know a few kids who are taking advantage of that: live cheap at home for the first two years, plus have often smaller classes than many of the freshmen big lecture hall classes at some state universities.
JLR-@reddit
Where does MATC fall into the system? Like it's a Madison school but I've heard people say Madison college. I assume people know the difference when hearing that
Old-Quote-9214@reddit (OP)
MATC (both Madison and Milwaukee) and all the other Technical Colleges are a separate system.
JLR-@reddit
Got it. So if someone says they go to Madison College it's obviously meant as MATC then?
No_Foundation7308@reddit
UNLV. University of Nevada Las Vegas.
I-am-not-gay-@reddit
UMich/U-of-M Dearborn, Flint and Ann Arbor
Danibear285@reddit
Wait till this guy learns of Cal
Derwin0@reddit
In Georgia all public universities & colleges belong to the University System of Georgia, of which the University of Georgia is the flagship. All of them are governed by the same board of regents.
needsmorequeso@reddit
So… fun facts about university systems.
In California, there are 3 primary systems: UC, Cal State, and CA Community Colleges. UC institutions focus primarily on research production and Cal State focuses on teaching students from the region. Now you’ll still have great teachers at UC schools and solid researchers at Cal State schools, but they have separate missions and are organized accordingly.
On the flip side, Texas systems feel more like a hub and spokes. You’ll have several systems with a flagship (like Texas, TAMU, and Texas Tech), and separate universities that are part of the system, like UT San Antonio or Prairie View A&M). So in the last decade or so there has been pressure on universities to make a system decision. So you’ll see some smaller public institutions, like Texas Woman’s University, that made their own systems. Still others, like Stephen F. Austin State, made strategic choices to join systems (it became part of the UT system in 2022).
I think the way that these organizational structures show up is really interesting.
t1dmommy@reddit
New York is different, there are dozens of SUNYs and no one flagship.
happy_bluebird@reddit
I feel like Georgia has multiple. University of Georgia, Georgia State University, Georgia Institute of Technology…
Emotional-Loss-9852@reddit
Georgia is the flagship, if someone told me they went to Georgia I would assume Athens.
invinciblewalnut@reddit
Yeah but only UGA would be “Georgia” if they were playing football against someone, which is what the question was I think
bsimpsonphoto@reddit
In Louisiana, from a New Orleans perspective, most people target LSU for a state school or Tulane of going private in state.
There are also strong preferences among the children of alums for Southern, Grambling, Dillard, and Xavier (all HBCU's.)
SgianDubh@reddit
West Virginia has West Virginia University, which is the major flagship university. But it’s not the one for the studious or academically-inclined, it's the one everyone goes to because they can't get in anywhere else.
Fun-Lengthiness-7493@reddit
UG-Athens.
Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit
There's no such animal. "UGA" comes from "University of Georgia."
miclugo@reddit
Except it's "UGA", not "UG". The A in "UGA" is the A from the abbreviation for Georgia, not the A from the beginning of Athens.
ZJPV1@reddit
The system of public universities is... seemingly more convoluted than many of the examples I've seen here. There are considered to be 7 public (non-community college) universities in Oregon, and, funny enough, the state board that coordinated them all dissolved in 2015, when the biggest ones broke off to run themselves, apparently.
The largest schools have multiple campuses, but generally, those are either to serve an underserved community, or with specific focuses.
By enrollment, descending:
Oregon State University -- I think their robust online curriculum puts them at the top of the enrollment list in the state (only surpassed by Portland Community College). Located in Corvallis, a small town of about 60k people. They have satellite campuses in Bend (Central Oregon), and Newport (40 miles west, on the Oregon Coast). Bend's campus is officially "OSU-Cascades", and Newport is the "Hatfield Marine Science Center". If someone did a degree in Newport, they'd likely just say they went to OSU, just as they'd been in Corvallis. And I've never met someone who studied in Bend, but I assume they'd just say OSU. They all carry the same "branding".
University of Oregon -- Located 40 miles south of Corvallis in Eugene, UO has satellite campuses in Portland and Charleston (on the southern Oregon Coast). UO-Portland has a few specific courses, but seems to be primarily for grad students (i.e. a third-year JD program in Portland, since there's more law going on there), and the Charleston campus (The Oregon Institute of Marine Biology). Students that went to either of these would just say they went to UO.
OSU and UO both list a 4th campus, which I consider dubious to put on this list. OSU's in Portland (a few classroom and an events space... not a consistent campus), and UO's in Bend (Which is exclusively continuing education for alums and the community, seemingly putting on one or two classes at a time, in total.)
Portland State University, in the state's largest city, Portland. Founded in the 40s for WW2 veterans in a poor, predominantly black section of town that was destroyed in a flood, it grew into the robust 4-year research college it is today. It's just in Portland. Not affiliated with OSU/UO.
