Public vs. Private Universities

Summary: At the elite level, private universities such as the Ivy League offer more prestigious name value and oftentimes more powerful alumni connections than public universities, although some specialty programs at public universities are the very best in the nation. But beyond the Top 15 or 20 schools, you can get great a education at either one, and public universities tend to be significantly more affordable for in-state students.

What’s the best fit for you?

As you begin to put together your college list, one of the first things you’ll notice is that they fall into one of two major camps: either they’re private or public. The difference can sometimes have a huge impact on the size of the school, the size of your typical class, the cost of tuition, the variety of programs and majors offered, access to your professors, and even the cultural diversity on campus. Let’s explore the major differences to help find what’s right for you.

What’s the difference?

The main difference between public vs. private universities is where they get the majority of their funding. A public university is owned by the state it’s located in, and on average it gets about 40% of its funding from the federal and state government. For example, if you live in the state of Florida, then a portion of your tax dollars every year go to fund the University of Florida — whether you have kids who study there or not.

A private university, on the other hand, is privately owned, and it doesn’t receive government funding (except for special things like research grants). The vast majority of funding for private universities comes from student tuition and the school’s endowment, which is a big pot of money that comes from donations and grows year after year like any other good investment. Each year, private universities take a little bit of the annual income that is generated from their huge endowment, and use that money to help offset some of the school’s costs.

The 6 main differences between Public and Private colleges…

#1: Cost

Depending on your family’s income, it can often save you a lot of money to go to a public university. Let’s compare two universities that ranked right next to each other on the 2024 U.S. News and World Report: Cornell University (tied for #12) and UC Berkeley (#15). Cornell is private; Berkeley is public.

If you’re a California resident, tuition at Berkeley is $45,000/year, but after financial aid, the typical student pays about $16,000/year. Compare this with Cornell, where tuition is $83,000/year, and after aid the average student pays $30,000/year. With or without aid, you’re still paying twice as much for the private education at Cornell.

The one major exception to this is that if you come from a low-income household, the Ivy League and several other elite private universities will give you a free ride. Princeton, for example, is free for all students whose families earn less than $100,000/year. And Stanford is free if your family makes less than $75,000/year.

In most cases, the only way to figure out your final costs is to apply to both public and private universities, see where you get accepted, and then compare the financial aid packages and scholarships that they each offer you. You might be surprised. But generally speaking, your public university will be much cheaper.

#2: Size

Public universities tend to be much larger. Arizona State, for example, has 65,000 undergraduates. Texas A&M has 56,000. Ohio State has 47,000. Penn State has 40,000. These schools are massive. They’re like enormous cities unto themselves. Not all public colleges will be this large, of course. Some in your area might be really small, featuring a lot of students who commute from home. But the largest universities in America are all public.

Private universities tend to be smaller. Even “big” private universities like Boston University have only 18,000 undergraduates. And top private universities like Harvard (7,000 undergrads), Duke (7,000 undergrads), and Vanderbilt (12,000 undergrads) are all relatively small. On the other end of the spectrum are small private liberal arts colleges like Williams (2,000 undergrads), Bowdoin (1,700 undergrads), and Swarthmore (1,400 undergrads). Many of these highly-selective colleges might be smaller than your own high school.

Why does size matter? Well, the smaller the college, generally the smaller your class sizes will be. In a small private college, you might have some classes with only a dozen students. At a large public university, you’re looking at lecture halls filled with several hundred students, especially in your first two years when you’re taking intro-level courses. After that, the class size tends to shrink quite a bit. If you’re looking for an intimate academic setting, and getting to know your professors personally, you’ll definitely want smaller classes.

#3: Resources

Because public universities are much larger, they typically offer many more resources. At a big public university like Purdue (37,000 undergrads), you can choose from over 200 different majors! That gives you tremendous flexibility in what courses you want to take, and what area you want to specialize in. But at a small private college like Bates College in Maine, you’re limited to just 36 majors (and some of them are cross-disciplinary, so you’re really only looking at about two dozen actual majors). Therefore, if you’re exploring private colleges, especially those on the smaller side, it’s important to research the school beforehand to make sure they have the specific majors and courses you’re interested in studying.

Additionally, since many public universities have vast graduate research programs, it’s often much easier to find research opportunities, internships and on-campus jobs at a large public school. Keep in mind, though, that there are a number of prestigious private universities that offer world-class research programs of their own, including Harvard, MIT, Johns Hopkins, UPenn, Carnegie, and Stanford, to name a few. But many do not.

