Most Popular Public Universities on About.com College Admissions in 2012

With a lot of families still struggling financially, 2012 saw a lot of interest in public universities. Among the ten most popular college profiles on About.com in 2012, four were public universities. Only Harvard was more popular than UCLA this past year.

If we focus exclusively on public universities, the profiles of the schools below received more visits in 2012 than any others. Each of these universities has robust graduate and undergraduate programs, strong research facilities, and funding that comes in part from state taxpayers.

In order of popularity, the 10 most viewed public universities on About.com in 2012 were:

1. UCLA (Los Angeles, California)
2. UC Berkeley (Berkeley, California)
3. UNC Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, North Carolina)
4. University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, Michigan)
5. Penn State (University Park, Pennsylvania)
6. University of Virginia (Charlottesville, Virginia)
7. University of Texas Austin (Austin, Texas)
8. Georgia Tech (Atlanta, Georgia)
9. University of Florida (Gainesville, Florida)
10. University of Georgia (Athens, Georgia)

Click on the university's name to get more information, the acceptance rate, costs, test scores, and other admissions data.

The list has a few notable changes from last year (see the 2011 list of public universities). Texas A&M was bumped off the list by the University of Florida, and UCLA moved ahead of Berkeley and Chapel Hill to take the top spot.