@Knowsstuff Thanks for the advice. True to your name, you do know stuff 
Hoping these direct links will work
CWUR https://cwur.org/2017/subjects.php#Communication (yes itâs from 2017)
Shanghai http://www.shanghairanking.com/Shanghairanking-Subject-Rankings/communication.html
With my kid at Michigan and active on the Michigan thread itâs hard for me to admit that Ohio State would rank higher academically in anything compared to Michigan ?.
Saying that, I already posted the link up thread. Michigan revamped their comm department 2019. Give them a year or two to catch up⊠LolâŠ
In reality, none of this really matters. Itâs the culture of the school /fit etc. Any school can be number 1 in âxâ but if you donât like the atmosphere
/fit then it really doesnât matter. You want the student to excel where they land. Donât really think students are getting better jobs at Ohio compare to MSU or Michigan. They all are getting good jobs.
But in this example OSU is more similar to MSU then Michigan especially academically. That is not a slight at all. Love MSU and know graduates in Comm with great jobs like my niece. But itâs a totally different culture and type of students that go there (she was accepted to both but had a free ride at MSU). Many will get accepted to the same companies and work side by side even with kids from no name schools.
âDonât really think students are getting better jobs at Ohio compare to MSU or Michigan. They all are getting good jobs.â
Yes they can all get a good job. But I think itâs just plain wrong not to acknowledge that U Mich gives them MORE opportunities for that job nationwide . My daughter has worked for 2 large companies based in the East coast. They recruit and hire from Mich and They are open to any major. They simply donât hire at the other schools. My Chicago based financial clients who hire from top schools include UMich. Not Ohio State or Michigan State. Michigan has more cache across the country. It just does.
@maya54. Totally agree and my kids at Michigan
Just trying not to be too biased, at least from me. I agree 100 % with what you say. Living in Chicago and a son applying for summer engineering internships that is good to know⊠LolâŠ
If it were my kid, Iâd try to steer him or her to Michigan. Will someone get a better job or be more likely to get into grad school with a degree from Michigan vs the others?? Who knows.? Personally, I think Michigan would open more doors, but I also think that fit is really important. If a kid doesnât see himself or herself thriving at X University, then itâs not the school to attend. Iâm a Michigan alum and a Midwesterner who has lived in the Northeast for 30+ years. Both my kids visited Ann Arbor when they were looking at colleges, but nothing clicked for either one. I think they were probably being short-sighted and influenced by their peers who were almost exclusively looking at schools in the Northeast.
Just like @Knowsstuff Iâm attempting to be fair and balanced, since I do have a kid attending UMich. Weâre from CA, so Ohio State and Michigan State just arenât on the radar out here. In our area of Silicon Valley, UMich is recognized as being a âtippy-topâ university. There are many UMich alums out here.
Just an anecdote, but a new member joined my small gym. Heâs an OSU grad working in tech out here. He mentioned in our conversations that he rarely sees OSU alums out here in the SF Bay Area.
Hereâs a stat from the CDSâs, which is/was important to me when we were looking at colleges:
Student-teacher ratio:
OSU 19:1
MSU 16.3:1
UMich 15:1
When we visited Ann Arbor, we thought it was the âbest thing since sliced bread.â Sure, itâs got almost 30,000 undergrads, but the campus and town didnât feel that way to us. Both campus and town have a small town atmosphere. Iâm a runner and have run the bulk of the town in many directions and itâs just a cute quaint town IMO.
OK, I failed at being fair and balanced. 
@sushiritto Youâre just are anti-OSU because you have a kid at UMichâŠ
But is all seriousness, UMichigan may be a better at getting jobs outside of the major, because it has a somewhat better overall reputation (even among the majority of the population who donât obsessively follow university rankings). However, it also depends on where one is looking for jobs, since OSU has a very large number of graduates who are seriously into their Alma Mater.
Within the major, I donât think it will make a difference. Moreover, any advantage that UMich would have over either of the other two in employment will be far outweighed by the financial advantage of a full ride.
PS. I think that Columbus > East Lansing > Ann Arbor, but I also spent too many years in âquaint campus townsâ, and am too familiar with all the downsides of these places.
from a purely academic standpoint, and a degree that will travel far and wide, Ann Arbor, the quintessential college town, is the answer. But that is only if all choices were at sticker.
OTOH, other, ânearly as good Unisâ, being available for free is a no-brainer. (Unless the 'rents can easily pay full freight without hindering retirement.)
