gaotingting007

I was accepted by the two as a transfer student from China. And I want to know which one is more prestigious viewed in the States.Or from your point of view, whice one is better?
Maybe I'll choose finance or psychology in my future studies.
If you have any suggestions, please tell me. Thanks a million!

K9Leader

Both are fine institutions and highly-respected. It is not really possible to choose one as "more prestigious" than the other. You will probably get some responses that advocate one over the other, but those will mostly be based on personal preferences. For example, my gut reaction is to say UVa, but that is based on the fact that I am originally from Virginia, am more familiar with UVa, had many friends who attended and graduated there, and spent significant time there in my college days (I went to UVa's in-state rival, William & Mary) -- not really a valid basis for recommending one over the other.

Your two possible majors are pretty unrelated, and it sounds as though they are only vague possibilities so you could end up majoring in anything, so it is probably not possible for you to base a decision on strength of specific programs. You may want to focus on some of the factors where the two schools do differ. I believe that UVa is smaller (about 15,000 students? But check on the numbers) and that Charlottesville is more small-town than Ann Arbor (but, again, I've never been to Ann Arbor).

The only other thing I can add is that my cousin teaches in the biology department at Michigan. She specializes in Central American bats and the effect on their populations of the decimation of the rain forests. So, if you do go to Michigan and end up majoring in Central American bats, I can totally set you up.

Good luck -- I don't think that you can make a wrong decision here.

K9Leader

rjkofnovi

Michigan is ranked one or two in psychology and top five in business. They are peers, but i believe Mich. has a more well known international reputation.

FLVADAD

Good choices. However, if you choose to study Finance UVA's McIntyre School is phenomenal. State-of-the-art facilities, top reputation -- I think Business Week ranks them #2, just behind Wharton.

BerkeleySenior

This is a tough one as both are pretty much head-to-head academically. I'd say that while U Michigan-Ann Arbor is probably more renowned nationally--or at least on the West Coast-- UVA is more well known on the East Coast. I will admit that I have heard more about U Michigan's academic reputation than UVA's, but that's probably because I'm on the West Coast. Both are highly respected though so you can't go wrong either way!

rjkofnovi

Once again you live in China. I assume you are going back there after graduation. Ask people over there which school has a better reputation. From what i have read on CC, prestige is VERY important to asians. If it means the difference between getting a better job in China after graduation, you have to take that into account. Btw, Michigan's very highly ranked business school is opening up a new, state of the art, $150,000,000.00 building next year. Should be ready for you when you get there.

rjkofnovi

Michigan is very well known and respected on the east coast as well. Especially the northeast/mid atlantic area. In the southeast, where technically U-Va is located, Michigan might not be as highly respected. Nevertheless they are peers and both excellent top universities. I can't speak for U-Va, but i know Michigan has a large number of asians attending it. The president of the university was just in China recently. There is a long association between universities in China and U-Mich.

hawkette

In terms of prestige, it's six of one, half-dozen of the other....

The reality is that top students will do very well from either and you can have an exceptional experience from either. As public universities go, both take large numbers of out-of-state stuents (about 33% at each). Both have strong undergraduate programs across a wide range of fields and alumni of each feel passionately about their school.

For the record, in USNWR rankings dating back to 1991, U Virginia has ranked ahead of U Michigan in every year.

O B J E C T I V E D A T A

UNDERGRADUATE ENROLLMENT
U Virginia 14,676 U Michigan 25,555

% AND # OF STUDENTS WHO ARE IN-STATE
U Virginia 67% (9833) U Michigan 66% (16,866)

% OF FEMALE STUDENTS
U Virginia 57% U Michigan 52%

% OF WHITE/NON-HISPANIC STUDENTS
U Virginia 64% U Michigan 66%

% FROM PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS
U Virginia 77% U Michigan 80%

% OF STUDENTS IN GREEK LIFE (Male & Female)
U Virginia 30%/30% U Michigan 16%/15%

TOP MAJORS AT EACH SCHOOL (acc to collegeboard.com)
U Virginia 23% Social Sciences, 9% Engineering, 9% Psychology, 8% Business/Marketing, 7% History, 6% English, 5% Biology, 5% Foreign Language
U Michigan 17% Engineering, 16% Social Sciences, 8% Psychology, 6% Arts, 6% Biology, 6% Business/Marketing, 6% English,

IS & OOS COST (Tuition & Fees)
U Virginia $8,500 U Michigan $10,341
U Virginia $27,750 U Michigan $30,154

TOTAL COLLEGE ENDOWMENT AND PER CAPITA (undergrad and grad)
U Virginia $4.37bn ($180,163) U Michigan $7.09 bn ($172,746)

