Flagship state university towns

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by JMKeynes

If you were there three days ago, I’ll take your word. My impression is from ten years ago during a brief work trip. At that time, the downtown was tiny and lousy. Maybe it has gentrified like everywhere else over the past ten years, but it’s still probably pretty tiny. Also, I’ve heard that there is still A LOT of crime in Durham, which is ridiculous considering how small it is.

I had a friend who got a PHD in Duke in the Mid-2000s. The Downtown area was indeed still pretty dead/economically depressed at that time, despite the university. She mostly went to Chapel Hill to socialize.

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by dave8721

Funny how its the Osteopathic doctors that have the biggest debt and aren't even real doctors. I guess going to scam universities is sort of a training

I mean, come on... even the AMA officially states that allopathic and osteopathic medical licensing exams should be viewed equally.

A buddy of mine who happens to have a DO after his name versus an MD would be surprised to learn he attended a scam university and isn't even a real doctor... especially when he's performing surgery and then having to listen to his accountant convince him to buy the house in the Caymans and set up an LLC there to park some of his cash.

[GregBaker]

Originally Posted by llamaorama

And then there's College Station. I lived there when I was in high school and in my early 20s. I did not attend Texas A&M, I went to a local community college and then went to a university elsewhere. My Dad worked for A&M system.

It's the absolute antithesis or opposite of somewhere like Boulder or Ann Arbor.

College Station is named as such because it started out as a train station next to a college. Until the late 1950s it was literally just a gas station at a crossroads and small cluster of houses. So as you can imagine, it's modern form is almost entirely suburban in character. The Brazos Valley is literally a river valley that was and is an important agricultural region, which is all very good, but that also means it's flat.

Texas A&M was a small land grant university that did not become big until the 60s/70s, so it's campus is an imposing brutalist citadel of sorts and the tallest building is probably a decipticon. That's just what it is. Also the campus was very culturally conservative during the "baby boomers go to college" similar to situation in villanova university get more info era so the whole hippie/weird college town vibe never took root for better or worse.

It's a very good school and all, I have qualms about it. From my perspective as someone who was from the town side of that community I was happy to get out though.

College Station is expensive due to the rich students and it's hard to get an entry level professional job that isn't underpaid because you have to compete with recent college graduates. The town is run by stuffy old NIMBYs who always vote no on bond elections. Bryan is the other half and a little more interesting, but it's also just kind of poor and meh.

Also despite the evergreen ambitions of leaders in the area(A&M people will tell you they are going to invent carrots that grow on the moon someday that will cure aids), it just isn't winning that hard when it comes to luring in tech or other advanced companies like these other places are. The Bio Corridor plans have only partially materialized and not on the schedule many would like.

It's 250,000 people, it's not super scenic or cool, take it or leave it I guess. SIGSERV will know, he had to live in Palestine for a while. Palestine people drive to Bryan to go to the doctor.

Sorry, but the joke about AIDS and carrots is really good

[Docere]

List of flagship university campuses located either in the largest city and/or state capital:

University of Hawaii at Manoa (Honolulu)
Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge)
University of Minnesota (Twin Cities)
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
University of New Mexico (Albuquerque)
The Ohio State University (Columbus)
University of Oklahoma (Norman - OKC suburb)
University of South Carolina (Columbia)
University of Texas at Austin
University of Utah (Salt Lake City)
University of Vermont (Burlington)
University of Washington (Seattle)
University of Wisconsin - Madison

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by Docere

List of flagship university campuses located either in the largest city and/or state capital:

University of Hawaii at Manoa (Honolulu)
Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge)
University of Minnesota (Twin Cities)
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
University of New Mexico (Albuquerque)
The Ohio State University (Columbus)
University of South Carolina (Columbia)
University of Texas at Austin
University of Utah (Salt Lake City)
University of Washington (Seattle)

Univ of Oklahoma too, no?

It's in Norman, but part of the OKC metro area.

[ColDayMan]

Originally Posted by Docere

List of flagship university campuses located either in the largest city and/or state capital:

University of Hawaii at Manoa (Honolulu)
Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge)
University of Minnesota (Twin Cities)
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
University of New Mexico (Albuquerque)
The Ohio State University (Columbus)
University of South Carolina (Columbia)
University of Texas at Austin
University of Utah (Salt Lake City)
University of Washington (Seattle)

I would put in Michigan State University with Lansing as Michigan says they have three flagship campuses (UM and Wayne State the other two).

[Steely Dan]

Docere, you're missing U. Of Wisconsin in Madison.


And I personally wouldn't count MSU in east Lansing.

