<p>Growing up Michigan has always been my first choice. So when I got accepted this year I was esctatic. However I recently stumbled upon this thread: </p>
<p>Old thread I know, but it has raised some doubts within me on whether I really want to attend. The author of the thread noted that while Michigan students were intelligent and amibitions, they were not particularly passionate about their fields. Since Michigan is such a large university I’m sure that such people exist. My worry is the difficulty in finding such people. While I like a good party every now and then I still want to be able to have stimulating converstations with my peers.</p>
<p>Currently I’m going to try to get in to Ross BBA program as regular admit and I know that they are plenty of smart in that program, but can anyone currenty in that program or a student/alumnus of LSA/CoE tell me if they have ever felt the same way as the author in the above link?</p>
<p>As one who has talked at a variety of different business schools, from Ivy, to State, big, small, my general sense is undergraduate business students on average are smart, hard working, ambitious but not “intellectually curious”. They want to succeed, they have specific goals, they get involved and like to start stuff and have accomplishments on their resume, but intellectual exploration, being well read, asking a lot of ‘why?’ questions, following world events and news because they are inherently interesting…are not as big of a priority. In every class there ARE such students (especially in a large uni!), but on average, it seems to not attract that kind of student.</p>
<p>Unfortunately yes, I have felt this way. A lot of people I’ve met only care about taking the easiest classes to earn their degree with the highest GPA possible. And most people strongly consider the difficulty of future classes when determining their major.</p>
<p>But like you said, U of M is huge, and you’ll definitely meet others like you without too much trouble.</p>
<p>As you said, Infinit, such students certainly exist on both extremes since it is such a large student body. As for the difficulty in finding students who are passionate about their studies - I don’t think it’s difficult at all. When I talk to one of my neighbors (and I’m a freshman in randomized housing), I can tell she really loves what she studies and researches. When I converse with a few of the students in my Great Books class, I can tell they are fascinated by Greek history or the texts their reading (which is certainly not true of everyone in the class). Maybe its part of being in Honors and Honors housing, but I doubt it. You can definitely find passionate young adults here.</p>
<p>I definitely agree with the author in that link - it’s been hard for me to find intellectually curious people at Michigan. I know only one person who fits that description (I’m a senior). Most of the people I know care about careers/money/games/relaxing/partying/etc., and while that’s okay, it gets old after a while. A lot of people here just want to do the minimum required to get an A, and nothing more. Oh well, I’ll be graduating soon. At least the professors were good. Still a great university.</p>
<p>However, I think this is true of most people our age, not just Michigan students. It was the same in my HS. You probably won’t avoid the problem by going to another school. To be fair, though, I don’t count shallow regurgitation of philosophy as “intellectually curious.”</p>
<p>The author in the above link is both correct and incorrect. They are correct when they say that this type of person exists at Michigan. They are incorrect when they state that the attitude is present ubiquitously. My guess is that they were exaggerating things for the sake of constructing a compelling transfer essay; God knows you need one if you want to get accepted anywhere. In conclusion, I don’t think you should worry too much about it.</p>
<p>I’ve personally met tons of intelectually curious people, and I’ve had some of my most thoughtful discussions there. Then again, I am a liberal arts major.</p>
<p>But seriously, the author of that post just sounds pretentious. Why would business majors be intellectually curious? They are literally studying making money.</p>
<p>Infinit, you will have apathetic students everywhere. Michigan is no exception. There are many students at Michigan who are there just to get a diploma, At the same time, you have many students who genuinely wish to learn. I would not worry to much about the environment, but be sure to manage your expectations. No university is a utopic intellectual epicenter. Those days are gone. There was a time when virtually all students at a university were there for the love of learning. Back then, a college education was not required for career placement. That is no longer the case. Companies today require college degrees. For this reason, you will have many pre-professional types at all universities.</p>
<p>“But seriously, the author of that post just sounds pretentious. Why would business majors be intellectually curious? They are literally studying making money.”</p>
<p>Finance and entrepreneurship are my primary vocational interests. Academically I’m interested in stuff like Economics, History, Physics, and Philosophy. Given the reputation of the Ross undergraduate program, it seems like a wasted opportunity not attending if I want to do business after undergrad. I was hoping that there were many students in the BBA program who like me had other academic pursuits but were tempted into the BBA program because of its reputation. </p>
<p>I don’t know, maybe I’ll try to get into the Honors program and dual major in Econ and Business. That way, I can still leave the door open for a future Ph.D in econ and be able to meet some interesting people in Honors housing.</p>