Sean
“University of” schools, like University of Michigan, are usually focused on liberal arts and pure sciences. They have strong programs in law, medicine, and natural sciences. “State University” schools, like Michigan State University, are mostly land-grant university’s that focus on technical disciplines like math and engineering. “University of” schools are usually more prestiges than their “State University” counterpart, but not all of them.
Note: Land-grant is a term used for schools that were originally built on land granted to their state by the federal government in the late 1800’s for the purpose of building university’s to teach agriculture and mechanical engineering. Some other suffixes for “State University” are “Tech” (Virginia Tech) and “A&M” (Texas A&M).
