Guide
How this site picks one flagship per state
This page lists one public university for each state. The roster is a hand list, because the Scorecard has no flagship field. Where a state has several public research universities, this page keeps the campus most one-campus lists use, and it leaves the others off on purpose.
New York's row is the University at Buffalo, not Stony Brook and not Albany. Ohio's row is Ohio State, not Ohio University. California's row is UC Berkeley, not UCLA. The table is alphabetical by state, then by name, which with one campus per state is an alphabetical tour of the states.
- Schools
- 50
- States
- 50
- Median admit rate
- 74%
- 49 report a rate
- Median earnings
- $63,419
- 10 years after entry
One campus, fifty states
Each slug was chosen as that state's flagship and then checked against the Scorecard. The list covers every state once. A second public university in the same state can be an excellent research university and still stay off this page.
Buffalo is also a SUNY campus. Berkeley is also a UC campus. Being the flagship does not remove a campus from its system list. The system pages answer a different question, and they are longer.
The campus that almost counted
People disagree about a few of these choices. That disagreement is why the page says the rule out loud. UCLA is a major public university and is not the California row on this list. Ohio University is a public university and is not Ohio State.
Private universities are off, including the Ivy League. A state's best-known campus is sometimes private. This page is not that campus. It is the public flagship slot.
Compare states, not systems
Use this list when you want one public campus from each state side by side. In-state sticker price is the right tuition column for that comparison, and it is the figure the price section uses. Net price still depends on aid.
Do not use this list when you want every public university in a state, or every campus in a system. The UC, CSU, SUNY, and CUNY pages exist for those questions. A flagship page that grew to include them would stop being a flagship page.
Not a research ranking
Many of these campuses are R1. Some states' flagships are not in that class. The flagship roster does not check Carnegie code. A state is not skipped because its public university has a smaller research profile.
Land-grant status is also a different idea. Some flagships are land-grant universities. Some land-grant universities are not the campus on this list. This page does not try to settle that second roster.
Where the schools are
These schools sit in 50 states. The largest groups are Alabama (1), Alaska (1), Arizona (1), Arkansas (1), and California (1). The rest of the roll is spread across the other states in the table.
Who runs them
Every school with a reported control is public. Control is the Scorecard field. It is not a judgment about quality.
Predominant degree is the credential the campus awards most often. On this list it is a bachelor's degree at 50 schools. A campus can still award other credentials.
How large they are
The largest undergraduate enrollments on this list are Ohio State University-Main Campus in Columbus, Ohio, with 45,638 undergraduates, The University of Texas at Austin in Austin, Texas, with 42,855 undergraduates, University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona, with 42,537 undergraduates, Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus in University Park, Pennsylvania, with 42,284 undergraduates, and Indiana University-Bloomington in Bloomington, Indiana, with 37,806 undergraduates. Enrollment is the undergraduate figure. It is not a ranking, and it leaves out graduate students.
Admission
49 of 50 schools report an admission rate. The median of those rates is 74%. Schools with no reported rate stay out of the median. A missing rate is not an open door, and it is not a closed one.
The lowest reported admission rates on this list are University of California-Berkeley in Berkeley, California, at 11%, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, at 15%, and University of Michigan-Ann Arbor in Ann Arbor, Michigan, at 16%. A lower rate is harder entry. It is not a score for the school.
The highest reported admission rates on this list are University of South Dakota in Vermillion, South Dakota, at 99%, University of Wyoming in Laramie, Wyoming, at 97%, and University of Maine in Orono, Maine, at 97%.
What they charge
Among 50 public colleges that report an in-state sticker price, the median is $12,162.
Sticker price is not net price. Grants, waivers, and a service commitment can move the bill by a wide margin. Open a school for the net-price figures.
Earnings and graduation
Among 50 schools that report earnings, the median of those school-level medians is $63,419. The clock starts at entry, not at graduation. The highest reported medians on this list are University of California-Berkeley in Berkeley, California, at $92,446, University of Virginia-Main Campus in Charlottesville, Virginia, at $86,863, and University of Michigan-Ann Arbor in Ann Arbor, Michigan, at $83,648.
Among 50 schools that report a graduation rate, the median rate is 75%. A blank rate is left out. It is not treated as zero.
Athletics in this file
49 report NCAA Division I athletics, 40 play FBS football, and 8 play FCS football. A blank athletics field means this file has no division for that campus. It does not prove the campus has no team.
Also on other lists
Some of these schools also meet the rule for another list on this site. The overlap is a second flag or a second classification. It is not a second ranking.
43 are also on R1 research universities. 7 are also on R2 research universities. 4 are also on Hispanic-serving institutions.
How these figures work
Admission rate, enrollment, sticker price, earnings, and graduation rate all come from the College Scorecard. Earnings are the median 10 years after a student entered the school. Tuition for a public college is the in-state sticker price. Tuition for a private college is the published sticker price. None of these is net price after aid.
A blank field stays blank. This page does not turn a blank admission rate into an open door, a blank fee into a free application, or a blank earnings figure into zero. The table above is membership under the rule in this guide. Sort order is not a quality ranking.