What is the most well-known (and most sought-after for in-state high school seniors) college in the state of Ohio? Ohio State. State of Michigan? Michigan. State of Pennsylvania? Penn State. State of Texas? Texas. State of Alabama? Alabama. State of Oklahoma? OU. Yes, in North Carolina Duke may trump UNC, and Cal is as well regarded as Stanford, and Northwestern as well regarded as Illinois and U. of Chicago..
But here in New England, there is no way the land-grant state universities can compete with their private counterparts for attention or status. New Hampshire cannot compete with Dartmouth; URI with Brown or RISD; UMass with Harvard, BC, or BU; UConn with Yale, Wesleyan or Trinity.
That is why UConn does not command the same attention/affiliation from Connecticut's population as the midwestern/southern/southwestern public schools.
This is from a died-in-the-wool UConn graduate. Full disclosure: I have an MBA from Harvard (please don't call me a hypocrite. I always root for UConn over Harvard.)
VV - I apologize in advance for this long winded response, but I think the points made are important, if also a little redundant... I usually agree with most of what you post, but I must decline to do so here. I think you are missing the point regarding a comparison of old legacy private universities in the NE and their public counterparts. First, let's start with our public university - UConn is clearly a notch ahead of all other public universities in NE and stands out as nationally and is considered to be a "public ivy". Sure, we can be better. But our revolving door leadership as of late has created a lack of consistency. I think we have a good President now! President Radenka Maric is the real deal! She is tough minded, has the research chops and looks to me to be a no nonsense administrator. (and she can do whatever she wants to do with hair...)
Certainly, UConn doesn't compete with Yale on all levels, especially athletics. In athletics, this is more about the evolution of Ivy League athletics over the last 70 years than anything else. I think a little history concerning UConn's founding is in order. You may know that UConn received its Morrill Act land grant charter from Yale in the late 1800s. Yale was initially granted the CT land grant charter after the Morrill Act became law in 1862. However, the state legislature wanted a new CT funded university to carry the land grant charter for the state. In addition, land grant institutions were also supposed to have ag schools. This was not really happening at Yale. Other than the New Haven Green. I guess there was a dearth of farm land in New Haven. Thus, a thriving Yale Ag school was not in the cards. "The Yale-Storrs Controversy" ensued as the CT legislature and Yale battled over ownership of the charter. Ultimately, the charter was transferred to UConn and Yale was paid about $150k in compensation. In any event, with the CT land grant charter in hand, UConn was off and running.
As far as academic competition is concerned, you can pick up a useless degree at any Ivy league school or at UConn right now - difference being you'll pay $80k+ per year at the Ivies and about half that at UConn. As far as more desirous schools, UConn"s honors program does very well with top students state-wide who want a great education, but don't want to stare at a huge debt load to go to a private institution. The Ivies give away a lot of money to some and for them it maybe an easy decision. But, for the good student with any financial impediments, UConn is very attractive.
No doubt, the Ivies still have a buzz and probably always will. However, mentioning certain other private schools as superior to UConn doesn't ring true to me. Mentioning BC and BU with Harvard is a bit much. Especially BU - it has no particular cache. Also, I remember when BC was a "safe bet" Jesuit school for the Boston "Irish Mafia". Also, mentioning Wesleyan and Trinity with Yale is also a bit much. I think they are two examples of over-priced private institutions whose best days are behind them. (BTW, Syracuse is the most prominent example of an over-priced, private university that has definitely seen better days.) I would take UConn, head to head, over them any day. (And you also compare URI to RISD? Ouch! They are of different species!)
No doubt, it took awhile, but I think CT certainly understands the importance of having a strong public higher education system.
People around the country get it. Yes - we have some magnificent private universities in the NE, but UConn is ascending. Importantly, I think we have dynamic leadership going forward.
Now if we could just get into a decent athletic conference everything will be fine! We belong in one and we were there in 2011 when we got sideswiped by BC, UMiami and the ACC leadership. Fair or not, revenge killed our chances in 2011 (and 2012). It had nothing to do with our quality as an academic institution or our athletic success. Simply put - it was pay back. Hopefully, those days are behind us and the right conference will find us.
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