Does University of Michigan live up to the hype?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The University of Michigan/Ann Arbor has been assessed to be the best public university in the country outside California by US News, Forbes, the WSJ (actually, the WSJ ranked Michigan the best public university in the country, period), the Times of London, and the QS Best Global Universities rankings.

But DCUM's sophisticates chalk it up to "hype."

This site is unbelievable. And honestly an embarrassment to the DC area.

So embarrassing that you don’t live here and have never lived here but you spam this forum with your narrow-minded booster nonsense. Go copy and paste your homer talking points on College Confidential and Reddit.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:If you're loaded and really want the "M" sweatshirt/bumper sticker, then sure Michigan is worth $16K/year more than Wisconsin or IU, $20K/year more than UMN, $23K/year more than Iowa, $25K/year more than Georgia, or $27K/year more than Florida. (Since Michigan gives less "merit" aid than any of those other flagships, I guess there should be an "at least" before each of the preceding dollar figures.) Pretty expensive hoodie, though...

Yeah have heard the same from multiple OOS applicants - Michigan is very stingy with the discounts. Many are charged full price. A good friend's son with stellar HS record received a much better deal from a similarly ranked/regarded private school (20s in US News). That surprised me. I had been hearing for years of students getting the types of discounts you mention above for other public flagships that rank not far behind Michigan. I wonder how long Michigan can continue to charge that much of a premium. It doesn't make sense to me unless there is some specific benefit that Michigan is providing you which won't be the case for large majority of applicants. Several of these schools also have a more fun reputation than Michigan.

Benefits:

-top rated in just about every department and Major offering
-second to none alumni network
- among the strongest "school spirit" institutions in the world

Is it worth 16k/year more? Ask the 100,000 kids who apply every year who seem to think so.

Honestly, compared to Wisconsin (the $16K/year delta you reference), Michigan ties or loses (but it's close) on "school spirit" and ties or wins (but it's close) on alumni network--so call those two a wash--and ekes out a barely-perceptible edge in department rankings (#9 in aggregate compared to #13.1; Berkeley checks in at #2.1, FWIW -- https://publicuniversityhonors.com/rankings-academic-departments-private-elites-vs-publics/ ). Are those four ranking rungs worth it? I guess that's the $64,000 question.

Google says that UM grads average post-grad salary $10K+ than UW, so I can see that being an important data point for students.

Adjust for coat of living where they settle. Half of Michigan undergraduates are OOS.

40% of Wisconsin undergraduates are from out of state and there are about 6,000 more of them altogether then at Michigan, so the difference isn’t that great.

Also, just two years ago it was 50%. The 40% is also a record this year — the lowest in 20 years, per the website.

One also needs to remember that Wisconsin has tuition reciprocity with the state of Minnesota. A huge percentage of OOS undergrads hail from Minnesota who pay instate rates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Ann Arbor looks grimy and Rust Belt-ish with depressing energy.

You're an idiot, and a dangerous one. Far from being "Rust Belt-ish," over the past decade Ann Arbor's population grew at a faster rate than Charlotteville's or Santa Barbara's, or Princeton's or Providence or Boston's. And faster than the national average. Ann Arbor is one of Michigan's most properous communities, along with Grand Rapids and Oakland County, and it's not "rusty" since it was never really an industrial center to begin with. And incomes in Michigan are higher than in Florida and most of the Confederate states and most of northern New England and most of the Southwest and much of the Rockies.

You're stupid and provincial and arrogant. Smart DCUM readers looking for an excellent college shouldn't be swayed by your misinformation.

Ann Arbor isn’t Rust Belt-ish? So its entire water table isn’t slowly but surely being poisoned by a toxic plume?

https://www.wxyz.com/news/4-mile-contamination-plume-continues-to-move-toward-ann-arbors-primary-water-source

Its river isn’t poisoned with chemical spills?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/15/michigan-huron-river-chemical-spill

And many dangerous brownfield sites on and around Ann Arbor. Sounds pretty Rust Belt-ish to me.

https://localwiki.org/ann-arbor/Brownfields

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not sure why all the UM hate. It’s a great school. Look at the number of applicants, selectivity, and transfer rate. All suggest that students go there and love it. I don’t think the facilities are amazing. It’s really the people that make it great. So much school spirit. You may not feel that on an admissions tour. I suggest applicants talk to current students to get a sense of what it’s like being a student there.

Any school that some people get really excited about - and Michigan falls in that category - prompts a backlash on this website. You'd have to be naïve not to recognize that.

