Public College Naming Conventions

[kernals12]

California has 2 public college systems. There's the California State system and the University of California system. The latter enrolls a lot fewer students but its campuses are far better known: most people have heard of UC Berkeley but San Jose State doesn't have the same cache.

It's similar here in Arizona. The University of Arizona in Tucson is considered more prestigious than ASU, the butt of so many jokes. While Ann Arbor, MI, home of UMich, is a well known college town, East Lansing, home of Michigan State which has a similar student count, isn't. The University of Connecticut is my alma mater but it turns out there's a Connecticut State University system that I did not know about when I was a kid.

So what is the reason for this tradition of calling the prestigious colleges "University of [Insert state name here]" and the plebian colleges "[Insert state name here] State University"

[Max Rockatansky]

My younger sister had a full ride academic scholarship to MSU.  I'd imagine she would have lots to say after a long professional career about you saying her education is "plebeian." 

[WillWeaverRVA]

So what is the reason for this tradition of calling the prestigious colleges "University of [Insert state name here]" and the plebian colleges "[Insert state name here] State University"

Penn State, Michigan State, Ohio State, Arizona State, Colorado State, Florida State, Kansas State, Washington State, North Carolina State, Mississippi State, etc, etc are hardly "plebeian" colleges. What a dimwitted statement to make.

ASU being joked about is due to the natural rivalry between Arizona and Arizona State, not because Arizona State offers a lower quality of education. It's much like the jokes exchanged between VCU and the private, exclusive University of Richmond. VCU is generally considered a much better school in the programs that both schools offer.

[1995hoo]

Then you have Virginia State University, which is historically black. While it's by no means anywhere near as well-known as many of Virginia's other public universities, I have a feeling the people there would be exceptionally offended by the "plebeian" characterization and would likely assume the comment was racially loaded (though the context here indicates it was just typical kernals12 ignorance).

Regarding university names, though, one could ask why some states use "University of [state]," some use "[state] University," and then at least one uses "State University of [state name]" (in that case, New York University is a private institution founded in 1831, the SUNY system was founded in 1948, and maybe they thought "University of New York" would be ambiguous as to city versus state, although the CUNY system was founded in 1961).

[Rothman]

Isn't kernals from suburban Boston, or am I mixing him up with someone else?  Anyway, IIRC, his background may be a little informative in his making that tone-deaf Leona-Helmsley-esque statement.

[JayhawkCO]

Quite a few of "XXX State" universities just to be named other things also.

[SectorZ]

Isn't kernals from suburban Boston, or am I mixing him up with someone else?  Anyway, IIRC, his background may be a little informative in his making that tone-deaf Leona-Helmsley-esque statement.

He is from Whitesley, er, Wellesley MA.

[SectorZ]

Wow, never knew I could lord over someone who went to Framingham State University because I went to Univ. of Mass-Lowell. And to thinks those state universities were mere colleges a decade ago. The horror! Thanks kerny for giving me the ego boost I needed this morning.

[SEWIGuy]

Historically states would govern their land grant institution separate from their other campuses. Oftentimes those other campuses started as teacher college or regional schools that grew over time. A lot of them have since merged - Wisconsin is an example. Others have stayed separate and have developed that way.

[kernals12]

So what is the reason for this tradition of calling the prestigious colleges "University of [Insert state name here]" and the plebian colleges "[Insert state name here] State University"

Penn State, Michigan State, Ohio State, Arizona State, Colorado State, Florida State, Kansas State, Washington State, North Carolina State, Mississippi State, etc, etc are hardly "plebeian" colleges. What a dimwitted statement to make.

ASU being joked about is due to the natural rivalry between Arizona and Arizona State, not because Arizona State offers a lower quality of education. It's much like the jokes exchanged between VCU and the private, exclusive University of Richmond. VCU is generally considered a much better school in the programs that both schools offer.

For crying out loud, I was being lighthearted when I used that word. As UCONN alumni, I will freely admit my education was more plebian than what I would've had at Yale.

[NWI_Irish96]

Two notable exceptions are Indiana University and the State University of New York.

[kernals12]

Isn't kernals from suburban Boston, or am I mixing him up with someone else?  Anyway, IIRC, his background may be a little informative in his making that tone-deaf Leona-Helmsley-esque statement.

He is from Whitesley, er, Wellesley MA.

I went to a public school, I drive a 7 year old Honda Accord, and I live in a 1 bedroom apartment. I'm hardly a trust fund baby.

[NWI_Irish96]

For crying out loud, I was being lighthearted when I used that word. As UCONN alumni, I will freely admit my education was more plebian than what I would've had at Yale.

Coming from someone who went $75k into debt to go to Notre Dame, the difference isn't as large as you think. Unless your goal is a top medical school or law school, there's not a lot of added value of going to a private school, even an elite one, over a much more affordable top-tier state university.

I'm not familiar with the academics at UConn, but I know the public Big Ten schools are all very good at a fraction of the cost of Notre Dame or Northwestern.

[JayhawkCO]

Two notable exceptions are Indiana University and the State University of New York.

I'd add Rutgers.

[kernals12]

For crying out loud, I was being lighthearted when I used that word. As UCONN alumni, I will freely admit my education was more plebian than what I would've had at Yale.

