Selection of the university is one of the most important life decisions among young people. With a continually rising assortment of educational options, future students look for institutions that will provide them a distinctive educational knowledge that they will keep in their minds for a lifetime. Also, students usually seek an educational program that will prepare them for a successful profession and that will provide them profitable employment. A lot of different factors heavily impact the decision whether to choose state university or a private one. This paper is focused on examining those factors, such as curriculum, quality and number of the staff, facilities, equipment, language of instruction, payments and fees and many others. Data for this study were collected though surveys of 303 examinees attending both private and state universities. The topic is important since the reasons why students choose one or the other option reveals a lot on their motives as well, which is, most often, extremely important for their development, quality and success, which is both a good indicator of the present quality and can influence the future representation of the university itself and, more important, heavily affects the quality of the society in general. The results of the survey can also help these institutions understand their strengths and weaknesses develop better marketing strategies, provide better conditions to their students and develop a constructive competition between these two types of institutions.