Imagine paying money to be educated in Eugene.
What does one do as an Oregon resident though?
I generally think private schools and out of state tuition are a waste of money unless there is some slam dunk ROI and you've got @creepycoug kid's level academis prowess.
UW's surge in the academic world is largely a function of its QS world rankings, which focuses on a few variables that work well for Washington. But those same rankings tell me I should choose ASU over Dartmouth and has schools like Arizona pegged above schools like UVa or Vanderbilt; so, depending on who you are and what you value, that's either fubar or gold Jerry, gold.
UW is quite elite in some key areas, like comp. sci and biotech, and I'm proud of that as an alumnus. But as serious adult talk in the real world, outside of things like that, I don't think it matters. Haie has a lot of good fun with it, but the UW and UO history major are going to be treated pretty equally and you're not going to convince me anybody knows whether one received a better education than the other.
I also try and remember that it's harder to get into UO, OSU, WSU, UA and ASU now than it was for me to get into UW when I did, and a lot of the things that make UW stand out now were non-existent when I graduated. So for a lot of us, walking around with academis superiority boners makes about as much sense as it did for Jimmy Lake ... or Mahler himself, who tells Twatter that he didn't finish community college.
Turning it around: UW will typically trail (by a lot) Cal, UCLA and Michigan, and by less, Illinois, Wisky, UNC CH and UT. Hell, there are more than a few rankings (including US News) that has Florida ranked higher than UW. Do I think those schools are better, much less a lot better, than UW, or more ridiculously, that those kids are getting a better education than they would at UW? No, I don't.
It's suck-my-dick week. Which means everyone is on @haie alert and the fur and the feathers are flying.