| interesting post vc08. thanks for being respectful. I respect your opinions too. But when I visited umich, I was taken to a bunch of lecture halls. No one really cared about me visiting there, evident by the lack of help that I received and the lack of literature I received post-acceptance. Meanwhile, at ND, numerous advisors just walked up to me and began talking to me. numerous random students and teachers all did the same. I sat in on a class: 20 students w/ a professor actively questioning the students. I could not get enough literature about how much advising they do, career center, etc. Each week, something else came in the mail from ND be it a course guide or a hand-written christmas card. On another class that I sat in on, the prof was asking students about when they would like to eat dinner at her house. At umich, all that happened was one lofty prof kept lecturing while TA's walked around the room. Umich sent me no literature about what advising programs they have, if they have any.
Private schools provide a much more personal experience, and, at the top privates, one can do research comparable at the ug. level to what one would be able to do at a top public. The rankings of specific programs is not as important as a ug. b/c as a ug. one is taking lots of general classes, not really getting into the specificity that separates a good grad school from a bad one. |