anzacday

Listen,

I'm not saying that UM is a "bad" school. Clearly it isn't. Hell, my brother, my dad, my stepmother are all alumni!

My point is that the quality of the education is limited by the resources, which pale in comparison to those of private universities. To claim that, as one poster did, UM is a top five university is outrageous.

I know at least 50 students, currently enrolled at UM, all of whom I've had classes with in high school. They are simply not the brightest. The smart kids go out of state: Yale, Stanford, U Chicago, Williams-- they don't (and this is especially true now that all elite private universities/colleges meet 100% of demonstrated financial need) go to UM.

Even at Emory (which is also not a great school), where I was till very recently, the students were much more capable.

kelseyg

I think UM has great academics and is out there fighting the good fight for public school recognition. And I go to OSU. Yeah, I know how to separate sports from other aspects of my life.

I have met various UM affiliates (they may not even be alumni or undergrads) who have an arrogant, condescending attitude and like to make jokes about how everyone in Ohio (or indeed anyone who dare go to another public school) is a redneck idiot. My opinion of these people is obviously low (they're ridiculous), but I doubt they make up a sizeable percentage of Michigan students.

ElderCookies

Emory not a great school? You are a pretentious idiot.

barrons

Resources--lets check that. UM libraries around 9 million volumes. Way more than Chicago and Emory and Northwestern for starters. One of the five largest in the US.

UM art museum and other on campus museums--great and expanding.

U-M | Museum of Art (UMMA)

UM engineering labs--among the best anywhere.

UM bioscience buildings--new labs featured in AR

Architectural Record Building Types Study | Biomedical Science Research Building, University of Michigan

Sure the resources are lacking--the ones you used to form these silly opinions.

fa-la-la-lena

U of M is a great school, no doubt. BUT MSU is better, just because I'm going there :P

Its quite funny everytime I mention i'm going to Michigan state, people always assume its michigan. Oh, that's such a great school, they say, wolverines right? NOPE. Spartans. Michigan state. Green/white, not blue/gold. Once I point this out, they either go
1) Oh, they have a good basketball team! Kinda lame football team though
2) Oh. I don't recognize this school. *mutters and shakes head in disapproval* You should of applied to MIT or harvard. (99% of asian parents i meet)

So obviously it has a good reputation, overshadowing (IN REPUTATION) the other michigan school in practically everything (many special programs notwithstanding-international relations is nonexistent at u of m, while msu has the james madison college).

patlees88

After you called UMich undergrad 'trash'. Your bias against UMich is clearly demonstrated. Yeh, UMich undergrad, I agree, may not be as prestigious as Northwetern or other privates at undergrad level, but it still is a top 25 university...


With your standards, there would be only a handful of schools that would be considered to be good, then. Do you happen to attend HYPSM? Otherwise, I don't think you are qualified to come with blanket statements like the ones you've been writing.

holas999

UMich is a state school but it's like the #1 or #2 state school in the country. Therefore, in my opinion, I think it is viewed quite positively, although obviously not with the same name recognition as the ivies and some other top tier privates.

Tsukasa36

thanks guys. I realize that Michigan can't really be compared to private schools, but I just wanted your opinions. This is a wild thread... as for anzacday, obviously if you are attending Emory and now Rice, I am assuming that you are a liberal arts major, and I guess your hatred can be sourced from the fact that Michigan is underrated in their LSA college. Your point of view is exactly how people around me view U Michigan, as a big state college that is overrated. I was starting to believe it until this thread. Thanks guys, I can't wait to go to Michigan...

MidwestMom2Kids_

Whenever I hear University of Michigan I just think of that famous song of the Midwest, dating back to 1940 -

The Michigan Song


:-)

dilksy

Leave it to the Buckeyes to rhyme "damn" and "Michigan".

=P

rjkofnovi

LOL. Some Buckeyes are so obsessed with everything about U-M they even come to this board. A previous tOSU poster wanted to know why some Michigan alumni are arrogant. They aren't arrogant, they are just better than you. j/k ;-)

keefer

i think UM alumni's rumored arrogance is pretty true. I notice two other school alumni seem to exhibit similarly frequent behavior, upenn, and cornell. All the other schools? not so much. i don't know why exactly that is, it's just what i've encountered so far.

rjkofnovi

Perhaps it's because the graduates of these schools have to always defend their diplomas against other schools who are their peers. HYP, Stanford, and MIT are tops. They have the wow factor and have no real peers. Michigan, Cornell, Penn, and all of the rest of the top 25 schools have many peers (each other). I guarantee you that many graduates of the others have the same amount of "smugness." In Michigan's case the reason there seem to be so many "arrogant" alumni is because there are so many of them in the first place. I laugh when i read people stating that 68% of Michigan's students are from the state. That is true. I can also assure you that probably 75% of them are leaving the state after graduation. So the "arrogance" in numbers gets all over the country and world.

GoBlue81

Unlike you, these people might not be able to "separate sports from other aspects of (their lives)." This reminds me of someone named Woody...

kelseyg

Hmm. I'm not sure how to respond to these, but I think we should stick to talking about the topic: people's impressions of U of M. No need to take shots at me and my school when I feel I was giving honest, fair, and overall positive opinions.