Southern Oregon University -- Located in Ashland, about 15 miles north of the California border (read: 200 miles south of UO in Eugene, 300 miles south of Portland). It's a remote enclave of the arts. They're best-known for running the Oregon Shakespeare Festival each summer. Apparently, they were the first college in the US to offer a Transgender Studies Certificate. They share a building in Medford (about 20 miles north) with Rogue Valley Community College, as well.
Oregon Institute of Technology (aka Oregon Tech or OIT) -- Located in Klamath Falls (southern-central Oregon, about 50 miles east of Ashland over the Cascades). Founded as a vocational school for WW2 vets, as the city has an air base. They seem to have a lot of health-related studies now, though they're not a medical school. They also have a campus in Wilsonville, near Portland (OIT-Portland Metro), and a partnership with Boeing in Seattle, WA (OIT-Seattle).
Western Oregon University -- Located in Monmouth, central in the Willamette Valley (60 miles south of Portland, 20 miles from Corvallis). Originally a private, religious school. It eventually because a teacher training school, then broadened. Not much to note.
Oregon Health & Science University -- Was originally UO's Medical School when UO had a more statewide presence (late 1800s), eventually spun off into it's own school. Has a med school, dentistry school, and nursing school, and an aerial tram that is pretty nifty. (The hospital is up on a hill, and some of the campus is downhill, on the opposite side of the Interstate). There's some partnership programs between OHSU and UO/OSU. Particularly with OSU's Pharmacy college.
Eastern Oregon University -- Located in La Grande (250 miles east of Portland, 170 miles NW of Boise, ID), out in the middle of nowhere. They have a reputation for being an Agricultural school, however, they only have one major related to Ag, and several programs that are partnered with OSU's Agricultural department. They have a satellite campus in Gresham, near Portland.
All of these schools would be considered separate, but all are public. OSU and UO are arguably the most prestigious. They both have some programs the others don't offer, which would give either one an "edge" (OSU doesn't have a Law program. UO doesn't have a Pharmacy program.), but I think location is the biggest driver when it comes to a lot of the degrees.
Blue387@reddit
New York has the State University of New York (SUNY) system and NYC also hosts the City University of New York (CUNY) system.
Emotional-Loss-9852@reddit
The University of Texas
captain_nofun@reddit
Michigan is very similar but named more around the region and tech schools. Shout out to UW-stout where I spent the vast majority of my college years but I finished up at Northern Michigan university
citytiger@reddit
SUNY is our equivalent. The flagship is Albany our state capitol. I visited the campus once.
brian11e3@reddit
In Illinois, it's really depends on where you are in the state. One of the most popular in the state is the University of Illinois, but I never hear it talked about.
In western Illinois, people tend to sign up for Western Illinois University, Carl Sandburg College, or Illinois Centeral College.
KoalasAndPenguins@reddit
California is unique because there are so many. They each have a shortened variation of their name, and people just pick their favorites based on the studies you're most interested in or by location.
Utah is similar in that most universities do have "Utah" in the name of the school but shorten the names to an acronym.
emmettfitz@reddit
It would definitely have to be Ohio State Buckeys. Some kids dream of doing college there. Some just so they can see football game at "The Horseshoe."
MyUsername2459@reddit
We have seven State Universities in Kentucky.
The flagship is the University of Kentucky, and is definitely the one the top-tier students apply to.
There is also Kentucky State University, Eastern Kentucky University, Western Kentucky University, Northern Kentucky University, Morehead State University, and Murray State University.
Kentucky State University is a HBCU founded after the Civil War. It's one of only two HBCU's in Kentucky.
The rest are spread out across the state so that nobody is more than a couple of hours from a major university.
CupBeEmpty@reddit
Moorhead is the other HBCU right?
MyUsername2459@reddit
No, Simmons College is. It's a small private college in Louisville with only a few hundred students.
freecain@reddit
I've lived in three states:
Connecticut has UCONN where probably half the kids went to. For college bound students it was kind of the standard - with some kids failing to get in, and other's getting into better schools. It had an honors program you could get into with more competitive classes and some niche programs. They have a few satellite locations (ie the Law School is in Hartford). However, there are other state colleges
The State's Community College program operates in 12 locations.
There are 4 separate state colleges - though UConn is the premier one of the 4, but Central Connecticut is the oldest.
And there is one online college unaffiliated with the others.
The highest achieving kids all applied to elite liberal arts colleges - though a couple did end up going to UCONN because of very generous scholarships and grants. (The co-valedictorians the year before I graduated - one went to Uconn on a full ride, the other went to Yale)
I then moved to Massachusetts:
Umass system is pretty extensive - but it's a state built on higher education. There are something like 30 public college/universities/research centers in the state, out of the 114 institutions in total. Generally speaking the best students either went to one of the premier private colleges, or one of the more competitive out of state programs in my limited experience. Most private colleges were pretty generous with scholarships to instate kids. My college would cover tuition for anyone who graduated from the town's highschool and got accepted. Fees, books, meal plans, room and board and a host of other things weren't included.
