The Ultimate Quiz on the Best Public Colleges in Each State

If you study how people learn most effectively, you will discover that testing our recall is one the most effective methods. It does take energy and effort to do this, but the pathways being established in the brain when recall is required are stronger and more long-lasting than almost any other form of learning.

In short, this is not going to be an easy quiz. It will take effort. However, I am going to tell you the same thing I tell my students – if you want to look up the answers, that is fine with me. The work that goes in to finding the answers is just as significant as knowing the answers. You still have to put in effort to find the answers and in writing them down, you are building neural pathways. Plus, in a world when most of us can partner with Siri and Google to find the answer in seconds, there is really no need to memorize most facts. (I have friends who are doctors who tell me they literally watch Youtube for tips on approaches various common medical procedures that they have forgotten.)

Your “grading scale” is much more gracious than a traditional breakdown in which less than 60% would be failure. This is what I have created:

How to Evaluate Your Success on the Ultimate Flagship/Land Grant College Quiz

Your Score	Your “Grade”
100-120	You should be writing quizzes, not me. I am not worthy to give you quizzes!
80-99	Extraordinary – you must have passed the 10,000-hour threshold for a higher education expert
60-79	Over 50%?! You are well on your way to teaching graduate courses in higher education.
40-59	If you were a baseball player and scored this well (over .333), you would be earning well over $10M/year and have won the batting title in 2022!
20-39	You regularly read the Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, and/or some other higher education news sources. The average person on the street would not have done this well.
0-19	You may feel like the person learning exercise who feels inadequate and unsure of themselves. But remember this, 60% of US citizens don’t meet the recommended amount of daily exercise – you are doing more than them! It takes one step at a time to make it to the top of mountain!

1. Name three states and public universities which are neither the state’s flagship university nor the state’s land-grant institution but ranked as better than any other public university in the state?  (6 points) Hint – Two of the answers have the name of the state in their name.

#	Non-Flagship Nor Land Grant Ranked Highest in State	State
1	Colorado School of the Mines	CO
2	Georgia Tech	GA
3	Pittsburgh	PA

2. What are the 3 states where there is a land grant university ranked higher than the flagship university? (6 points) Hint – Two are in the southeastern US

#	Non-Flagship Ranked Higher than Flagship	Flagship University
1	Purdue	Indiana
2	Clemson	South Carolina
3	Auburn	Alabama

3. What are the names of the 4 universities that are land grant colleges and have A&M in their name? (4 points) Hint – 3 of the answers have the name of the state in their name

#	Public A&M University Names
1	Texas A&M
2	Alabama A&M
3	Florida A&M
4	Prairie View A&M

4. What is the second best ranked (US News) public college in each of these 7 states (after the #1 ranked university in 1^st column). (7 points) Hint: Your answer for all these will not include the state’s name in the university name.

#	State Flagship & Land Grant University	2nd Ranked Public University
1	Connecticut	Coast Guard Academy
2	Idaho	Boise State
3	Kentucky	U. of Louisville
4	New Hampshire	Keene State
5	Tennessee	U. of Memphis
6	West Virginia	Marshall
7	Wyoming	Laramie County Community College

5. Name the second best ranked (US News) public college in each of these 23 states (after the #1 ranked university in column 1)? (23 points)  1^st Hint: Your answer for each will include the name of the state in the university name. 2^nd Hint: 2 of your answers in column 1 are not 1^st in their state so they will be your answer in column 2

#	State Flagship & Land Grant University	2nd Ranked Public University
1	Alaska Fairbanks	Alaska Southeast
2	Arizona	Arizona State
3	Arkansas	Arkansas State
4	Cal Berkeley	UCLA
5	Delaware	Delaware State
6	Florida	Florida State
7	Georgia	Georgia
8	Hawaii Manoa	Hawaii Hilo
9	Illinois	Illinois Chicago
10	Louisiana St.	Louisiana Tech
11	Maine	Maine Maritime Academy
12	Maryland	Maryland Baltimore County
13	Massachusetts	Massachusetts Lowell
14	Minnesota	Minnesota Morris
15	Missouri	Missouri Institute of Science & Technology
16	Nebraska	Nebraska Omaha
17	Nevada Reno	Nevada Las Vegas
18	Rutgers (New Jersey)	New Jersey Institute of Technology
19	Ohio St.	Miami of Ohio
20	Penn St.	Penn State
21	Rhode Island	Rhode Island College
22	Vermont	Vermont Tech
23	Wisconsin	Wisconsin La Crosse

6. There are 18 states that have an HBCU (historically black college or university) which is designated as a land-grant institution for the state. How many of the public HBCU land grant colleges can you name? Alabama, has two answers for this question. (18 points)  Hint: 11 of the 19 answers below have the name of their state in their name.

