Educated Quest’s Public Ivy Schools for 2020-21:The Runners Up

My Public Ivy post for this cycle got more buzz than any previous Public Ivy post. So I would like to list the schools that came close, but slightly missed on the four-year graduation rate.

Every school had to meet my cost criteria: charge less for room and board than Yale charges for tuition and fees alone.

Some of the Runner Up schools do even better on value. They charge less than the University of Virginia ($53,000), the most expensive of the Original Public Ivies, charges for tuition and fees alone.  I split my list into Best Value Runners Up and Runners Up. Each of these public institutions also graduates at least 65 percent of a freshman class.

Here are the Best Value Runners Up schools with their four-year grad rate in parenthesis:

• Christopher Newport University-Virginia (68%)
• Florida State University (68%)
• Indiana University-Bloomington (67%)
• James Madison University-Virginia (69%)
• Rutgers University-New Brunswick (65%)
• St. Mary’s College of Maryland (68%)
• University of Florida (67%)
• University of Georgia (66%)
• University of Maryland-College Park (69%)
• University of Minnesota-Twin Cities (68%)
• UT-Austin (66%)
• Virginia Tech-pictured (65%)

And here are the rest of the Runners Up, also with their four-year grad rate in parenthesis:

• Penn State University Park (68%)
• University of New Hampshire (68%)
• University of Pittsburgh (65%)
• University of Vermont (67%)
• University of Washington-Seattle (66%)

Several schools that have made these lists are fairly selective. But others are not.

The University of Georgia, the Florida runner-ups and UT-Austin are a good value for the money. But it’s tough to get into those schools from out of state. The same is true for the University of Washington, especially for Computer Science and Engineering.  Virginia Tech is also becoming a tougher place for prospective architects and engineers. The University of Maryland-College Park has a list of Limited Enrollment programs. On the flip side, St. Mary’s and the University of New Hampshire accept over 80 percent of their applicants.

All of these schools offer an honors-level experience that makes a large school feel smaller. That’s something that a private Ivy does not usually do, at least for the first two years of your education.

Some of these Runner-Up schools have been on my past Public Ivy lists. You can see how close some schools came to making my short list just by looking at the four-year graduation rate. I have no doubt that schools will pop on and off the short list from year to year.

Need help on the journey to college? Contact me at stuart@educatedquest.com or call me at 609-406-0062.

Want to know more about me? Check out these podcasts!

Listen to my talk, College Is A Learning AND Living Community, hosted by Dr. Cynthia Colon from Destination YOUniversity on Voice of America Radio!

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