Quote Originally Posted by Blackjack View Post
Academically speaking no university is truly superior to another. It is simply a matter of people thinking, or being told one university, or form of higher education is superior to another. While community colleges may only offer an associates degree, the class loads and standards are often the same for that level of education.
I agree with a lot of what you say analyzing Mr. Ricks, but I have to disagree with the above. It is not true that all university educations are the same. The goals of the institution make huge differences on the quality of the education. Class size, instructional methods, resources for learning, lab equipment, size of the library, average age of the instructional staff and faculty, all of these things have huge impacts on the institution as a teaching institution.

It is great if a university has the next Einstein. If you can't take classes with them, or all classes are taught by second year grad students with English as a poor second language the instructional mission will fail. A community college with small class sizes and high quality instructional staff might be far superior to a research institution then.

Of course a small liberal arts University with teaching as a primary mission may provide a far superior learning environment to any public University.

There are wide and substantive gaps between University educations. A situation that vexes them terribly.