One of my kids recently got a graduate degree from Michigan. It was a very positive experience - lots of internship opportunities that turned into paid research jobs when he was in the program, and then multiple job offers with good salaries (in a field that one wouldn't necessarily associate with high salaries) in his second year. He picked Michigan because it had the best program in his field of study, and it delivered. We only visited AA for his graduation and it was what you'd expect - a big university that's clearly grown in fits and starts over time, in a college town that seemed like a great place to spend several years. We talked about retiring there to enjoy some of what a large university community has to offer - and it's definitely not an inexpensive area.

But overall if people choose to attack Michigan, we'd all shrug. Spouse and I have degrees from other schools that also regularly get attacked on this forum for different reasons, as does our other kid. It just kind of washes over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure why all the UM hate. It’s a great school. Look at the number of applicants, selectivity, and transfer rate. All suggest that students go there and love it. I don’t think the facilities are amazing. It’s really the people that make it great. So much school spirit. You may not feel that on an admissions tour. I suggest applicants talk to current students to get a sense of what it’s like being a student there.

Any school that some people get really excited about - and Michigan falls in that category - prompts a backlash on this website. You'd have to be naïve not to recognize that.

One of my kids recently got a graduate degree from Michigan. It was a very positive experience - lots of internship opportunities that turned into paid research jobs when he was in the program, and then multiple job offers with good salaries (in a field that one wouldn't necessarily associate with high salaries) in his second year. He picked Michigan because it had the best program in his field of study, and it delivered. We only visited AA for his graduation and it was what you'd expect - a big university that's clearly grown in fits and starts over time, in a college town that seemed like a great place to spend several years. We talked about retiring there to enjoy some of what a large university community has to offer - and it's definitely not an inexpensive area.

But overall if people choose to attack Michigan, we'd all shrug. Spouse and I have degrees from other schools that also regularly get attacked on this forum for different reasons, as does our other kid. It just kind of washes over.

You talked about retiring in Mid-Michigan? Sure, Jan. More thinly veiled homerism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The University of Michigan/Ann Arbor has been assessed to be the best public university in the country outside California by US News, Forbes, the WSJ (actually, the WSJ ranked Michigan the best public university in the country, period), the Times of London, and the QS Best Global Universities rankings.

But DCUM's sophisticates chalk it up to "hype."

This site is unbelievable. And honestly an embarrassment to the DC area.

When you factor in school spirit (ie success of varsity sports and alumni pride) then UM would likely rank higher than UCLA or Cal in terms of overall positivity.

[Anonymous]

Ann Arbor isn’t Rust Belt-ish? So its entire water table isn’t slowly but surely being poisoned by a toxic plume?

https://www.wxyz.com/news/4-mile-contamination-plu...nn-arbors-primary-water-source

Its river isn’t poisoned with chemical spills?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/15/mi...gan-huron-river-chemical-spill

You've got some weird obsession with trashing Ann Arbor with misleading factoids. Which are so easily rebutted that one supposes you're just doing a quick Google search

Clean Water Act violations happen, unfortunately, all over the country. If you look at the states with the most unsafe and hazardous drinking water, Michigan isn't in the top ten (notwithstanding Flint) - but states like California and Arizona and Florida and Georgia are, which suggests there's no particular connection to the so-called Rust Belt. https://www.multipure.com/purely-social/science/top-10-states-worst-public-water-ratings-united-states/

The chemical spill referenced in the Guardian article involves chromium six which is found in unsafe levels in drinking water of about 75% of the US population. And if you look at the prevalence map of chromium six sites https://www.ewg.org/interactive-maps/chromium6_contamination/map/ you'll see it's actually a problem in greater concentation in the South and Northeast and California than in the Great Lakes/"Rustbelt." What's especially ironic is that the Guardian article is that it calls the Huron River "popular for fishing and recreation" which seems to fly in the face of stupid "RustBelt-ish" characterizations here.

Pathetic. Keep this up and you'll just reinforce people's assumption that your resentment of Ann Arbor stems from rejection.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Ann Arbor isn’t Rust Belt-ish? So its entire water table isn’t slowly but surely being poisoned by a toxic plume?

https://www.wxyz.com/news/4-mile-contamination-plu...nn-arbors-primary-water-source

Its river isn’t poisoned with chemical spills?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/15/mi...gan-huron-river-chemical-spill

You've got some weird obsession with trashing Ann Arbor with misleading factoids. Which are so easily rebutted that one supposes you're just doing a quick Google search

Clean Water Act violations happen, unfortunately, all over the country. If you look at the states with the most unsafe and hazardous drinking water, Michigan isn't in the top ten (notwithstanding Flint) - but states like California and Arizona and Florida and Georgia are, which suggests there's no particular connection to the so-called Rust Belt. https://www.multipure.com/purely-social/science/top-10-states-worst-public-water-ratings-united-states/

The chemical spill referenced in the Guardian article involves chromium six which is found in unsafe levels in drinking water of about 75% of the US population. And if you look at the prevalence map of chromium six sites https://www.ewg.org/interactive-maps/chromium6_contamination/map/ you'll see it's actually a problem in greater concentation in the South and Northeast and California than in the Great Lakes/"Rustbelt." What's especially ironic is that the Guardian article is that it calls the Huron River "popular for fishing and recreation" which seems to fly in the face of stupid "RustBelt-ish" characterizations here.

