Does University of Michigan live up to the hype?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Therapy. Trust me, you’ll feel much better.

[Anonymous]

Michigan is full of stupid people. Hence, the high percentage of OOS students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Michigan is full of stupid people. Hence, the high percentage of OOS students.

+1. 40 years of brain drain. Most left are too poor to leave.

[Anonymous]

I thought DCUM LOVES Big Gretch tho

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it a good place for someone who doesn’t care at all about sports? Will they feel like an outsider?

It is so big there is something for everyone! I graduated from M the year we won the Rose Bowl and the NCAA tournament. I watched a total of 2 basketball games (1 in person and 1 on the TV) and went in person to a handful of football games. It left everyone I know baffled but I got to tell you, it worked for me. I loved the school, loved the experience, loved the “best of” professors, the fact that my peers were interesting and fun and that every band and politician would come through Ann Arbor. I loved the energy, the place literally throbs, the political awareness and social activism of much of the student body. The Daily was (is?) a top rate student newspaper and its journalists go on to write for nationally known papers. Peers went to grad schools all over the map and there is a public school swagger that is filled with pride. Plus it is in the mid west. You won’t find blue blood elitism there and yet you will find the best of the mid west. I graduated with solid grades, not top 10 percent of my class, I got a phenomenal education, met lifelong friends and it was worth every single penny. I wish I could do it again. It was awesome.

Thank you for this! This is the experience I want for my DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I’m not the PP but Ann Arbor is so nice, I can totally see it especially if you have a condo in Arizona for Dec - Feb I went to grad school there and I was just really fond of the town. It is gray and not particularly picturesque so I don’t know what it is but it’s just got a nice vibe. I’m not pushing UM for my kids undergrad because I think it’s too big for them but if that’s what a kid is looking for it offers that quintessential experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Old people like us care about warmer weather and sun. Kids who want to go to Michigan don’t give a rat’s ass about the weather.

When they are old they will look back and say, “how did we survive the cold there? Mabel, aren’t you glad we moved to Ft Myers?”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I’m not the PP but Ann Arbor is so nice, I can totally see it especially if you have a condo in Arizona for Dec - Feb I went to grad school there and I was just really fond of the town. It is gray and not particularly picturesque so I don’t know what it is but it’s just got a nice vibe. I’m not pushing UM for my kids undergrad because I think it’s too big for them but if that’s what a kid is looking for it offers that quintessential experience.

Unless you have grandkids there, pensioners are not randomly buying a $500k+ home in insular middle Michigan to live in landlocked Ann Arbor half the year with no friends or family. Chicago and coastal communities on Lake Michigan get randoms, not podunk northern college towns.

[Anonymous]

https://www.travelandleisure.com/trip-ideas/senior-travel/ann-arbor-michigan-best-place-to-retire-us

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I’m not the PP but Ann Arbor is so nice, I can totally see it especially if you have a condo in Arizona for Dec - Feb I went to grad school there and I was just really fond of the town. It is gray and not particularly picturesque so I don’t know what it is but it’s just got a nice vibe. I’m not pushing UM for my kids undergrad because I think it’s too big for them but if that’s what a kid is looking for it offers that quintessential experience.

Unless you have grandkids there, pensioners are not randomly buying a $500k+ home in insular middle Michigan to live in landlocked Ann Arbor half the year with no friends or family. Chicago and coastal communities on Lake Michigan get randoms, not podunk northern college towns.

My brother and his wife just bought a home, on a lake, near Ann Arbor. They are nearing retirement. The home was well over 500K and they have no family or friends in the area. By the way, she is an executive VP for a Fortune 500 company. They have been wanting to move back to the Ann Arbor area for years as they are both graduates of The University of Michigan and have always loved the area. They are moving FROM the Chicagoland area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://www.travelandleisure.com/trip-ideas/senior-travel/ann-arbor-michigan-best-place-to-retire-us

Just another positive article about Ann Arbor that flies in the face of ignorant naysayers.

[Anonymous]

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

Ann Arbor #8

[Anonymous]

and the first college town cited by AARP. Guess they didn't get the memo that no one would retire there.

https://www.aarp.org/retirement/planning-for-retirement/info-2016/ten-ideal-college-towns-for-retirement-photo.html#slide1

[Anonymous]

and Kiplinger puts it in the top ten too.

https://www.kiplinger.com/slideshow/retirement/t006-s002-great-college-towns-to-retire-to/index.html

The point here isn't that this is a site about retirement destinations -- college students are generally made of heartier stuff -- but that the Ann Arbor hate by someone on this thread is a personal opinion (or grudge) that's absolutely not a widely shared view.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Yeah, we did. Kid has been living in the Midwest for 7-8 years and prefers it to the DC area - more space and nicer people. And we definitely do not plan to stay in the DC area forever. But we did reflect on the fact that we were there in May and may not be as hearty as our kid.

Not sure what “homerism” is, but can assure you that your insults just make me feel a bit sorry for you. Obviously we don’t have complete insight into your psyche but there’s clearly been some serious damage there at some point.