Pros and Cons to Private Universities

[meggied]

I was wondering if there were any pros or cons to attending a private university over a public university. I'm sure there are pros and cons to each specific school, but are there any over arching positive and negatives?

[TakeruK]

This is going to be very very very general. Note that every University, private or public, is really different so some may not apply to whichever school you are thinking of. I am going to assume that by private school, you mean things like Harvard, MIT, Yale, Caltech, Stanford, and not for-profit degree-mill schools! I am currently at a top-ranked private school but I have also been a student at public schools.

Pros:

1. Top-ranked private schools generally have a lot more funding and financial support for its researchers. I have not heard the response, "That would be great but we don't have funding for it" in the last 5 years when it comes to research. (Note: this is mostly because the most expensive things I ask for are computers and conference travel, my line of work doesn't cost very much! But even these things were tough to come by at my public grad school).

2. You are more likely to have funding for research and less TA requirements. (This could also be a con).

3. You have less reliance on federal/public/government grants, so your funding may be more secure even if the current government isn't supportive of your science (or of science in general).

4. If you are an international student, you don't cost the department more.

5. Your funding, your department's funding, your advisor's funding will come from private sources, which generally allow more freedom on what you do with it compared to public sources. For example, some schools have restrictions on reimbursing alcohol (either for events or for personal travel). Federal grants in my field often do not allow the purchase of computers, or, if they do, they require extensive inventory management. Most of the funds used for my research comes from my advisor's start-up grant and this is a private source so we can pretty much do whatever we want, within ethical boundaries of course.

6. Having the name brand of the private school can be helpful in searching for jobs or other opportunities.

Cons:

1. If you are hoping to teach/support under-privileged groups, you will find that most private schools have over-representation of the "upper class" students.

2. You are likely to be at a smaller campus and a smaller school.

3. Although private schools have fewer restrictions from government funding, the private money did also come from some people, who may or may not want to exert some control over the direction of the school.

 

[GunterFan]

4 hours ago, TakeruK said:

Cons:

1. If you are hoping to teach/support under-privileged groups, you will find that most private schools have over-representation of the "upper class" students.

 

For me, this was the 'worst' part of private university. The endless parade of the super-rich and the champagne socialists.   I got used to it, even if it made me uncomfortable. And I could tell that others were very uncomfortable.

[TakeruK]

21 minutes ago, GunterFan said:

For me, this was the 'worst' part of private university. The endless parade of the super-rich and the champagne socialists.   I got used to it, even if it made me uncomfortable. And I could tell that others were very uncomfortable.

I looked up my school on this NY Times interactive: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/01/18/upshot/some-colleges-have-more-students-from-the-top-1-percent-than-the-bottom-60.html?_r=0

My particular school wasn't as high up there as I had thought (in terms of what % of the school's population come from the top 1% families) but privileged families were still over-represented. As you said, you can also see it in the types of outreach that most of the faculty and campus supports---generally getting scientists to come teach and talk to local private elementary, middle and high schools. This is all very worthwhile stuff and I do some of it myself too. 

But, I want to also maximize my impact, so I also try to seek out opportunities to do outreach and volunteer to visit local communities and public schools that don't get as much attention from my university. TAing in our final year is optional in my program (provided there are enough TAs) so I asked for a non-TA year so that I can focus that teaching energy/time into volunteer work with local non-profits to enrich their science curricula. 

So, for those who are concerned about this part of private University, I just want to encourage/remind you that there are many other ways to make an impact outside of the school! Some schools are already better at this than others, but feel free to spend your time making an impact off campus too

[fuzzylogician]

For me, repeating some things that were already mentioned, the biggest pro is that there is money around. If you want to do something research-related, there will be a way to do it. There are just more events all around, it's easier to bring in speakers, organize talks and conferences, run experiments with fancy equipment -- really anything that requires funding. The biggest con is that it's at least much easier to live in a bubble. You don't have to, but you have to work at it if you want to connect with the local people or underprivileged populations where you live. Relatedly, you get less teaching experience and less diversity more generally. 

[meggied]

@TakeruK and @fuzzylogician Are either of you in grad school now? I could see how diversity would be somewhat limited at private universities, but is it also an issue in funded graduate programs?

[fuzzylogician]

I graduated with my PhD from a top private university a few years ago, and I'm teaching at another one now. 

[TakeruK]

12 minutes ago, meggied said:

@TakeruK and @fuzzylogician Are either of you in grad school now? I could see how diversity would be somewhat limited at private universities, but is it also an issue in funded graduate programs?

I'm in the last few months of my PhD at a top private University. Yes, there is a diversity issue at my school, for graduate students. I'm using diversity very generally here, but I mean it in almost every sense: there are overrepresentation of almost every majority group on my campus (gender, race, socioeconomic class, sexual identity etc.). 

[rising_star]

I would also add two more areas of difference:

1) The on-campus employment opportunities available to you. Public universities often have many more teaching opportunities available insofar as there are more departments, more students, and thus more potential TA positions. If you want to go into teaching, that matters. There's also often more opportunities for on-campus employment outside your department in areas like student affairs or residential life at public universities.

2) Town-gown relations. In many (though not all) cases, private universities have much more complicated town-gown relationships due to the "champagne socialists" and elite student dynamics others have already mentioned. I'd just add that these play out in all sorts of ways which may constrain your life/hobbies/pursuits, especially if said university is also in a small town. This can and does exist with public universities too but the relationship is often quite different, as many more people will have familiarity with or have attended the public university in town.