Then Maryland. I'll be honest - I know we have University of Maryland (go Terps!) - that does get a lot of kids applying to it, and is very competitively priced compared to Towson or Johns Hopkins for instance.
manicpixidreamgirl04@reddit
In New York, the state university system is called SUNY. I'm not sure which one is the most famous. Binghamton, Albany, Buffalo, and Rochester are all well known within the state.
phishmademedoit@reddit
The flagship suny universities are Buffalo, Binghamton, Albany and Stony brook. The rest of the sunys are colleges, as opposed to universities.
manicpixidreamgirl04@reddit
I forgot about Stonybrook. Some of the colleges have recently become universities. Like now we have Buffalo State University AND The State University at Buffalo. One of those used to be a college but I don't remember which.
phishmademedoit@reddit
University at Buffalo was o.g. Buffalo state used to be a college.
spotthedifferenc@reddit
rochester is a private school
manicpixidreamgirl04@reddit
I didn't even know that lol
Icy_Peace6993@reddit
We have "Cal", but it's probably better known as "Berkeley". It's one of the "UC's", two of the other ones, UCLA and UC San Diego, are 99% as good, depending on the particular progam, and the rest are all pretty damn good. Then there are the "State's", CalPoly, SF State, Cal State LA, San Jose State, etc. Some of these like CalPoly rank at or even above UC's, but most are seen as another tier down, at least for most purposes as far as I know.
Equivalent-Peanut-23@reddit
New Jersey is the only state that doesn’t have a “University of (state name)” or “(state name) state university.” The flagship public university is Rutgers.
miclugo@reddit
New York - although SUNY (the State University of New York) comes close.
gucknbuck@reddit
I'm going to assume you were from the Madison area because the rest of Wisconsin doesn't automatically think Madison when someone says UW or University of Wisconsin in general. For instance in the valley most people are going to think UWO.
brzantium@reddit
We a handful of university systems in Texas:
University of Texas - "UT"; flagship school in Austin; other schools include UTMB in Galveston, UTSA, UTEP, UT Arlington, UT Tyler, etc.; Stephen F. Austin State University ("SFA") in Nacogdoches was recently moved into the UT system.
Texas A&M University - "A&M"; flagship school in College Station, other schools include Prairie View A&M (HBCU, Megan thee Stallion completed her intial coursework here before finishing at Texas Southern), A&M Corpus Christi, West Texas A&M, etc.
Texas State University - "Texas State"; flagship school in San Marcos, no other school in the system is named Texas State, other schools are Sam Houston State, Sul Ross State (4 campuses across West Texas); Lamar State (3 campuses across the East Texas Gulf Coast)
Texas Tech University - "Tech"; flagship school in Lubbock; other schools are TTU Health Science in El Paso, Angelo State in San Angelo, and Midwestern State in Wichita Falls.
There are other university systems in the state like University of Houston, Texas Women's University, and University of North Texas, but these only have 2-3 campuses each. Finally, Texas Southern University is a standalone school and HBCU.
RHS1959@reddit
Penn State (once “The Pennsylvania State University” but Penn State is now the official name) is the “flagship” land-grant university. It and Pitt (University of Pittsburgh) and Temple are all “state affiliated schools”. Penn State has a bunch of branch campuses, many of which are 2-year programs that funnel people up to the University Park “main campus”, but more and more of them have their own 4 year programs as well. There is also the SSHE (State System of Higher Education), including West Chester State University, Lock Haven State University and about a dozen more which historically were the teacher’s colleges but have grown into full-range universities in their own right. Then there is the University of Pennsylvania (“Penn” or “UPenn”) which is a prestigious, private, Ivy League school which has no official relationship to the state government.
blipsman@reddit
Illinois - Champaign/Urbana
bmmajor14@reddit
In Missouri you have the University of Missouri System which has four schools, University of Missouri-Columbia (Mizzou), University of Missouri-St. Louis, University of Missouri Kansas City, and Missouri University of Science and Technology (formerly University of Missouri-Rolla). There are also other state schools not part of the flagship system; Missouri State, Southeast Missouri State, Truman State, and Northwest Missouri State. Of these, Mizzou, and Missouri State are the two that would be closest to what comes to mind when most people think of college (traditional campus, large student body, variety of academic programs, D1 athletics, etc.), UMSL and UMKC are large but are also largely commuter schools, Rolla is very small but is a highly ranked engineering school nationally, and Truman, SEMO and NWMO are more typical small schools.
sakima147@reddit
KS doesn’t have a “system” style university system. Instead, each University is independent of the others and have their set ups.
For us KU is the flagship and it has a few campuses in the state mostly medical except for the Edwards campus in joco which is continuing Ed. But KU has the medical and law schools.
