Wisconsin has kids from every state and a lot of international students. I literally run into Wisconsin grads everywhere including random run ins on international vacations. There is a large East Coast presence and a lot of Jews. There is not a lot of African American diversity. The campus is beautiful and surrounded by lakes, trails, and the Capitol. Many of the programs are highly ranked. The business school churns out more Fortune 500 CEOs than any school, including Harvard. My husband is one of them. The football and sports scene is awesome.
Michigan is higher ranked but a pretty equal education. The campus is different but also has a great sports scene. |
Fine, then compare to Indiana and Purdue or Texas and Texas A&M, etc. The point is that Michigan has two massive and well-respected public universities, while Wisconsin has only one. |
The OP stated that both Texas AND Texas A&M had much larger endowments than Michigan. That was not accurate. TAM has a similar endowment to Michigan with many more campuses and students to educate. Furthermore, Texas has over 430,000 students on 14 campuses, a few bigger than most state flagships, using that same endowment. Michigan has only 3 campuses and less than 15% in comparison to the amount of students at UT. Ann Arbor also gets, by far, the largest share of the endowment proceeds. Here is a listing of the 4 largest public university endowments: Institution State Endowment[3] (billions USD - FY2022) University of Texas System Texas $42.668 Texas A&M University System[b] Texas $18.243 University of Michigan Michigan $17.347 University of California System[c] California $15.418 No public is close to the University of Texas system. |
The final score was 51-45. That’s not being crushed and the last time I looked, both teams had the same number of men on the field. Hyperbole is definitely your strong point. |
Michigan people are probably the wrong group to whom you want to brag about your lakes. |
A large part of both the UT system endowment and the A&M endowments can only be used by the "flagship" campus. |
This isn't about how endowment funds are distributed or used. The PP at 21:03 implied that Michigan's large endowment means it has the most satisfied students. As you and others have noted, the calculus of endowment size is considerably more complicated than that and impacted by a wide variety of factors, not the least of which is the average wealth of students who are admitted and choose to attend in the first place. A (slightly) better measure might be the alumni giving rate. Not surprisingly, that category is dominated by expensive private universities. The top public is neither Michigan or Wisconsin--it's William and Mary. https://news.wm.edu/2022/09/12/wm-remains-top-public-university-for-alumni-giving-in-u-s-news-rankings/ |
It simply means that Michigan’s graduates give back more to their Alma Mater than Wisconsin’s Nowhere did the OP say otherwise. They are similarly sized schools with a huge endowment difference. That’s it. |
My kid’s first day on campus we went to the university book store. There is a montage photo of student faces - hundreds of them - as you go down to the basement level. I was struck by the sea of whiteness. It really was startling. However, my kid has had a fantastic experience there, academically and socially. Madison is an awesome town! |
You seem dense. The endowment size alone could reflect endowment spending, investment performance, and business decisions made 50-100 years ago much more than recent alumni giving. Focusing on participate rates makes more sense. |
One could also argue that U of Michigan is in a failing state and needs to maintain a large endowment to account for declining public funds and declining state tax revenue, more so that its peer institutions, hence more fundraising efforts. Alumni are used as their ATM. |
What career or life goal do you think you can get from Michigan that you can’t get from Wisconsin? Who cares about their relative rankings. |
+ 1
Wisconsin is a great school. Might be easily on par with Michigan for STEM/Engineering. This thread actually reminded me to add Wisconsin to the list of universities that my kid should consider when he applies in a couple of years. |
You need to understand history to understand the disparity. UW was traditionally of the progressive era and tradition where public funding and investment by the government was a superseding or "wisconsin idea" - UM on the other hand made the decision relatively early to attract particularly Jews from out of state and out of state investment to suppliment the university. |
It’s expensive to get sued over pervert coaches and presidents. |