rjkofnovi

That may be true, as "evidenceD" by this thread.

Alexandre

Hehe. I love it! It is great to be part of a conference that has such spirited rivalries.

GoBlue81

Alex,
You should be honored that someone dedicated his/her 2nd post on this thread.

Alexandre

The honor goes to us all. Michigan has to be one of the most envied and hated university in the country. That can only be a reflection of its greatness! hehe!

Bring da ruckus

If they would be so kind to accept I would like to dedicate my second post, sans embarassing typo, to Alexandre and the University of Michigan. I don't hate Michigan and I agree that if you are hated you are probably doing somthing right and Michigan sure is doing somthing right. Michigan is a fantastic university, I just thought it was funny that there was a thread dedicated to telling me that. I don't have a conference rivalry and I usually cheer on the Wolverines whenever they are playing.

Alexandre

Bring da ruckus, this the Michigan forum. This thread was intended to allow students and alums to post likes and dislikes of the university. It is supposed to be good, clean and harmless fun. I am glad you have decided to join the fun and we all wish you (and all college applicants) all the best over the next 2-3 months. May your dream university come true!

kb10

i'm actually at times scared to display my Michigan decal sticker, because pretty much everybody hates us and I'm worried about the safety of my car.

GoBlue81

You only have to worry about that when you go south across the state line.

zenneth

Weaknesses from my three completed semesters here...

1.) North campus is across a river. Seriously.

2.) I think this is largely due to the timing but I've been in two engineering classes now that have been rather "experimental." This led to classes that were a little unstructured at first and led to a lot of unease among the students.

3.) GSIs do have some trouble speaking English but I also find that its these instructors that are the most eager to give help one on one during office hours or after class.

4.) I find the tuition system a little counter-intuitive. Juniors and seniors pay more? I'm a second-year student with junior standing so sadly I pay a few thousand more than my peers who came in without any advanced credit. I thought those AP classes were supposed to be good for me...damn.

5.) So I'm an engineer and I'm still bothered by what seems to be a pretty big disparity between the quality of the facilities for LSA students and...everyone else. The rooms in the buildings around the diag SUCK compared to Ross and the engin school. Yes they're older and dated but...they're also used by the majority of the undergrad population.

6.) North campus is across a river. Seriously.

Alexandre

All excellent points. LSA buildings (except for Chemistry and Economics) are due for some major renovation. I also never understood why upperclassmen pay higher tuition. I am not sure there is anything that can be done about GSIs being more eager to help undergrads. I think that's that case at any major research university.

ProudWolverine

"LSA buildings (except for Chemistry and Economics) are due for some major renovation."

Alexandre, Lorch hall needs to be renovated too.

DRMAN54

Financial Aid Statistics

* Full-time freshman enrollment: 5,739
* Number who applied for need-based aid: 3,514
* Number who were judged to have need: 2,853
* Number who were offered aid: 2,853
* Number who had full need met: 2,568

* Average percent of need met: 90%
* Average financial aid package: $8,959
* Average need-based loan: $6,623
* Average need-based scholarship or grant award: $7,737
* Average non-need based aid: $6,681
* Average indebtedness at graduation: $25,586

Percent of total undergraduate aid awarded as:

* Scholarships / grants: 58%
* Loans / jobs: 42%

I wish would've known this earlier. I haven't received my FA package yet, but my EFC is $0 and they reduce grants for every outside scholarship you receive. So basically your loans remain as high as possible, and so far all the FA packages I've been reading for people with higher EFC's are really bad.

Rapunzle

Hi All,
U of M has always been my first choice, and now that I've been accepted I keep hearing the same laments from people, that it's cut-throat competitive, Freshmen are on their own-sink or swim, and that they are put into gross dorms where one needs to take a bus onto campus. Help! I'm not asking to be spoon fed, but hey, I'd like to feel like something other than a number.

polydentate

Lol. There are only 2 (3 if you count Oxford) dorms from which you have to take a bus to get to Central. It's bad luck yes, but you can't help it.

Michigan is cut-throat competitive in all pre-med classes and calc classes. In the others, less so. Even though the environment is competitive, I've found most people to be helpful and collaborative.

It is a big school so you cannot expect much hand holding. A certain level of independence is required if you want to do well at this school. Having said that, there are tons of resources to help you out if you take the initiative to do so.

CCRunner123

Michigan isn't cutthroat in pre-med classes. Maybe in orgo, but once you get into the upper level classes, you become surrounded by people who are more interested in learning than they are about beating out the person sitting next to them.