When it comes to college admissions, it seems like private, “elite” schools get all the attention. The Ivy League schools, Stanford, M.I.T., University of Chicago, places like that. But almost three fourths of U.S. college students are at public institutions, not private ones.

A while back I asked a question on my personal Facebook page:

Plenty of public education advocates—including myself—think nothing of sending their children to private universities. I’ve heard none of the arguments for keeping all children in public schools used for keeping all young adults in public colleges. I wonder why that is? Do you have any thoughts on our different attitude when it comes to higher education? Let me know!

One of the responses I got, which I wasn’t expecting, is that a lot of people probably don’t fully understand the difference between public and private universities. It’s not always easy to tell the difference (more on that below). Both are expensive and difficult, and neither guarantees you admission, much less success. So let’s talk about public colleges and universities.