Are Private Colleges Better Than Public Colleges

I vote a reluctant yes, but there can be no definite answer to the question. I attended a small, private college and later spent several years on the faculty of a large land-grant state university. There are advantages and disadvantages in both.

The benefits of a private college are in the classroom numbers. While attending private college, my classes rarely included more than 20 students. At the university, I taught in classrooms that rarely had less than 40 students. Small classes give both the student and the instructor more one-on-one time with each other, and the instructor can monitor progress or problems much easier.

My undergrad days didn't involve anything connected with big sports, because my school, with only 1,500 students, was a very minor figure in inter-mural activities. This gave us more opportunity to concentrate on academics, a great difference from many of the big universities. My faculty time was spent at what was derisively called a "moo u", had a student population of 16,000, and its aggie school roots and attitudes were still firmly planted in both the curriculum and national sports.

Football was holy season at the university, and much of the fall semester was dedicated to all kinds of activities involving the sport. Rallies, parties and all kinds of social events often seemed to overwhelm the academic aspects of university life. Basketball was just about as frenetically popular in its season.

Unlike my undergraduate school, I don't even remember the names of our team coaches. At the university, the football and basketball coaches were national figures, and counted their salaries in high six figures. Every loss or win by the university's nationally-ranked teams made headlines throughout the country. As for academics, I don't know how many classes, if any, the star football and basketball players attended.

There are two more factors favoring the private school. The competition for applicants tends to be higher, so that the secondary school grades of those accepted indicate they'll continue to be highly-motivated scholars. The typical university student, who can be virtually lost in the crowd, is more prone to party than study. Of course, this isn't always true, but the statistics are there.

The other factor, especially today when prices on everything are soaring, is that private schools charge considerably more for tuition than public colleges. When I was on the faculty of the "moo u", a GPA as low as 2.0 was accepted for admission. Most private schools require at least a 3.0. Whether the higher-grade achievers are better all-around college students may be debated, but look at the statistics. They have a much higher graduation and on to grad school records.