Same Major, Different University = Same Quality of Degree?

[MD-To Be]

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I go to a public university and I was wondering what the difference is in a degree from a public university compared to a private, ivy league university. Stated more simply, how different is a biology degree from your local state university from a biology degree from Harvard, Yale, etc...? Is there a difference in difficulty or is it the faculty who is teaching the classes that makes the difference?

I am asking out of interest.

 

[Sol Rosenberg]

Not really sure where to begin. Student:Teacher Ratio, grading standards, quality of faculty, quality of facilities, class size....the list can go on and on.

Note that this is what makes one program different from another, I'm not currently expressing an opinion about whether private > public.

 

[Mye Eye]

I go to a public university and I was wondering what the difference is in a degree from a public university compared to a private, ivy league university. Stated more simply, how different is a biology degree from your local state university from a biology degree from Harvard, Yale, etc...? Is there a difference in difficulty or is it the faculty who is teaching the classes that makes the difference?

I am asking out of interest.

with all due respect...i'd rather take an applicant with a 3.65 from Harvard than a 3.8 from a state school (ignoring the elite state schools like UVa, UNC, UCLA, Berkley, UWash, etc) because the pool of kids these people are graded against are much stronger in general

 

[Dr. Pepper]

It's impossible to tell.

There's not much point worrying about it. Adcoms tend to give more prestigious universities a little wiggle room, but other than that, pretty much all students of the same major are on the same playing field.

In terms of your own personal interest, don't waste your time trying to determine it. Instead, if you feel that you are not being educated enough, do some self-studying and become your own educator. There are idiots in the best universities and geniuses in the worst, and in my personal opinion, the only thing separating them is the ability and the desire to individually pursue their interests and learn for the sake of learning.
-Dr. P.

 

[TakingBakSunday]

with all due respect...i'd rather take an applicant with a 3.65 from Harvard than a 3.8 from a state school (ignoring the elite state schools like UVa, UNC, UCLA, Berkley, UWash, etc) because the pool of kids these people are graded against are much stronger in general

I'd rather take a non-bio major that didn't go to Big High School U.

 

[keepdreaming]

with all due respect...i'd rather take an applicant with a 3.65 from Harvard than a 3.8 from a state school (ignoring the elite state schools like UVa, UNC, UCLA, Berkley, UWash, etc) because the pool of kids these people are graded against are much stronger in general

berkEley


p.s. im not anal, i just attend the school

 

[Mye Eye]

berkEley


p.s. im not anal, i just attend the school

then u might not want to correct someone who quickly typed a response and respects the school...might make "them" thing their students are "anal" 😛

 

[keepdreaming]

then u might not want to correct someone who quickly typed a response and respects the school...might make "them" thing their students are "anal" 😛

damn aren't you defensive. just because you respect it doesn't mean someone can't correct you about it. touche.

 

[stiffany]

So I'm biased since I chose a large Ivy over a large public college back when I was making this decision. That being said, I think the biggest difference is just your access to potential advisors, mentors, etcetera. While I don't know what it would have been like to attend places like Texas A&M and other schools on my college list, I think the access to research, funding awards, and extra-curriculars I experienced was fantastic. However, as someone above me mentioned, you really make your own experience. Aside from the mandatory freshman advising sessions and declaring one's major, at my undergrad we weren't required to meet with professors outside of class for advise or anything else. So, you have to have the initiative to know what you want out of the college experience and go for it, regardless of whether or not you attend say the University of North Carolina or Columbia, Penn, etcetera. Finally, I also think that the experience of being a gunnerific premed may be different at Ivy type schools at least in separating out the A's and the B's in a given science course. Competition can be beyond fierce.

 

[riceman04]

I go to a public university and I was wondering what the difference is in a degree from a public university compared to a private, ivy league university. Stated more simply, how different is a biology degree from your local state university from a biology degree from Harvard, Yale, etc...? Is there a difference in difficulty or is it the faculty who is teaching the classes that makes the difference?

I am asking out of interest.

In terms of applying to med school it makes a slight diff...but overall there's no difference (usually)

 

[durfen]

I go to a public university and I was wondering what the difference is in a degree from a public university compared to a private, ivy league university. Stated more simply, how different is a biology degree from your local state university from a biology degree from Harvard, Yale, etc...? Is there a difference in difficulty or is it the faculty who is teaching the classes that makes the difference?

I am asking out of interest.

I'm not sure about biology, but in engineering there is a sure difference between schools. For CS, Stanford's the best (in my humble opinion) and MIT a close second. It depends upon the faculty and the quality of the instruction, and companies know this when they hire. Not sure about how med schools view that though, 3/4 of my reviewers probably won't know what TCP/IP stands for.