Kstate is the land grant college (each state has a land grant college) and has specialties in Agriculture and aviation. It has two other campuses one in Salina and one in in Olathe.
Emporia state has typically been the Teachers college.
Fort Hays State University and Pittsburgh State University are just typical rural universities that don’t have a ton of research going on but are decent.
I think that’s all the public universities funded by the state in ks.
Washburn University in Topeka is public but it’s a municipal university (one of only three in the country!) meaning it’s partially run by the city and not the state.
nine_of_swords@reddit
In Alabama, it's more decentralized than having two systems, but the main two are UA (Alabama) and AU (Auburn). They, along with Troy and South Alabama, have other campuses, but Alabama's are the main notable ones.
Alabama's been the more liberal arts/law side of schools while Auburn's the more Engineering/Architecture/Ag side, but both are big enough to handle most degrees (Most states with two main public universities tend to have a similar split). UA's branch campus had a more focused academic department focus (UAB-medical and UAH-engineering), so those branches tend to have more clout. In fact, while Alabama is the flagship, the academic admissions average scores for UAB are actually higher (and it ranks higher in rankings like Newsweek).
So right now it'd generally go (for academics): Auburn > Alabama > UAB (Alabama's still generally bigger with more departments) >> rest. But, trends like the rest of the more rapidly growing South show similar effects in Alabama, where the rest are starting to more grow in stature in-state wise. South Alabama, the HBCUs, etc. have been making more moves as of late to improve standing.
WhiskyTangoNovember@reddit
Indians University has several campuses. If you just say you went to IU, I think most people would assume the one in Bloomington, but sometimes people do specify IUB. Affiliate campuses are always referred to by their location, e.g, IU Northwest or IU South Bend
baddspellar@reddit
Don't forget Purdue. It's a public university (many don't realize that) and one of the finest Engineering colleges in the US. IU is the flagship for Liberal Arts.
invinciblewalnut@reddit
Indiana State, Ball State, Southern Indiana all in shambles
amazingtaters@reddit
But it doesn't stand alone as the flagship in the way that UW-Madison does for Wisconsin, since we have Purdue and its whole slew of directional schools.
The_Ninja_Manatee@reddit
UNC Chapel Hill goes by Carolina.
OPsDearOldMother@reddit
New Mexico is similar. University of New Mexico is the flagship and the one that sports media refers to as "New Mexico." Meanwhile the second largest school is New Mexico State University which is commonly referred to as just "state" in NM.
But in national media I've seen UNM and NMSU get confused all the time. Like during a UNM basketball broadcast they'll mix it up and give UNM credit for beating Auburn in football and sending their qb Pavia to Vanderbilt to upset Bama when that was NMSU.
MortimerDongle@reddit
Pennsylvania has two systems of public universities.
First is the Commonwealth System of Higher Education, which is the Pennsylvania State University, University of Pittsburgh, Temple University, and Lincoln University. These universities are considered "state related"; while they receive significant state funding, the state does not actually own them. Penn State is typically considered the flagship, but there isn't an official flagship. Penn State has a bunch of satellite campuses and does not distinguish the campus you attended on your degree, but University Park is the main and most selective campus.
The other system is the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, which are the universities owned by the state. There are ten of these, they are generally less prestigious and less expensive to attend than the state-related universities.
The University of Pennsylvania is a private Ivy League university.
miclugo@reddit
Weird Pennsylvania wrinkles: historically Temple and Pitt were private. (And Pitt was at one point called the "Western University of Pennsylvania".)
invinciblewalnut@reddit
Some states have more than one flagship, usually a state university that originally specialized in liberal arts and classics and a land-grant one that originally specialized in science and engineering.
Indiana has Indiana University, which is a huge university system, but when people say they go to IU they mean the primary Bloomington campus. If they go to another IU campus, they usually specify like IU Kokomo or something.
Same with Purdue University, the state’s other big public university system. “Purdue” means Purdue West Lafayette, and other campuses are given a locator (eg Purdue Fort Wayne).
CupBeEmpty@reddit
Don’t leave out IUPUI which is a shared campus in Indianapolis and has the med school for IU. For undergrad it is usually more of a commuter campus.
invinciblewalnut@reddit
Nah bro, IUPUI is dead. IU and Purdue got divorced and IU got the child
CupBeEmpty@reddit
Don’t leave out IUPUI which is a shared campus in Indianapolis and has the med school for IU. For undergrad it is usually more of a commuter campus.
CupBeEmpty@reddit
Don’t leave out IUPUI which is a shared campus in Indianapolis and has the med school for IU. For undergrad it is usually more of a commuter campus.
No-Conversation1940@reddit
I'm in a master's program at UW-Madison now.
