Tsukasa36

Where I live, (South Jersey) people do not see University of Michigan as a prestigious institute. I show them the rankings and they simply ignore it and argue that smaller schools such as Lehigh, BC, and NYU are superior in many aspects. I just want an opinion on how University of Michigan is viewed by others against the universities mentioned overall. I know in Engineering in U Michigan is superior to all of them, but in general, how do people perceive University of Michigan?

Wneckid99

no umich is pretty well regarded academically

also its just a place that everyone at my school applies to both because its rolling decision and because its got great athletics academics etc

tulsadem

It's a solid school regardless of what people around you say. Jersey is way too college obsessed (I used to live there) and I think you'll start to drive yourself crazy if you start scrutinizing Michigan's prestige since it's one of the best (if not the best) state school in the country.

Wneckid99

and NYU isnt really smaller than Umich- undergrad i guess and nyu is city so it doesnt seem like there are so many kids but there are so many at NYU and BC isnt small either

Erin's Dad

UMich is particularly well regarded in my area (OH) for engineering.

MightyNick

What are you talking about? I'm from Jersey too and UM holds more prestige than BC or Lehigh.

hawkette

Tsukasa,
U Michigan is a fine state university with a strong student population that qualitatively ranks very closely to the colleges you mention-Lehigh, BC, NYU. I wouldn't get too hung up on its prestige unless you are interested in a career in academia where U Michigan's name is very strong. The school is known best for its strong graduate programs, but otherwise, it is generally accepted as one of the top 5-6 public undergraduate universities in the country (the others are U Virginia, UC Berkeley, UCLA, U North Carolina, and W&M).

MightyNick

It ranks better than Lehigh and BC. It's a much better school than those two. However, NYU and Michigan are about equally, reputation wise.

keefer

hawkette, i think you are now officially a Michigan-Hater.

You went to a public-status college yourself, never attended any of the private schools you root for, do you feel inadequately educated or something?

Alexandre

I am not surrpised. With the exception of Harvard and maybe Princeton and Yale, all universities are, to an extant, regional. And each region has its biases. This said, there are roughly 700 Michigan undergrads who hail from New Jersey, so obviously, Michigan has an ok reputation, even in some corners of the East coast, particularly in NYC and DC.

binghamtonrocks

Lehigh is a liberal arts college, right?..so I don't think anyone should really compare lacs to research universities. Academically, NYU, UMich, and BC are pretty equal...NYU probably gets a slight lead. But, if you want to do engineering and those are your choices, then def. go with UMich. They have one of the best engineering programs in the country.

rjkofnovi

Michigan has a HUGE population of students from the NE. I really think your impression is uncommon. It might be that way because the state schools of NJ are not that highly ranked. Perhaps that's why some people in south Jersey assume Michigan is not very prestigious. Also i have never seen a rating where NYU was placed better overall than U-M. By the way, are you foreign? Just curious.

hawkette

keefer,
I like U Michigan and think it is one of the top public universities in the country. Based on the reported data, it has a strong student body that, when measured as a whole, ranks with some very good private colleges that I happen to hold in high regard (BC, Lehigh, NYU).

How does that qualify me as a U Michigan-hater?

binghamtonrocks

Alexandre, no offense, but schools of UMich's caliber are national universities, not regional ones. Very rarely will you encounter an educated person in the US, namely an employer or a graduate school admissions officer, who will not recognize a school of UMich's caliber as an exceptional academic institution.

Now, if you want to talk international repuation, then that's a different story. But, even so, there are a lot more universities in the US that are internationally regarded than just HYP... (Stanford, MIT, Columbia, Cornell, UPenn, NYU, Georgetown, UChicago, UC Berkeley, UCLA....the list is pretty much endless).

danas

Thumped far too often by Ohio State.