#	States	Public HBCU Land Grant Name
1	Arkansas	Arkansas Pine Bluff
2	Delaware	Delaware State
3	Florida	Florida A&M
4	Georgia	Fort Valley State
5	Kentucky	Kentucky State
6	Louisiana St.	Southern
7	Maryland	Maryland Eastern Shore
8	Missouri	Lincoln
9	Ohio St.	Central State
10	Tennessee	Tennessee State
11	West Virginia	West Virginia State
12	Alabama	#1 – Alabama A&M                              #2 – Tuskegee
13	Mississippi	Alcorn State
14	North Carolina	North Carolina A&T
15	Oklahoma	Langston
16	South Carolina	South Carolina State
17	Texas	Prairie View A&M
18	Virginia	Virginia State

7. What are the 20 states where you can add the word “State” to the flagship institution’s name and have both the flagship and one of the land grant institutions?  (20 points) Big Hint – 6 of them will be HBCU Land Grant Colleges starting with the letters, D, K, S, T, V, W

#	Flagship	Land Grant
1	Colorado	Colorado State
2	Delaware	Delaware State (HBCU)
3	Iowa	Iowa State
4	Kansas	Kansas State
5	Kentucky	Kentucky State (HBCU)
6	Michigan	Michigan State
7	Mississippi	Mississippi State
8	Montana	Montana State
9	New Mexico	New Mexico State
10	North Carolina	North Carolina State
11	North Dakota	North Dakota State
12	Oklahoma	Oklahoma State
13	Oregon	Oregon State
14	South Carolina	South Carolina State (HBCU)
15	South Dakota	South Dakota State
16	Tennessee	Tennessee State (HBCU)
17	Utah	Utah State
18	Virginia	Virginia State (HBCU)
19	Washington	Washington State
20	West Virginia	West Virginia State (HBCU)

8. One of the toughest questions – How many of 6 states where the flagship and land grant institutions have different names and one of them does not have the word “State” in their name can you name? (13 points) Hint: If you know sports conferences, 5 of your 6 your answers are found here – 1 from the SEC, Big 10, & ACC, and 2 that that have one university in two different Power 5 Conferences. 2^nd Hint: For answer 6, the last state is not in any Power 5 Conferences and has 2 named flagship institutions (I don’t expect anyone to get this answer).

#	Flagship	Land Grant
1	Alabama	Auburn
2	South Carolina	Clemson
3	Indiana	Purdue
4	Virginia	Virginia Tech
5	Texas & Texas A&M	Texas A&M
6	#1 Buffalo  #2 Stony Brook	Cornell

9. What are the 16 states that have neither their flagship nor land grant institution in one of the Power 5 Athletic Conferences (69 teams from 34 states in SEC, Big 10, Big 12, Pac 12, & ACC)? (16 points) Hint: Don’t look in the southeast.

#	States
1	Alaska
2	Connecticut
3	Delaware
4	Hawaii
5	Idaho
6	Maine
7	Massachusetts
8	Montana
9	Nevada
10	New Hampshire
11	New Mexico
12	North Dakota
13	Rhode Island
14	South Dakota
15	Vermont
16	Wyoming

10. Miscellaneous Questions (6 points)

a. What is the only state that has designated a private university as the state land grant university?

New York – Cornell (1 point)

b. What is the only state that has designated a private land grant university, in addition to a public one?

    Massachusetts – MIT (1 point)

c. What is the only state where the public HBCU land grant is the state’s 2^nd best public college?

Delaware State (1 point)

d. What is the only land grant institution that uses “A&T” in its name instead of “A&M”?

North Carolina A&T (1 point)

e. What are two state flagship institutions that you can add the word “state” to them and have a Power 5 and top 30 largest colleges in the US but the university is not a flagship or land grant university?

Florida (State) and Arizona (State) (2 points)

f. What is the farthest northern land grant HBCU, in a state that is not classified as part of the South?  

Central State, Ohio (1 point)

Based on the number of questions you got correct, this is how you might evaluate your success.

How to Evaluate Your Success

Your Score	Your “Grade”
100-120	You should be writing quizzes, not me. I am not worthy to give you quizzes!
80-99	This is extraordinary – you have probably passed the 10,000 hour threshold for a higher education expert
60-79	Over 50%?! You are well on your way to teaching graduate courses in higher education.
40-59	If you were a baseball player and scored this well (over .333), you would be earning well over $10M/ year and actually have won the batting title in 2022!
20-39	You probably read the Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, or some other higher education news sources, the average person on the street would not have done this well.
0-19	You may feel like the person learning exercise regularly who feels inadequate and unsure of themselves. But remember this – 60% of US citizens don’t meet the recommended amount of daily exercise – you are doing more than them but make an effort! Baby steps are still steps!