Radix_Lecti wrote:Can u shed some light on what city colleges in the States are compared to say, Texas State?
I'll try my best.
There are really probably three "tiers" of general, post-secondary education here, for undergraduate degrees.
1) Ivy League and cohorts, international acclaim
2) Public state and private colleges, national acclaim
3) Community colleges and trade schools (vocational), regional acclaim
Of course there is really a spectrum in all of this but this is just "in general" and mostly for fun. I'm very bored. In tier 1 you have decorated doctors at the fronts of their fields teaching students. In tier 2 you have less decorated (but still decorated) doctors teaching students. In tier 3 you have some doctors, some masters, and some purely experienced professionals teaching students.
In all of this is just an undergraduate degree, and so the material is rather standardized, and so the difference between tier 1 and tier 2 is, IMO, very little. Tier 3 is a bit different because it isn't trying to be a university, it's only trying to be the most practical in terms of cost:degree:job ratio, often they provide many 2-year degrees. They're strictly local.
The largest distinction comes, as gibson said, when one pursues a post-graduate degree. Here, specialty plays a larger role than before. Research aptitude, volume, experience, esteem, and prestige of specific departments is important. In the arts it's about working with accomplished, big name, modern artists and making connections. In the sciences it is about research laboratories, industry standing of professors, publishes, etc. Because these sorts of things breed positive feedback loops, specific post-graduate programs from specific universities are more established than their respective undergraduate fields. You're approaching the business of academia, of which the term "business" is not exaggerated.
That being said, a lot of these really great post-graduate programs come from a large majority of state schools. A master's degree in engineering from Washington, Texas A&M, Iowa State, Nebraska are all respected. Sure, it's no MIT, but the tier 1 universities are the exception, not the rule here. There is intense, international competition. Really, what you want is just a well respected department, of which there are many across the nation.
I actually know very little about this, it's not something I've looked into really. Perhaps @
Vinyanyérë can pitch in as he's been through both the undergraduate and post-graduate processes, each on opposite ends of the country no less!