Coming from someone who went $75k into debt to go to Notre Dame, the difference isn't as large as you think. Unless your goal is a top medical school or law school, there's not a lot of added value of going to a private school, even an elite one, over a much more affordable top-tier state university.

I'm not familiar with the academics at UConn, but I know the public Big Ten schools are all very good at a fraction of the cost of Notre Dame or Northwestern.

The purpose of getting into an Ivy League college isn't that it gives you a superior education, it's about making connections.

[Dirt Roads]

Florida is an interesting case.  It seems to me that the University of Florida tries to downplay its status as a prestigious school (for it is indeed a member of the Association of American Universities).  On the other hand, Florida State is always trying to distance itself from its history as a women's seminary (eventually becoming Florida State Women's College, which eventually led to Florida State College and further to its current name.

In many cases, the "State University" traces its name to a revision of a state agricultural institute that became a large university.  But in this case, the school we know as Florida State seemingly rejected the title of "University of Florida" when the state tried to merge several Tallahassee-based colleges together in the mid-1880s.  Instead, the state's land grant college (Florida Agricultural College) overgrew its original location at Lake City and moved down to what we now refer to as "The Swamp" in Gainesville. 

Today, there is a different quirk in Florida.  About 15 years ago, the state allowed many of the community colleges to be upgraded to four-year colleges, which could simply change to "State College".  This allowed Florida Community College at Jacksonville to become Florida State College at Jacksonville.  Which at one time was a larger school than Florida State University.

[newyooper]

Generally there are no hard and fast rules for naming of universities.  In "general" as noted above, many state sponsored universities started as University of State (of course KU and UK decided to be opposite).  These commonly were started first and would have the law school and the medical school etc.  In "general" the "State" State University schools came along later.  Many of the State State University schools were part of the Morrill Act whereby the federal government gave land to the states (hence also known as the land grant act) to support universities for the "manual and agricultural arts".  As noted, many of these are the "state" state universities (Iowa State, South Dakota State, Kansas State, Michigan State etc.)  These schools commonly (but not exclusively) have the engineering college, the agricultural, the veterinary college and the old home economics (now family and consumer sciences) college.

However, in the south, some of the "state" State Universities were dedicated to African Americans (I think examples would be Virginia State, Kentucky State, and Alabama State).

There are a few schools that do combine the traditional University of X with the land grant mission: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio State and Penn State, for example).

In California, there is the UC system and the Cal State System.  Under the original California Master Plan for Higher Education, the UC schools were designed to accommodate the top 10% (I think) of high school students in California and the UC schools are designed to be research/doctoral granting universities.  The Cal State System was designed to take the top 10 to 30 or 40% (I think) of CA high school students.  These school are supposed to be more regional (hence more of them) non-doctoral institutions with many of them starting out as the traditional schools for educating teachers (also called Normal Schools after Illinois State in Normal Illinois).  By Law, the Cal State schools are limited to master's programs (except in the area of their previous expertise of teaching where they can grant PhDs).  In California, UC Davis is the land grant school.

In Michigan, for example, the former teaching schools are now Eastern Michigan, Central Michigan, Western Michigan, and Northern Michigan.  Same with the University of Northern Iowa.  The former teaching schools becoming universities is often where these "directional" universities originated.  Many former community colleges grew into regional state institutions and then became universities.  This is where many of the Southwest X State University schools came from. Hence the term "bi-directional state universities."

Then of course their are private religious schools:  St. X is usually Catholic or Lutheran, Wesleyan is Methodist along with Southern Methodist (SMU), "baptist" as in Southern Baptist (but also Baylor) and on and on and on.

No hard and fast rules overall, but there is some consistency.

[Dirt Roads]

While I am rambling, I should mention that the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) is a private institution.  So the primary state agricultural institution ended up becoming Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) by default.  Oddly, the sister school to Penn was the Western University of Pennsylvania.  To avoid confusion with Penn after getting pressure from the state to offer more vocational education, the school was renamed as the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt).  It is the oldest continuous academic institution west of the Alleghenies. 

But all good things must come to an end.  In 1966, Pitt became a public school and now is the step-sister to Penn State.

[Dirt Roads]

Ohio University was the prestigious university in that state (if you assume that Western Reserve University was still part of Connecticut in those early days).  Upon creation of Ohio State University in Columbus, there were many attempts to officially demote Ohio U. and its sister, Miami U., all of which failed.  In the end, there was no need to officially demote them as THE OHIO State University (emphasis not mine) became the largest in all the land for many years.

Western Reserve University literally was known as "Yale of the West", and its successor Case Western Reserve is arguably the most prestigious in this Rust Belt state.

[SEWIGuy]

Ohio University was the prestigious university in that state (if you assume that Western Reserve University was still part of Connecticut in those early days).  Upon creation of Ohio State University in Columbus, there were many attempts to officially demote Ohio U. and its sister, Miami U., all of which failed.  In the end, there was no need to officially demote them as THE OHIO State University (emphasis not mine) became the largest in all the land for many years.

Western Reserve University literally was known as "Yale of the West", and its successor Case Western Reserve is arguably the most prestigious in this Rust Belt state.

I would for sure put Carnegie-Mellon ahead of Case Western in that respect. Probably Lehigh as well.