What is the difference between a private college or university and a public one?

Question

i know the difference between public and private elementary, middle, and high schools

those you have to pay to get into and you have to be accepted

public they take anyone based on their number of kids they can accept per year.

Im confused with the college thing though because you have to be accepted and pay to go to all of them anyways,

so Im not sure what it means

any help would be great!

also:

if you just happen to know anything about Marylhurst University near portland oregon that would be great,

because Ive been looking into it but I don't know if it's 100% right for me.

it is the only college I've found so far that has all three of my possible majors.

Answer 1

Private colleges and universities do not receive tax dollars. Public ones do.

Since private college don't receive tax dollars they are not required to operate by according to certain government rules on issues like religion, culture, diversity training, and being politically correct. Basically, they have more freedom to choose which classes are required and offered and rules for employees.

Best wishes.

Answer 2

Public Universities receive State Funds. Private Universities do not.

Typically, Private Universities are much more expensive. However, the quality of education and the level of individual attention is much higher at public schools. Usually (not always) public schools are much larger and are easier to get into than private schools.

I have attended both private and public schools (7 college/universities in all) and I have found the quality of education to be much higher at private schools. However, the private schools usually cost 3 times as much as the public (i.e. Mercer University (private) = $29,000 a year UGA (public = $8,000 a year).

Good Luck! I hope this helps

Answer 3

Private colleges are NOT owned by the people of the state/nation. They DO however benefit from tax dollars because when they are accredited, they are eligible to accept federal, state or local financial aid (loans, grants etc).

Answer 4

Private colleges are usually much more expensive and harder to get into.

For example, my local private school is 24,000 a year and my local public school goes from 2,000-8,000 a year.  

Answer 5

Public universities are those owned and operated by the State. For example University of South Dakota, University of California, University of Nevada at Las Vegas and University of Virginia are four examples of state ran universities. They are supported by the state's residents through taxes and revenue thereby keeping the cost of tuition down for residents of that state. The schools tend to have a large student population and offer a plethora of majors not to mention a lot of graduate degree opportunities.

Private Universities on the other hand are operated by a group. Typically you will see a faith run private universities. These schools tend to be more expensive due to the fact they have to find their own sources of funding and cannot rely on the State to fund them. Also the selection of majors and graduate programs can be limited. The advantage is they can attract higher quality of staff due to the fact their salaries are not a part of the state employee funding which means they can have a larger latitude in negotiating staff salaries, the classes can be smaller, and sometimes there are less students thus being a more intimate learning experience.  

Answer 6

I think everyone is agreed that private universities are more expensive. Yes, they are, but they also generally have a better educational system. Smaller class sizes, top of the line professors, and more admission requirements leading to a more dedicated student body (not always!) are some of the biggest reasons people choose a private school.

Have you looked at some of the other private schools in the Portland area? Pacific University and Linfield are two of the best (in the state, in my opinion). There's also Reed College, University of Portland and Lewis & Clark College. Portland State University, though not a private institution, is also a really great school.