AVERAGE HIGH/LOW IN FEBRUARY
U Virginia 49/29 U Michigan 34/19


GRADUATION RATES
-% OF STUDENTS EXPECTED TO GRADUATE IN 6 YEARS:
U Virginia 88% U Michigan 83%
-% OF STUDENTS WHO DO GRADUATE IN 6 YEARS:
U Virginia 92% U Michigan 87%
-% OF STUDENTS WHO GRADUATE IN 4 YEARS:
U Virginia 84% U Michigan 70%
FRESHMAN RETENTION RATE
U Virginia 97% U Michigan 96%
USNWR GRADUATION & RETENTION RANK:
U Virginia 13th U Michigan 26th

FACULTY RESOURCES
-% OF CLASSES WITH <20 STUDENTS
U Virginia 49% U Michigan 45%
-% OF CLASSES WITH 50+ STUDENTS
U Virginia 15% U Michigan 17%
-FACULTY/STUDENT RATIO
U Virginia 15/1 U Michigan 15/1
USNWR FACULTY RESOURCES RANK
U Virginia 36th U Michigan 69th

STUDENT SELECTIVITY
-% ACCEPTANCE RATE
U Virginia 37% U Michigan 47%
-SAT/ACT RANGE (Middle 50%)
U Virginia 1220-1430 U Michigan 1210-1420
-% OF STUDENTS RANKING IN TOP 10% IN HS CLASS
U Virginia 88% U Michigan 90%
% OF STUDENTS WITH HS GPA > 3.75 (Unweighted)
U Virginia 86% U Michigan na
# OF NMS FINALISTS IN 2007 (% of student body)
U Virginia 38 (1.0%) U Michigan 62 (1.0%)
% OF STUDENTS SCORING 700+ ON SAT CRITICAL READING
U Virginia 31% U Michigan 21%
% OF STUDENTS SCORING 700+ ON SAT MATH
U Virginia 40% U Michigan 43%
% OF STUDENTS SCORING 30+ ON ACT
U Virginia 36% U Michigan 38%
USNWR SELECTIVITY RANK
U Virginia 26th U Michigan 23rd

USNWR FINANCIAL RESOURCES RANK
U Virginia 57th U Michigan 29th

ALUMNI GIVING %
U Virginia 25% U Michigan 17%
USNWR ALUMNI GIVING RANK
U Virginia 36th U Michigan 83rd


S U B J E C T I V E D A T A

PEER ASSESSMENT
U Virginia 4.3 U Michigan 4.5

MightyNick

Really? I thought UVA was better because it has a smaller undergrad population and higher median SAT scores. ;-)

barrons

Virginia's own consultants told them many of their depts are subpar. They get by to a large extent on good looks (campus), location, a few very good depts, and tradition.

http://media.gatewayva.com/cdp/pdf/WAG_Report.pdf

dilksy

Business Week also ranks Brigham Young's undergrad business school ahead of NYU... methinks they have a slightly flawed methodology, probably largely based on O B J E C T I V E B U T T O T A L L Y W O R T H L E S S D A T A

As far as psychology, Michigan has one of the best departments in the country. At the graduate level, Michigan is tied for 2nd, and Virginia is tied for 28th (tied with Michigan's combined program in education and psychology, apparently...). The one possible downside to doing psychology at Michigan is that it's one of the more popular majors. I'm really not sure if that has any noticeable effect on class size or anything like that.

hawkette

dilksy,
Not sure how much you know about BYU, but they have a terrific undergraduate business school. The academic elite detest places like BYU, so frankly it's always a surprise to me to see the school ranked highly. But employers know the reality of that school as they produce some terrific students who are intelligent, mature, ethical, team players, excellent work habits, etc. I'd probably also place them ahead of NYU for any field outside of finance (remember, the world of business is larger than Wall Street).

keefer

hawkette, i'm not sure how much you know about BYU.

barrons

Actually I have to back Hawkette on this. Many top firms like to recruit the cleancut types from BYU.

Menehune

i would def go with UVA jus because its much more undergrad based and Umich gets most of its rep off bein a great research institution. UVA is a majorly prep school though so if you dont like that scene, shy away, michigan also has better athletics (haha, sorry VT student). But honestly I would say UVA is prolly the more prestigious school, especially in the liberal areas, as it is clearly the best part of the school while at Umich you could be overshadowed by its engineering programs.

But before you choose a school, since these are very similar schools, I jus want to get my 2 cents in, haha. First off UVA is clearly goin for the nostalgic campus look, so buildings are older, the student body is extremely preppy, and the town of charlottesville is one of the greatest college towns in the US. Secondly Umich is a bigger school, more engineering based, not much to do around ann arbor except cheer for football, and the student body is much more diverse since its alot larger. Good luck wit ur choice though