I earned my bachelor's at a smaller public university in Missouri. I guess Mizzou is the closest equivalent, but I don't know that Wisconsin has a public STEM oriented university like Missouri S&T. There are a couple of University of Missouri-____ but most of them have directions in their name, including the one I attended.
Sabertooth767@reddit
UK is historically White and KSU is historically Black.
Old-Quote-9214@reddit (OP)
Was the public historically black university created during the "separate but equal" times?
MilkChocolate21@reddit
Most HBCUs were founded in the Reconstruction era. Not all. Cheney is the oldest, founded in 1837. So no, way before separate but equal and not long before a ha handful of schools admitted the occasional Black person. Berea had its first Black students before the next HBCU, Lincoln, was founded.
Old-Quote-9214@reddit (OP)
The reconstruction era makes me so sad. I feel sorry for the people who were freed, gained rights, only for those to be taken away.
Sabertooth767@reddit
It was founded in 1886, so after Reconstruction but before Ferguson. Make of that what you will.
CupBeEmpty@reddit
IU and Purdue are our flagship state universities.
They do have other campuses but if someone said they were going to IU and Purdue you would expect they meant the campuses in Bloomington and West Lafayette respectively.
Now if they said they were going to med school at IU then you’d know they meant the combined IUPUI campus in Indianapolis which is where IU’s med school is.
Maine is similar. If you said UMaine most everyone would know you meant UMaine - Orono and not Fort Kent or Presque Isle or whatever.
If you know someone going to law school at UMaine then you’d know they meant the law school campus in Portland.
Suppafly@reddit
U of I is probably the best state school in Illinois, especially for STEM stuff, so I guess that would be the direct comparison to UW-Madison.
Financial_Island2353@reddit
I mean I guess you could call it U of M or UM, and some do, but most everyone just calls it Ole Miss. Ole Miss has multiple locations, but when you say you're going to Ole Miss, you think Oxford.
KimBrrr1975@reddit
University of Minnesota - Twin Cities.
Mostly known as "the U" or "the main U" even though the U of MN system has 5 campuses.
DrGerbal@reddit
UAB University of Alabama Birmingham. The blazers and UAH university of Alabama Huntsville hockey team won a title a few years back
Traditional_Trust_93@reddit
The U of M (University of Minnesota) in the cities is pretty popular. They're the college team repping MN for sports. Also, hello neighbor how's the weather?
beavertwp@reddit
Except hockey where there is usually a few MN teams ranked nationally.
Old-Quote-9214@reddit (OP)
Hi neighbor! I live near the opposite of Wisconsin, so not sure if you are experiencing our harsh rain. As someone born in MN, I kinda miss the snow of my childhood.
Traditional_Trust_93@reddit
It snowed last night. The day before it was nice and sunny. Got sleet and freezing rain on Sunday. Weather is crazy. Getting lots of fake spring. I, myself used to live in WI up by the UP. At times I miss the rural forest and small towns. T'was simpler times then.
shthappens03250322@reddit
It’s that way several places. If you say you are going to Alabama you mean the main campus in Tuscaloosa, not UAB (Birmingham) or UAH (Huntsville).
The University of Texas system has several schools but “Texas” is UT-Austin.
University of California has a big system too.
Budgiejen@reddit
University, UNL, etc in Nebraska.
Lumpy_Branch_552@reddit
University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
beavertwp@reddit
Yeah pretty much that same as Wisconsin, except we have two public university systems. There is “The U” and every other university is referred to by the town the campus is in. St. Cloud, Duluth, Mankato, Winona, Bemidji.
therealgookachu@reddit
Gophers gonna bring home the little brown jug from the Badgers.
SmartNotRude@reddit
The Gophers have the axe from the Badgers. The little brown jug is with Michigan.
Defiant_Ingenuity_55@reddit
California has so many schools that not one is the flagship. Some are UCs some are CSUs and some are neither but there are a lot people think about for studiousness. UCLA, Stanford, UCBerkley, CalTech are probably the best known.
TheBlazingFire123@reddit
Ohio state
Jimbussss@reddit
Even though it’s officially the University of Missouri, the university will still abbreviate it to MU instead of U of M or UM in official capacities, and they absolutely embraced the Mizzou nickname unlike Washington State and Wazzu. Also surprised going back home and people don’t understand the Mizzou colloquialism
pinniped90@reddit
We have two in Kansas - K State is the land grant, but KU and K State are seen as the same tier. KU is closer to the city - K State is more of an agriculture vibe
I didn't attend either, so I'm mostly an observer of this oft-intense rivalry. I went to Illinois, a pretty unambiguous flagship, the classic land grant school. Illinois State and UIC aren't really competitors.
BlueRFR3100@reddit
University of Illinois: Urbana-Champaign is the flagship school. Under the U of I system there are also schools in Springfield and Chicago.
There is a Southern Illinois University system with campuses in Carbondale and Edwardsville.