I don't care what the state of Michigan thinks, each state of only gets to have one true flagship public university, and we all know that Michigan's is in Ann Arbor.

[Buckeye Native 001]

ASU's main campus is in Tempe and probably closer to Downtown Phoenix than Norman is to Downtown OKC.

[Docere]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

Docere, you're missing U. Of Wisconsin in Madison.

A big miss. Added.

Vermont too.

[ChiSoxRox]

A close edge case that doesn't quite make it is Missouri. U of M is in Columbia, the state capital is Jefferson City in an adjacent county, and exactly 30 miles separate campus from the state capitol.

But Jeff City is a postage stamp and Columbia isn't too much bigger so there's still a lot of farmland (and the Missouri River) between the two.

[chris08876]

Pennsylvania has a town called State College. For the layman. And its in a county called Centre County. They made every effort to make sure people know where the state college is at and for the geographically challenged, a general idea that is in the middle somewhere, in the center.

But than you have UPenn messing the whole thing up, which is in Philly.

Philly has a ton of schools.

[Crawford]

Penn State is the PA flagship. UPenn is something else.

I'd argue MSU, not U-M, is the MI flagship. It's the bedrock state institution. Biggest school, enrolls the most students, has the most alumni. Most MI governors are MSU grads.

U-M is a very prominent institution that happens to be in MI, while MSU is inherently MI. Most U-M students aren't from MI, while MSU is overwhelmingly MI residents.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Crawford

U-M is a very prominent institution that happens to be in MI.

It doesn't just happen to be in michigan, it's the state's most prestigious and well-known public institution of higher learning.

That's why it is THE state flagship state university in Michigan in the minds of most.


But MSU is a very solid 1B for Michigan, like other states with a highly regarded #2 major public research university, such as Indiana University, Iowa State, UIC, etc.

[craigs]

California officially has two flagships--Berkeley and UCLA. UCLA has ranked higher than Berkeley on USNWR's 'national universities' list for the majority of the last decade. Right now, they are tied at #15, even though UCLA's acceptance rate (8.6%) is lower than Berkeley's (11%). I've seen the arguments by Berkeley grads and out-of-staters that Berkeley must be the sole flagship, and I don't find them persuasive. In any case, if we accept the state's own designations then UCLA can be added to the list because it's in the state's largest city.

[JManc]

Originally Posted by craigs

California officially has two flagships--Berkeley and UCLA. UCLA has ranked higher than Berkeley on USNWR's 'national universities' list for the majority of the last decade. Right now, they are tied at #15, even though UCLA's acceptance rate (8.6%) is lower than Berkeley's (11%). I've seen the arguments by Berkeley grads and out-of-staters that Berkeley must be the sole flagship, and I don't find them persuasive. In any case, if we accept the state's own designations then UCLA can be added to the list because it's in the state's largest city.

UC Santa Cruz all the way and I will give you two reasons. Banana. Slugs.

[Docere]

There's no obvious flagship of the SUNY system. But Governor Hochul granted flagship status to Stony Brook and Buffalo last year (neither being in the largest city or capital).

California officially has none but having Berkeley and UCLA as co-flagships makes sense, given both their excellence and California's large size.

"Flagship" is not officially always officially defined or even obvious.

[Docere]

Originally Posted by JManc

UC Santa Cruz all the way and I will give you two reasons. Banana. Slugs.

I spent some time at UC Santa Cruz. It's a beautiful campus.

[craigs]

Originally Posted by JManc

UC Santa Cruz all the way and I will give you two reasons. Banana. Slugs.

Yeah, it's a good school but quirky for sure. And the campus setting is stunning. It's partly inside a redwood forest and partly on top of a mountain overlooking the Pacific.

[JManc]

Originally Posted by craigs

Yeah, it's a good school but quirky for sure. And the campus setting is stunning. It's partly inside a redwood forest and partly on top of a mountain overlooking the Pacific.

Yeah it's a nice campus, so are UCLA and Berkeley which reminds me of something back east. California does have nice university settings.

[SpawnOfVulcan]

Originally Posted by Docere

List of flagship university campuses located either in the largest city and/or state capital:

University of Hawaii at Manoa (Honolulu)
Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge)
University of Minnesota (Twin Cities)
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
University of New Mexico (Albuquerque)
The Ohio State University (Columbus)
University of Oklahoma (Norman - OKC suburb)
University of South Carolina (Columbia)
University of Texas at Austin
University of Utah (Salt Lake City)
University of Vermont (Burlington)
University of Washington (Seattle)
University of Wisconsin - Madison

There are also some of flagships in former state capitals.

A couple that come to mind are:

University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa)
Universtiy of Tennessee (Knoxville)