#4: Diversity

Since the vast majority of students who go to public universities usually come from that state, public universities tend to be much less geographically diverse than private universities. For example, approximately 90% of the undergrads at University of Texas at Austin (41,000 undergrads) come from Texas. If you’re looking to hang with kids from all over the country, or all over the world, you might be disappointed. (Though to be fair, Texas is the second-most diverse state in the nation, behind only California.)

Many states have laws requiring that a fixed percentage of students at their public universities come from that state. Since state residents pay taxes to support the school, residents want to make sure there’s enough space for their kids to go there. At UT Austin, about 8% of undergrads come from outside of Texas, and 2% are international. While Texas offers quite a bit of racial diversity, many states do not.

By contrast, at a leading private university like New York University (NYU), approximately 24% of its students are international. And at both Yale and University of Southern California (USC), approximately 10% of their undergraduates are international. In addition, the majority of students at most private universities come from out-of-state. At Yale, for example, only 7% of their undergrads are residents of Connecticut. That means you’re going to live and attend classes with students of every race, religion, and creed. Your roommate might be from Bangladesh; your lab partner might be a Native American from Alaska. Many students believe this diversity will enrich their education, and give them a more global perspective.

#5: Prestige

Without a doubt, there are some excellent public universities. But it’s worth noting that in the 2022-2033 U.S. News and World Report of university rankings, the Top 20 are all private. I remind you to take these rankings with a grain of salt; there’s no discernible difference between an education from Brown (#13) or Columbia (#18). They’re both equally great.

While the top-ranked private universities are schools like Princeton (#1), MIT (#2), Harvard (#3), Stanford (#4), and Yale (#5), the top public universities are schools like UC Berkeley (tied #20), UCLA (tied #20), University of Michigan (#25), University of Virginia (#25), and University of Florida (#29). Those public universities are still very good, even exceptional. But in some cases they do lack the international prestige, academic rigor, and gargantuan funding of their private counterparts. While you can get a great education at many different schools, when it comes to applying to top graduate schools or interviewing for elite jobs, there’s no denying that graduates of the most prestigious colleges often get preference. (This is especially true in fields like finance and law, but much less so in STEM fields like engineering, computer science and medicine.)

The one notable difference is that some undergraduate programs at public universities are incredibly prestigious, and extremely difficult to get into. For example, the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley (a public university) is ranked #2 for undergraduate business programs, tied with MIT Sloan, and just below UPenn Wharton (#1), which are both private. Similarly, University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business (public) is ranked #4, and the McCombs School of Business at the UT Austin (also public) is ranked #7. If you can get into one of these elite programs, and you’re an in-state resident, you can earn a prestigious degree for a fraction of the cost. And no one would fault you for going that route. Many large public universities also feature prestigious honor programs that only accept a handful of applicants each year, and provide a small “Ivy League” experience within a large university. Those honor programs are worth their weight in gold.

#6: Culture

The final major difference between public and private universities is campus culture. A sprawling public university can feel like a major city, whereas a smaller private university feels more like a small town.

At a public university, everything is bigger. You’ll be surrounded by thousands of other students. When you go to cheer for your nationally-ranked Division 1 football team or basketball team, you’ll be cheering for some of the best college players in the nation, in stadiums that seat up to 90,000 people. You can participate in Greek Life (fraternities and sororities), join a glass-blowing club, and do basically anything you want to do. There’s something for everyone, guaranteed. There’s also a degree of anonymity at a large public university. And while some people might feel like a number, others thrive in that kind of super-sized environment.

Private universities tend to be much smaller, and you feel it. You see many of the same students everywhere you go. Many lack a Greek life. There’s more of a focus on quality of options, rather than quantity of options. There aren’t nearly as many clubs, activities, and opportunities. If you want to cheer for your school’s sport teams, they’re more likely to be Division 3 teams (although the Ivy League is Division 1). Those stadiums might only seat about 25,000. On the other hand, you’ll have a much better chance of making your D3 lacrosse team than a D1 team, since it’s far less competitive. A private college can feel more like a family, since you’ll see the same people over and over, and some people prefer that level of intimacy.

Final thoughts.

A prestigious private university can offer distinct advantages when you apply to graduate schools or look for internships and jobs. There’s a certain cache that’s affiliated with a top brand-name school, and their alumni networks tend to be some of the strongest anywhere, which can help considerably with your career. The schools also tend to be much smaller and more supportive of student needs, offering more one-on-one attention.

However, public universities offer considerable advantages as well. For in-state residents, they’re much less expensive. And for many STEM fields such as technology, engineering and computer science, they are frequently better than private universities. Plus, students at public universities have many more courses, majors, clubs and resources available to them. But it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle, or get shut out of the courses you want, so you have to make sure you know how to advocate for yourself.