There are seven more public schools that are individual systems unto themselves.
MicCheck123@reddit
There are 3 University of Missouri campuses, the one in Columbia is the flagship and the only one most people will think about. The campuses in Kansas City and St. Louis are UMKC and UMSL, respectively.
unitconversion@reddit
There's also Rolla. They changed the name which was dumb but it's still part of the um system.
MicCheck123@reddit
Good call. I completely forgot about Rolla.
Sihaya212@reddit
U of M (Minnesota)
CabinetSpider21@reddit
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Several_Bee_1625@reddit
Every state has at least one state university system. But what you're describing -- the degree to which the "flagship" campus is considered the default campus -- varies.
For example, University of California Berkeley is the most prestigious of the UC system, the first UC campus, and in sports at least, Cal means UC Berkeley. But other campuses are a big deal too, like UCLA, UC San Diego and UCSF.
In Maryland, saying "University of Maryland" almost always means College Park, but there are other campuses. And some of the other state schools are part of the UM system but don't use the UM branding.
University of Pennsylvania (Penn) is not a state school. Penn State University is essentially a state school, but technically not, and is the largest school in the state. But the actual state school system is much less well known, and each campus is known by its city name more than being a Pennsylvania state school.
So yeah, it's all different.
draizetrain@reddit
We have 3 (or 4, debatable) major colleges in SC, but the two major schools here are USC and Clemson. I’m pretty sure USC is older and has more satellite campuses.
Jorost@reddit
UMass Amherst.
Sapphire_Bombay@reddit
I'm a Madison grad!
"UW-Madison" always confused me because it's the main campus, but specifying "-Madison" always made it sound to me like it was a branch campus. That's because where I grew up (Pittsburgh), we only added the location to branch campuses and not to the main.
University of Pittsburgh is the main school, which is in Oakland. You can call it University of Pittsburgh, Pitt, Pittsburgh, UPitt...but never Pitt-Oakland or anything like that. It's just Pitt. On the other hand, you have Pitt-Johnstown, Pitt-Greensburg, etc.
Even Penn State was always just Penn State (and occasionally just "State-College"), you would never say you went to "Penn State-State College." But you would hear Penn State-Altoona, Penn State-New Ken, etc.
So when I told people from home I went to "UW-Madison," a lot of them assumed that the main campus was in Milwaukee and that I was going to a branch. I didn't like that very much lol.
baddspellar@reddit
I am familiar with several states.
As mentioned elsewhere, my current home of Massachusetts has a single flagship university, UMass Amherst. The other New England states are similar. UNH, U of Maine, UConn, URI, and UVM are the single flagship universities in their respective states.
I grew up in New York. New York does not have a single flagship university. Google AI says it's Binghamton University, but US News ranks Stony Brook University higher. If you told someone you went to SUNY, they would ask for clarification.
California has many big name universities in its system. UC Berkeley, UC San Diego and UCLA are both ranked in the top 30 national universities. Berkeley's sports teams bear the "Cal" name, but it's not the same as say UW, UMass, UConn, etc
Indiana is interesting in that it has two highly ranked flagship universities: Purdue and Indiana University. If you are a top student who wants to study engineering, science, agriculture, or technology, you'll apply to Purdue, one of the finest Engineering schools in the US. If you're a top student who wants to study liberal arts, business, law, or music, you'll apply to IU, which has outstanding programs in these areas.
Escape_Force@reddit
University of Missouri is assumed to be the flagship in Columbia. It is primarily called Mizzou. UMSL, UMKC, and the former UMR are not assumed when saying University of Missouri. UMKC was not even associated with the University of Missouri system until the 1950s I believe. The former UMR is now Missouri University of S & T, but now as before it is usually just known as Rolla. Universities and colleges with "State" in the name are known historically as land-grant, normal schools, or community colleges that evolved from a very specific field of study (such as teacher education) before turning into full-fledged universities. Most have a geographic location in their name, such as Western or Southeast. The University of Central Missouri, shed the "State" from its name, Truman State shed the location in favor of Truman, while another one shed the location and became just Missouri State. Finally, there is Lincoln University which is a HBCU. To my knowledge these "state" universities have no relation other than being public universities granted a charter by the state, possibly being originally accredited by Mizzou if they started as a community college.
proscriptus@reddit
We have the University of Vermont and it's one campus. We call it UVM.
TsundereLoliDragon@reddit
Penn State is obviously the biggest...
..but I don't think this is necessarily true for it. PA has a crazy amount of great colleges.
calicoskiies@reddit
Yea there’s 19 branches outside of upark. I went to Abington. I saw they are considering closing up to 12 of them due to declining enrollment.
shelwood46@reddit
There are but definitely not well known. You're right, though, PA has a remarkable number of private colleges/universities.
