So basically they acredited everything you already had and granted you a degree? Fantastic! 
Almost everything. The credits had to confirm to the usual university requirements of so many hours this and so many that. The credits obtained through exams were to fulfill those requirements. Should I have bought a class ring?
Back to the OP, did I get a degree outside the two, University of ___, and ___ State University, system?
Well, New York doesn’t really have a “University of _" system, only a " State University” system, which is actually called the “State University of New York”. It looks like your diploma came directly from the State Education Department in its guise as USNY.
Sorta like Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.
There’s a rumor that if (when?) Rutgers combines with NJIT and UMDNJ, the whole shebang will be renamed the University of New Jersey. Not as cool as State University of New Jersey, if you ask me.
AcidKid writes:
> Didn’t attend a school. Took GREs, CLEP, DANTES, and had
> credits from other schools. Once I had enough credits and
> waited until class graduation (May) I was given the degree. It
> was a program offered through the military for people who
> could not met resident status (last 45 credits thing) that all
> other universites have. Some described it as a paper mill but I
> scored 98% on the Education GRE and was given -3 points for
> duplicating course work. I was offered a sociology and
> psycology degree but I liked the sound of “Liberal Studies,” not
> Liberal Arts but Liberal Studies.
What this sounds a lot like is the Open University in the U.K., a national program which doesn’t have any classrooms or faculty of its own, but which awards university degrees. They use other university’s courses and do courses on T.V. I don’t know how it works exactly, but I think it’s somewhat like the University of the State of New York, if I understand what you’re saying.
Actually, the New York State SUNY system does have two tiers, as it seemed Polycarp was about to say (I thought).
There are the ‘University at’ schools (Stony Brook, Buffalo, Albany, Binghamton, and most recently New Paltz) and the ‘State University College’ schools, which, other than Oneonta, I can’t think of the names of. The acedemic and entrance standards are higher at the Universities than the colleges, but I believe the per-credit tuition is the same.
Isn’t ‘The University of the State of New York’ where Felicity went?
No, Felicity in the program of that name went to New York University, which is a private university in New York City.
The University of Georgia was founded in the late 1700s. Georgia State University started out as the night school version of Georgia Institute of Technology in the early 20th century. As time and circumstances changed so did the name of the university until it was finally named Georgia State University. Most GSU alumni think of themselves as the better educated group and the UGA folks as the party school kids. You pay more bucks to go to the U of GA, you tend to be almost a decade younger, and you party a lot. The GSU folks tend to be ‘serious’ learners who are working while attending college. It is a great urban university. It’s probably obvious that I went to GSU. My guess is someone from UGA would have a different take on which school is better.
I can’t help what you people in New York and California do, but out here in the Midwest the only rule seems to be that the earliest founded public university is “the University of (your state’s name here),” while the next one is “(your state’s name here) State University.” In Iowa there is little difference between the academic rigor and admission standards at the two schools although one may have programs that the other does not. Some states, like Wisconsin, have one system and several campuses–thus the U of W at Plattville.
What does get confusing is every once in a while they change the names. When I was in school we had:
The State University of Iowa
Iowa State University
Iowa State Teachers College
then the names were changed to:
The University of Iowa
Iowa State University
The University of Northern Iowa.
While Iowa State was originally set up as an A&M, and has the veterinary medicine school and the ag school and the larger engineering school, the days of an academic distinction between the two are long past. All three are in the same system supervised by a single board of regents although each has its our separate administration.
We at least have not followed Ohio’s lead and have not tried to enhance one or another of the universities by calling it THE University of …
The Rutgers name will be retained. A few years ago, there was a proposal for a name change to the State University of New Jersey and dropping Rutgers. That was roundly booed at and the sanity of the proposer questioned. When the idea of a merge came up, the name question was one of the first addressed. The name Rutgers will be someplace (and how could we loose the infamous RU screw?)
(I don’t think the merge is going to happen, at least not at the moment. Rutgers had a 7% cut in funding last year and is facing a 12% cut this year. Here in the entomology department, we’ve got to find about $30,000 to give back Given that the merge barely considered NJIT, didn’t touch on Rutger’s land-grant college [Cook], the business, liberal arts nor law schools, and will be expensive as hell, nor did they consider the current active participation between UMDNJ and Rutgers, I don’t think this is going to happen soon. A better plan needs to come down the turnpike. Or at least Route 1.)
The Morrill act gave each state land for the establishment of agricultural and mechanical colleges, in Ohio it is called Ohio State
Sorry, ChrystinP, but the very fact that GSU is considered an “urban-commuter” school makes it have a lower reputation than UGA. UGA has more resources to work with and “bigger” faculty names. Also, just everybody and their momma goes to UGA straight from high school. GSU tends to be the school everyone goes to when they wash out of other schools. I think people very unfairly tend to view GSU as just a couple of steps above a community college, but then again it IS less selective than UGA. Comparisons between graduate schools may be different, though.
While both are good schools, Georgia Tech is superior to all. 
brachyrhynchos, that’s good to know (about the merger).
Along the same lines of the original question but slightly different, why are some schools “University of <state x>” and others “<state x> University”?