state school (thing)

In England, a "state school" is a primary or secondary school paid for by the government, as opposed to a "public school," which is usually what Americans would call a "private school."

Back in the USA, a "state school" is a university funded by a state government. While most private universities charge annual tuition fees in the neighborhood of $20,000 to $30,000, a typical state school might charge $5,000 a year for residents of the state and $15,000 a year for everyone else.

Most states have several state schools (Wyoming is the only exception). In most cases, the main state school in a given state is called the "University of (insert state name here)." There are exceptions, though: the University of Pennsylvania is actually private (and a member of the Ivy League), while New Jersey has Rutgers and New York has the State University of New York (SUNY).

While state schools tend to have a reputation for handling the academic middle class, a handful are actually among the top universities in the US. These would include:

• Penn State University
• University of California, Berkeley
• University of California, Davis (UCD)
• University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
• University of California, San Diego (UCSD)
• University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB)
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)
• University of Florida (UF)
• University of Maryland, College Park
• University of Michigan
• University of Texas (UT-Austin)
• University of Virginia (UVA)
• University of Washington
• University of Wisconsin, Madison

The vast majority of public universities in the US are state schools. The only federal universities are the military academies, and municipal universities are only found in a handful of cities.