MSU vs. UofM: Campus life

thericeinthehice
Wed, 13 Apr 2016 16:36:04 +0000

I’m currently a freshman at Michigan State but I am going to be transferring to UofM next year, and I have visited friends at UofM countless times so I think I can give a bit of input. Note, I’ve never really been to north campus at UofM.

As for food, I would say it’s about even between the two schools. MSU gets such a good rep strictly because of how good the Brody Cafeteria is, but all of the other cafeteria’s on campus are very mediocre and average, and unless you live in Brody, you’ll never eat there. Similarly, I find South Quad at UofM to be very good, but the others to be similarly average.

Dorms, I would say is also about even between the two schools. Both schools have their good dorms and their bad dorms. MSU has some dorms with great location (river trail, north campus), but they are pretty mediocre inside, and then dorms far away that are new and roomy (Brody). It is easier to choose your dorm at MSU though, and you’re guaranteed the dorm you want as long as you choose early. However, almost all of the dorms are pretty ugly at MSU though, especially east campus and south. The architecture just isn’t nearly as beautiful as at UofM.

Parties, I would give a very slight edge to MSU, but that’s just because the school parties a bit more on weekdays. Wednesdays and Thursdays are huge party days at MSU but not so much from what I hear at UofM. However the schools are very similar on Friday and Saturday nights. UofM does get a slight edge though in that their campus is not as spread out and thus parties are not as far. It’s not uncommon to have to walk 2 or 3 miles to get to a house or frat party at MSU…

Overall Layout, I give UofM a MASSIVE advantage. I think MSU gets too big of a rep for their campus, and it isn’t that deserved… Yes there is quite a bit of grass, but it’s not really in the beautiful areas of campus. Really the only nice part of campus is North, and the rest of the architecture and buildings is pretty mediocre or downright ugly (lookup the dorms in South or East Campus for example). If you like peace and quiet you may like MSU more, but I love the liveliness of things like the Diag at UofM, which MSU has no equivalent. I also dislike how far things can be on campus at MSU, with some classes up to two miles away (making bikes on campus very necessary). Also UofM is much more lively because of downtown AA. MSU has a very, very mini “downtown” that boarders north campus, but it’s pretty far unless you live in North campus and it’s very mediocre.
I do dislike UofM for the distance between Central and North campus though. That’s annoying.