With so many rankings out there (university wise or major wise), which one is the most accurate of them all/the one you trust the most? I know of CWUR/QS/Shanghai/Niche , not sure how they rank. May be there are others that are more accurate. I understand the rankings may not mean anything after all but something to compare to get an idea. Thanks.
I am not going to be biased here. OSU is better than Michigan and Michigan State. Ok all kidding aside. As far as overall reputation and selectivity, Michigan is up there with the top schools in the country, but It is not up there with the Harvards or Princetons of the world. It is a very selective school and it is one of the top public universities in the country. But is it $120K better? I think that if you are one of those students who will shine no matter where you go, then why not take the full ride. That is a lot of money. The education will be about the same at all these schools. Both Michigan State and OSU are a tier below Michigan. But the cultures are very different at all these schools. Having said that, if money IS NOT an issue at all then Michigan will be a great choice.
The only really important ranking is the one your kid does.
Michigan will open more doors, for sure. Whether itâs worth the difference, if your student gets a full ride to one of the others, depends on your financial situation. If you can afford the difference without a threat to any other childrenâs college opportunities or to your retirement, it could well be worth it, and then you and your student would want to consider fit compared to the others. If saving money is paramount, then the full ride would be the choice.
You mentioned that you are down to these three colleges. Does your student also have a separate safety, or is one of these a safety for your student based on their stats / Naviance / guidance counselorâs review? Every student needs to have a safety.
Thanks for the input. Yes, we can afford Michigan without major issues. But the thought of saving even that $120K, in case of a full ride at MSU or tOSU, is tempting. But if the $120K Michigan degree is definitely worth it over the long run for the kid in job opportunities/grad school etc. as you seem to suggest, probably thatâs the route weâll go.
Kid got admitted to another universities (Purdue etc.) but we are only looking at these 3 universities for now.
Ah, I thought you were talking about the student applying next year, not that theyâd already applied and been accepted. Gotcha.
Itâs hard to be absolutely sure that the difference will be worth it monetarily - if by that you mean whether the student will end up earning that much more with the Michigan degree. It will be a boost for job opportunities, certainly (summer internships and post-grad opportunities), but itâs hard to quantify how much of a boost.
What could your kid do with that extra $120,000 if you gave it to him at graduation? House down payment? New car? A vacation?
Will it allow him to perhaps choose a lower paying, but interesting first jobâŠmaybe a start up or something like that?
This is a classic case where it is smart to look deeper into the programs. MSU has had. J school and strong communications and marketing programs for generations while it a relatively ânewâ area for Michigan so I would not assume that because Michigan is more revered on these forums that it will âopen more doorsâ than MSU or Ohio. Look carefully at the individual departments, classes and outcomes if this is a high probability major before you ârank orderâ the units.
OK, I am rah, rah Michigan and one of the main people on the Michigan thread for about 3 years with a kid there now (engineering) and my wife is an AlumniâŠ(Go Blue!!)
First you need to treat this like any business decision and look at the ROI. That alone should give you your decision. As I stated before my niece graduated from MSU in communications or similar field. (Full Ride and got accepted to Michigan also). No problem getting a job. One thing that no one is mentioning is that these are all major world class universities. All with great research and all with great alumni. All 3 will have major companies trying to get these graduates. I would just like to replace Purdue with OSU for obvious reasons. ?.
Thinking spending $120,000 more for just about any degree is basically crap, if you think you will be gaining something. There is no solid proof at all. Just garbage.
Plus your kid might want to go to graduate school, law school, get an MBA, now you have the funds.
Put that amount in an aggressive growth fund or the like (get advise first ?).
We started a Roth Ira for our kids. Small amount but itâs is growing over these last 4 years they have been in college.
If you got full rides kinda silly not to use them. Sure they wonât be Wolverines but they will get a degree and prosper.
Also⊠It is not entirely the school. At any of these schools if your kid doesnât get off their butt, turn off the computer and get involved and make a difference on campus (which is where/when the opportunities happen), it really doesnât matter where they go. Itâs is NOT the name of the university that gets the jobs or opportunities. Itâs the student that does!
Communications has become a âcatch-allâ major which can be differently defined at different schools, so I would look at what type of focus the departments at each of the three school has to offerâŠ
Some Communications degrees are off-shoots of journalism/rhetoric, some are more electronic media-focused, while others lean more toward Corporate Communication/PR.
Have your student do some deep digging into the department - courses on offer, plus degree requirements - and then see if there are concentrations or professors that resonate with what they have in mind when thinking about a Comm major.
Contact some professors also. It can enlightening what kind of insight you can gain