Particular-Cloud6659@reddit
Our public University is Umass Amherst. It's in a nice town of about 35k. Leafy, quaint in the 5 college area (4 other colleges like Smith College and Amherst College - Amherst college is different and private and a more elite college accepting like 7%).
It's not particularly rigorous (average GPA is 4.07 but that is weighted. Lots of schools only consider unweighted.)
Our prestigious school is Harvard of course. It's been super cheap to go to for most people and now free for any family making kess tha 200k.
We have community colleges which are free for everyone so thats good if you want to learn a trade,or be a cop or a nurse - or get 2 years of college free and then go on. Then there's state colleges that are fine, some better than others for certain program like teaching (many were teachers colleges) or engineering.
NIN10DOXD@reddit
I'd say it's pretty similar here. Everyone thinks of Chapel Hill when you say UNC or Carolina.
cruuuuzzzz@reddit
I am in Washington State and we also have a UW which is the University of Washington and folks usually call it "U dub." The other big University is WSU, Washington State University, which usually goes by "Wazzu"
They are easy to get mixed up but the best way for me is that UW is purple and WSU is red
kippersforbreakfast@reddit
In Missouri, "MU" means the University of Missouri, Columbia. Not sure if that answers your question or not.
BoukenGreen@reddit
You apply to the campus of the school in the system you want to go to. Example if I wanted to go to the main campus in Tuscaloosa, I would apply to the University of Alabama(UA). If I wanted an engineering degree I would probably apply to the University of Alabama in Huntsville(UAH)
Flat-Leg-6833@reddit
In NJ I would guess Princeton comes the closest mostly because it shares the same name as the township it’s located in. Our largest state university is Rutgers, and the main campus is in New Brunswick, but nobody calls the school itself “New Brunswick.”
Massive_Pineapple_36@reddit
The University of Texas is an entire system. However UT Austin is known as “UT”. All others in the system are UT Dallas, UT San Antonio, etc.
The University of Arkansas is also an entire system. But the actual University of Arkansas in Fayetteville is known as U of A while others are Arkansas Tech, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (known as UAMS), etc
Meattyloaf@reddit
Kentucky has a community college system where each campus operates independently of one another but they are effectively one big school.
shelwood46@reddit
I know they've been closing them left and right, but I always thought Wisconsin was distinctive in NOT having a different system for community colleges -- "techinical" colleges, yes, but UW used to have tons of 2 year campuses that let your transfer to any 4 year UW school with no credit loss. My mom went to UW-Richland Center for 2 years then transferred to UWGB, which actually started as a 2 year school but became a full 4 year university in the early 70s. I think it's a pity they are decimating the 2 year campuses.
Old-Quote-9214@reddit (OP)
They are. There are Community Colleges distinct from the two year schools those, like Milwaukee Area Technical Colleges. I think Scott Walker still has an effect on the UW system even though he has been out of office for over 6 years.
G00dSh0tJans0n@reddit
UNC Chapel Hill (flagship, D1)
UNC Charlotte (D1)
UNC Greensboro (D1)
UNC Asheville (D1)
UNC Wilmington (D1)
UNC Pembroke (DII)
UNC School of the Arts (N/A)
Other UNC system schools not named UNC:
Appalachian State (D1)
NC State (D1)
East Carolina (D1)
Western Carolina (D1)
NC Central (D1)
NC A&T (D1)
Fayetteville State (D2)
Winston-Salem State (D2)
Elizabeth City State (D2)
KCalifornia19@reddit
California has two public 4-year systems.
There's the University of California, which is the more prestigious of the two. These are generally more research oriented, but you'd very rarely just say: "Oh, I went to the University of California." You'd be met with: "Well, which one?" Some have nicknames.
Then there's the California State University system. These are generally focused on mass public education, where volume is the aim. Much larger system, but still perfectly good education. Same applies, you'd never simply say that you went to a CSU.
PhilTheThrill1808@reddit
U of Texas in Austin in my current state, CU-Boulder, U of Kentucky in Lexington (my alma mater), and Ohio State in previous states I've lived in.
Texas and Colorado have a lot of other campuses in the system like Wisconsin does, Ohio has a few, and Kentucky has none.
TraditionalGreenery@reddit
As a person from Jersey, it’s primarily Rutgers University. They have 3 campuses so you’d often assume New Brunswick is the one. There are several colleges that have the name ‘New Jersey’ in but Jersey’s version is R-NB.
DBL_NDRSCR@reddit
the uc system - la, irvine, san diego, riverside, santa barbara, san francisco, santa cruz, davis, berkeley and merced. there's also the cal state system with 20 schools, plus the 3 cal polys which are also technically cal states
Sadimal@reddit
My home state had University System of Maryland.
The flagship campus is College Park (UMD). Several of the public universities also fall under the University System. The University of Maryland schools are: University of Maryland, College Park (UMD), University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES), University of Maryland Baltimore (UMB). The rest of the Universities in the system are referred to by either their location or initials.
