Is Michigan weak in any way? - Page 2

dstark · 01-10-2005, 12:19 PM

Alexandre, I think the advising at Michigan leaves comes up a little short.
They have advisors everywhere, but the students have to seek them out. If the students don't, then there really isn't much advising.
My daughter changed her classes and nobody knows.
The weather also, sucks.
Overall, my daughter thinks the school is great.

dstark · 01-10-2005, 12:21 PM

Alexandre, I think the advising at Michigan leaves comes up a little short.
They have advisors everywhere, but the students have to seek them out. If the students don't, then there really isn't much advising.
My daughter changed her classes and nobody knows.
The weather sucks.
Overall, my daughter thinks the school is great.

GoBlue81 · 01-10-2005, 02:34 PM

The Hill Auditorium is one of the best concert halls in the country. The U-M Men's Glee Club is the second oldest collegiate chorus in the United States (founded in 1859), and certainly one of the best. Now we also have the Women's Glee Club.

The very popular Summer Art (Street) Fair originated from Ann Arbor, and now it is everywhere.

U-M's Architecture school is ranked #11 in USNWR (1999). It's ranked 7th to 15th in most of the architecture polls.

Alexandre · 01-11-2005, 12:31 AM

Lucifer, I agree. Michigan needs to improve its status in the Sciences and do something about having Novel Prize winners work on campus. That will not necessarily improve the university, but it will improve its image. There is no reason Michigan cannot be as good in the Sciences as it is in the Humanities or the Social Sciences. As it stands, the Sciences are good (Michigan is ranked close to the top 10 in Computer Sciences, Biology and Physics and in the top 10 in Mathematics and Geology), but compared to the Humanities or the Social Sciences, we are lacking.

DStark, I agree about advising at Michigan. We lag in that department too. There is no reason we cannot improve here. We should develop a system that is more effective and proactive.

Keep 'em coming folks. Not everything about Michigan is good.

esrajay · 01-11-2005, 02:09 AM

1. Weather
2. Financial Aid
3. Too many from the state of Michigan.
4. Too big (its weakness can also be its strength)
5. Competitive - All people care about are grades.

Alexandre · 01-11-2005, 02:25 AM

You know Esrajay, Michigan's size is actually its main weakness. If Michigan's freshmen class were 4,000 rather than 6,000, all of its problems would be solved.

When I joined Michigan in 1992, my Freshman class had well under 5,000 freshmen. Today, Michigan has a Freshman class of 6,000+. That's ridiculous when you take three factors into consideration:

1) The population of the state of Michigan is contracting, not expanding. It has gone from well over 10 million in the late 80s to well under 10 million in 2004.

2) State funding to the University has steadily declined over the last 3 or 4 years.

3) At 4,000 students per class, Michigan is already HUGE!!! Why have a class of 6,000?!

This reduction in size would have to be occur slowly but steadily (over the course of 4 or 5 years), with the aim to return to a class size of 4,000, primarily by reducing the number of in-state students from 4,000 Freshmen to 2,000 Freshmen.

Afterall, state funding is so low, we really should not have more than a 50% in-state student body. And that would solve your #3 and #4 issues with the university.

It would also make Michigan far more selective. Finally, given our resources, we would be able to give our students the best possible education.

hoedown · 01-11-2005, 11:33 AM

Well, before you slam Michigan for having such a big class, recall that they didn't want that many freshmen, either. Yields last year were unprecendented. I think the "Why have a class that big" question seems argumentative under the circumstances.

Alexandre · 01-11-2005, 11:43 AM

That's true Hoedown, but Michigan still has classes over 5,300 year-in, year-out. Michigan should become smaller, not bigger. We have way too many students for our own good. Look at Cal. They have fewer than 4,000 freshmen each year, and Cal is in a state with 4 times the population of Michigan. Granted, Cal has huge transfer classes, something I would never want Michigan to have. But I still think that Michigan should aim for classes between 3,800 and 4,200. Anything over 4,500 is too much if you ask me.

lucifer · 01-11-2005, 12:49 PM

There are varieties of ranks in the world. The important is the contribution to the world. That is why UMich is not as excellent as its rank in my mind.

rhunter2007 · 06-11-2006, 12:24 AM

Actually, as far as sports records go, Kenyon College swimming holds the record for the most national championships won in any sport, any division, with 27 national champions...oh yeah, in a row....

WS17 · 06-11-2006, 01:07 AM

Weaknesses: class size, use of TAs, impersonal/lack of attention/difficulty getting to know profs, OOS tuition too high, rate of increase in tuition out of control, split campuses, too difficult to change programs- eg business.

A2Wolves6 · 06-11-2006, 01:18 AM

They are weak in the attractive females department.

Alexandre · 06-11-2006, 02:24 AM

A2Wolves, not that it matters, but I never had trouble dating highly intelligent, fun and attractive women when I was at Michigan.

WS, class size and use of TAs are no different at any of the country's top researc universities. Classes are just as large and TAs just as used at Cornell and Harvard as they are at Michigan. As for Michigan's OOS tuition, it is indeed high, but a bargain compared to its peers (the Ivy League, Chicago, Duke, Georgetown, MIT, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Stanford, Vanderbilt, Washington University etc....). Finally, it is not difficult changing programs. All a student needs to do is prove to be worthy. Obviously, a student with a 2.3 GPA in the college LSA cannot transfer into the Co llege of Engineering or hope to get into the B school. But if a 3.0 student with a 3.3+ science GPA wishes to transfer from the school of LSA to the CoE, it is pretty much a done deal. Getting into the B school is always difficult, at any of the top 3 or 4 Business schools in the nation. Ross is no different.

wolverineFromChi · 06-11-2006, 02:41 AM

Only school with an alumni chapter on the moon

dilksy · 06-11-2006, 02:59 AM

Since when was having a good swimming program for a division 3 school any kinda of criteria for picking a school, other than for swimmers who aren't able to get a scholarship in D1?

I personally like the fact that I don't have advisors hassling me all the time. I'm pretty sure if I talked to a general LSA advisor about my current schedule, they'd think I'm crazy. Maybe its just because my high school was set up rather crappily, but IME advisors tend to get in the way of what I want to do more than they help.