If a student at UA studies and works hard, he can get a fine education there. I've seen many of the grad students at my institution come from UA, and they do just as fine of a job as the ones that come from private schools, even Harvard.
That being said, UA is a state school, and as a result, admissions criteria aren't quite as rigid as what they are at ND, so a lot more kids who go to UA are going to fail out or drop out. It's all a matter of your work ethic at that point.
For that matter, most state schools can offer similar claims, although quite a few can't (South Carolina State University, Alabama State University, etc).