Plus University of Maryland also has a statewide medical system that consists of 11 hospitals and shock trauma.
In Connecticut we have the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities. It consists of Central, Eastern, Western and Southern Connecticut State University, Connecticut Community College and Charter Oak State College.
University of Connecticut is the big university that everyone goes to. Also known as UConn.
All the rest of the universities that aren't under CSCU or UConn are private.
googlyeyes183@reddit
UNC. Most people only think of Chapel Hill, but there is UNC Charlotte, UNC Greensboro, UNC Pembroke, UNC Asheville, and UNC Wilmington
OldRaj@reddit
Indiana and Purdue. Both have main and satellite campuses.
CantConfirmOrDeny@reddit
Boulder. Just "Boulder". (Univ of Colorado)
Flat-Yellow5675@reddit
North Carolina has UNC. The one most peiole think of is UNC Chapel Hill - very good school, considered a public Ivy. But there is also UNC Greensboro and UNC Charlotte.
trinite0@reddit
I live in Columbia, Missouri, home of the University of Missouri. It's pretty much exactly the same here. The one in Columbia is MU, Missouri, or Mizzou. Other parts of the University of Missouri system are UMKC in Kansas City ; UMSL in St. Louis UMSL; and Missouri Science & Technology in Rolla (S&T, but most people just call it Rolla).
We also have the separate "Missouri State" college system in addition to the MU System. We've got Missouri State down in Springfield (people always call it "Missouri State," never just "Missouri"); Southeast Missouri State (SEMO) in Cape Girardeau; Northwest Missouri State in Maryville (Maryville); Truman State in Kirksville (formerly Northeast Missouri State, they changed their name to stand out more); and University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg)
THEN we've also got some other publicly-funded colleges that aren't part of either system: State Technical College of Missouri in Linn (State Tech), a small but highly-rated technical college; and Lincoln University in Jefferson City, a historically black university (HBCU).
So it's complicated if you're not familiar with things. But if someone says, "I went to college at MU," nobody is confused. They'll know that it means here in Columbia.
garnetglitter@reddit
Mizzou (University of Missouri - Columbia) is the sports school with name recognition. S&T (Rolla) is primarily an engineering school. Both are known for partying. UMSL & UMKC are both commuter schools.
1radgirl@reddit
Wyoming has 1 school, University of Wyoming. That's it, take it or leave it. Lol.
Tommy_Wisseau_burner@reddit
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Flagship_universities_in_the_United_States
Recent_Permit2653@reddit
Sort of. UT Austin, right there at the state capitol is undeniably Texas’ equivalent to UW Madison, and really the city of Madison. But, with the A&M system, it’s a little harder to say there’s A Flagship University (I’d still say UT though).
In California it was a bit more distributed. The University of California was our top tier public university system, with UCLA and UC Berkeley being the flagships, but with other campuses as well. Cal Poly is definitely up there as well. There’s nothing I’d say was dramatically analogous to Madison, though. Berkeley and San Luis Obispo (where Cal Poly is) have some Madison vibes but aren’t also the state capitol.
wormbreath@reddit
We only have 1 university, we also call it UW. Go pokes!
Cranberry-Electrical@reddit
I know Washington has University of Washington system and Washington State University system.
ellasaurusrex@reddit
NC has Chapel Hill, and NC State. Despite the UNC having like 16 schools, 7 of which are UNC-Something, if you say "UNC" everyone will assume it's Chapel Hill.
Pburnett_795@reddit
The University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople.
PPKA2757@reddit
Technically speaking Arizona’s flagship university is the University of Arizona - or as Sun Devil alum like myself like to call them: the University of Northern Mexico^^^TM.
UofA has fought tooth and nail to keep this title (away from ASU) for decades, really the only main difference between the two universities being that UofA has a medical school, however ASU is getting a medical school in the near future (which UofA also fought tooth and nail to keep them from having)
Our largest university is Arizona State University, it’s not even close.
Since we only have three public four year universities most college bound students in Arizona go to ASU or UofA, with a smaller handful going to Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff.
MagosBattlebear@reddit
We have the University of Maine system, with UMaine at Orono being the primary campus.
TCFNationalBank@reddit
University of Illinois has Urbana-Champaign, Chicago, and Springfield campuses that are all effectively different universities from an undergrad's perspective. UIUC is the main one and what most people assume when you say you go to Illinois. Illinois State University is a separate institution.
I wouldn't say it's the most prestigious university system in the state, though, you also have Northwestern, UChicago, and Loyola for example.
Oceanbreeze871@reddit
Berkeley for University of California at Berkeley. Interesting enough, their logo is “Cal” so they have two shorthand names
According-Way9438@reddit
University of Nebraska-Lincoln is usually just referred to as "nebraska"
HorseFeathersFur@reddit
Vols