That's interesting. Maybe the undergraduate focus is key, or partially so. Or maybe we both just got lucky and picked good schools. I was pretty surprised at what would earn an A at the big public university up the road. It was B- or C level work at my college. Some of ther facilities were better, but they were also shared among students....
I moved to California in the mid 90s and was appalled at the stuff I heard from pretty much anyone who had been to a public college out here, including UC Berkeley. While fully acknowledging that other states may be different, here's what was common here:
- Couldn't get a class I needed for my major and so had to graduate in five years
- Couldn't get a class I needed for my major and so had to go to summer school and cut my summer earnings
- My class was cancelled due to enrollment of <20 students (this is the norm in community colleges now; I taught at one and it was always a threat hanging over your job in the next term)
- 100-500 students in most of my freshmen/sophomore level classes
- I took lots of multiple choice tests (again, this is the norm among the educator/reviewers I've met over the last several years, and they're from all over the US)
Now, I also know that there are some dreadful private colleges out there! So I'm not saying that private is just better. Definitely not.
ETA: This stuff all came from current college students or recent graduates. The situation is very rough today, as well (there's even a bill in the legislature that would allow credit for online classes if a student can't get into a class at his B&M college/university).
