What is a flagship university?

Key takeaways

• Flagship universities are public schools in the United States and are often the oldest and largest institutions in the state.
• These schools are classified as Doctoral Universities with high or very high research activity.
• Each state has at least one flagship university. Some states like New York, Indiana, and Texas have two or more.

Flagship universities are the public institutions that represent their state or state education system, often recognized for their outstanding academic and athletic programs. Each state has an unofficial or official flagship, usually the largest or oldest research university in its borders. Below we explain what makes a school a “flagship” and provide a list of the institutions often named so in each state.

What is a flagship university?

Flagship universities are seen as the “main” or “representative” campus within a state’s higher education system or the state itself. They’re public institutions that tend to be the oldest and largest. In the past, “flagship” simply referred to the first research university in the given state.

For example, the University of Alabama System consists of three institutions: University of Alabama (UA), University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), and University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH). The University of Alabama, founded in 1820 in Tuscaloosa, is the flagship.

Some states have more than one flagship. The State University of New York (SUNY) system of public colleges and universities consists of 64 campuses. Both the University at Buffalo and Stony Brook University are its flagships.

Flagships offer up to doctorate degrees and are classified as “very high research activity” or “high research activity.” They tend to have stellar academic and athletic programs, often competing in NCAA Division I athletics.

Flagship Universities in the US

Here’s a full list of many of the flagship universities within the United States, with at least one per state.

• • University of Alabama – Tuscaloosa, AL
  • University of Alaska Fairbanks – Fairbanks, AK
  • University of Arizona – Tucson, AZ
  • University of Arkansas – Fayetteville, AR
  • University of California, Berkeley – Berkeley, CA
  • University of Colorado Boulder – Boulder, CO
  • University of Connecticut – Storrs, CT
  • University of the District of Columbia – Washington, DC
  • University of Delaware – Newark, DE
  • University of Florida – Gainesville, FL
  • University of Georgia – Athens, GA
  • University of Hawaii at Manoa – Honolulu, HI
  • University of Idaho – Moscow, ID
  • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign – Champaign, IL
  • Indiana University Bloomington – Bloomington, IN
  • Purdue University – West Lafayette, IN
  • University of Iowa – Iowa City, IO
  • University of Kansas – Lawrence, KS
  • University of Kentucky – Lexington, KY
  • Louisiana State University – Baton Rouge, LA
  • University of Maine – Orono, ME
  • University of Maryland, College Park – College Park, MD
  • University of Massachusetts Amherst – Amherst, MA
  • University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, MI
  • University of Minnesota – Minneapolis, MN
  • University of Mississippi – Oxford, MS
  • University of Missouri – Columbia, MO
  • University of Montana – Missoula, MT
  • University of Nebraska Lincoln – Lincoln, NE
  • University of Nevada, Reno – Reno, NV
  • University of New Hampshire – Durham, NH
  • Rutgers University – New Brunswick, NJ
  • University of New Mexico – Albuquerque, NM
  • University at Buffalo – Buffalo, NY
  • Stony Brook University – Stony Brook, NY
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill – Chapel Hill, NC
  • University of North Dakota – Grand Forks, ND
  • Ohio State University – Columbus, OH
  • University of Oklahoma – Norman, OK
  • University of Oregon – Eugene, OR
  • Pennsylvania State University – University Park, PA
  • University of Rhode Island – Kingston, RI
  • University of South Carolina – Columbia, SC
  • University of South Dakota – Vermillion, SD
  • University of Tennessee – Knoxville, TN
  • Texas A&M University – College Station, TX
  •  University of Texas at Austin – Austin, TX
  • Texas Tech University – Lubbock, TX
  • University of Utah – Salt Lake City, UT
  • University of Vermont – Burlington, VT
  • University of Virginia – Charlottesville, VA
  • University of Washington – Seattle, WA
  • West Virginia University – Morgantown, WV
  • University of Wisconsin – Madison, WI
  • University of Wyoming – Laramie, WY

Flagship universities are some of the most well-recognized names in the country. Thinking of attending one? Use our College Match tool to start comparing them!