Pathetic. Keep this up and you'll just reinforce people's assumption that your resentment of Ann Arbor stems from rejection.

Trashing? It’s a great state school. If you don’t mind going to college in the cold and dreary Rust Belt.

[Anonymous]

Look what city comes in at #8

https://money.usnews.com/money/retirement/slideshows/the-best-places-to-retire

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Ann Arbor isn’t Rust Belt-ish? So its entire water table isn’t slowly but surely being poisoned by a toxic plume?

https://www.wxyz.com/news/4-mile-contamination-plu...nn-arbors-primary-water-source

Its river isn’t poisoned with chemical spills?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/15/mi...gan-huron-river-chemical-spill

You've got some weird obsession with trashing Ann Arbor with misleading factoids. Which are so easily rebutted that one supposes you're just doing a quick Google search

Clean Water Act violations happen, unfortunately, all over the country. If you look at the states with the most unsafe and hazardous drinking water, Michigan isn't in the top ten (notwithstanding Flint) - but states like California and Arizona and Florida and Georgia are, which suggests there's no particular connection to the so-called Rust Belt. https://www.multipure.com/purely-social/science/top-10-states-worst-public-water-ratings-united-states/

The chemical spill referenced in the Guardian article involves chromium six which is found in unsafe levels in drinking water of about 75% of the US population. And if you look at the prevalence map of chromium six sites https://www.ewg.org/interactive-maps/chromium6_contamination/map/ you'll see it's actually a problem in greater concentation in the South and Northeast and California than in the Great Lakes/"Rustbelt." What's especially ironic is that the Guardian article is that it calls the Huron River "popular for fishing and recreation" which seems to fly in the face of stupid "RustBelt-ish" characterizations here.

Pathetic. Keep this up and you'll just reinforce people's assumption that your resentment of Ann Arbor stems from rejection.

You write just like this lady with like a 100,000 posts on College Confidential. Ironically she lives in Ann Arbor and her CC profile says she’s online right now. What are the odds. Oy vey, give it a rest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Look what city comes in at #8

https://money.usnews.com/money/retirement/slideshows/the-best-places-to-retire

You need to have your head examined if you plan on retiring anywhere in Michigan. I have a feeling that most of these UM shills have never lived in Michigan. The weather is horrific for about 8 months. It is absolutely dark and depressing. Summer there is great! Lake Michigan and Traverse city are awesome in the summer.

Yeah U of M has an awesome reputation. Is it worth it? I think that depends on your major. I know their engineering dept is highly regarded. Is it academically more rigorous than other school? Does anyone really know? Some of the highly ranked schools have graduation rates of over 90%. How difficult can it be if everyone is graduating? Anyway, great school but tough place to live for most people.

[Anonymous]

You write just like this lady with like a 100,000 posts on College Confidential. Ironically she lives in Ann Arbor and her CC profile says she’s online right now. What are the odds. Oy vey, give it a rest.

So clearly you can't rebut the points that your criticisms of Ann Arbor are silly and selective, but honestly you only dig yourself into a deeper hole by revealing that you also hang around College Confidential looking to see who's posting positive things there about Ann Arbor (which, btw, isn't me). You probably should get out and engage with real people more.

[Anonymous]

And many dangerous brownfield sites on and around Ann Arbor. Sounds pretty Rust Belt-ish to me.

https://localwiki.org/ann-arbor/Brownfields

Stop with the disinformation. Many of these are dead or repetitive links or sites of former dry cleaners.

[Anonymous]

Trashing? It’s a great state school. If you don’t mind going to college in the cold and dreary Rust Belt.

Not everyone's as fragile as you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

You write just like this lady with like a 100,000 posts on College Confidential. Ironically she lives in Ann Arbor and her CC profile says she’s online right now. What are the odds. Oy vey, give it a rest.

So clearly you can't rebut the points that your criticisms of Ann Arbor are silly and selective, but honestly you only dig yourself into a deeper hole by revealing that you also hang around College Confidential looking to see who's posting positive things there about Ann Arbor (which, btw, isn't me). You probably should get out and engage with real people more.

Your rambling defensive prose is distinct. A profile on another website shows a person with this same writing style as online right now. You've spammed and overshared for years across various websites. That oversharing makes zero references to Washington DC. You are a Michigan lifer. So why are you here? Lady, consider closing your laptop and going for a hike around "gorgeous" Ann Arbor. Be sure to bundle up and look out for potholes and crumbling sidewalks.