<p>Ive heard people’s opinion about undergra edu in Public Universities. It is said that they got in average less elite student body, less professor’s effort for every student, horribely huge classes and so on.
So for an OOS student, what’s good to attend, say, UM rather than Emory or Lehigh or URochester except for its spirit/sports and other non-academic factors. Let reputation aside.</p>
<p>Henrycow, the students at Michigan will probably be as “elite” as the students at Emory, Lehigh and Rochester. However, classes at Michigan, particularly your freshman year, will be large (not “horribly” so mind you). Finally, the faculty at Michigan will probably expect more initiative from students than professors at Emory, Lehigh and Rochester. That is not because Michigan is large or Public, but because it is a major research university. You will have similar faculty/student dynamics at private research universities such as Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, MIT, Stanford etc…</p>
<p>some major weakness I concern:</p>
<p>The huge classes can be disturbing, affecting academic performance, right?</p>
<p>The low difficulty can be discouraging. I heard Berkeley has far more challenging classes, and UM students lack momentum.</p>
<p>Besides, Michigan does have some of the most talented students, but many of them have been at the honors program. And it can’t avoid those less talented students. If best students hang out together, worse students only get worse, not to mention the lack of help from the university side, right? And maybe the data of UM is averaged high, will every student enjoy the equally qualified edu?</p>
<p>Not really Henrycow, you are victim of ignorant rumors. Michigan and, to a lesser extent, Cal have many haters and enemies on this forum and in general. That’s the price universities pay for being too good. I really recommend you not listen to them as they are either ignorant or have a non-benign agenda that they are trying to push forward. </p>
<p>First of all, classes at Michigan are large, not huge. And unless you need others to teach you sand are incapable oflearning on your own, class size should not impact academic performance. Keep in mind that classes at Michigan are not larger than classes at other research universities. Freshman classes at Columbia, Cornell, Northwestern and Penn ofter top 200 students and sometimes even exceed 300 students. Yes, on average, classes at Michigan will be larger, but not noticeably.</p>
<p>I am not sure I understand what you mean by “low difficulty”. Like any university, you will have a mix of easy and difficult courses and majors. It is up to you to chose the classes you want to take.</p>
<p>Finally, only 10% of LSA students belong to the Honors program and yet, 30% of LSA students graduated in the top 1% of their classes and/or got a 1400+ on the SAT and or graduated with a 3.9+ unweighed cumulative high school GPA. So it is not like all top students belong to the honors college. Many high-calibre students are either not invited to the honors college and many who are invited opt not to join. And that’s just LSA. Engineering and Ross do not have honors colleges and the average student at those colleges are also very capable and often take classes with LSA students. You will not have a hard time finding top students to interact with. Besides, if you take challenging classes, and it seems that is something you intend to do, then you will in all likelyhood be taking classes with highly capable students. You won’t have many dunces taking advanced level Engineering, Chemistry, Math, Economics or Physics classes. </p>
<p>If you are considering Michigan, visit the campus and walk into classes. That should give you an idea of class size, course content and difficulty and calibre of the students. At the end of the day, there is no doubt that Michigan is a top university. As such, it will have excellent resources, faculty and students. But whether or not it fits you personally is another story altogether.</p>
<p>Henrycow. You are going to be in for the shock of your life if you believe all of the crap you’ll read on CC. Unless you are some sort of genius, you will find that more than likely you will be just an average student at top schools such as Michigan. You might be stellar at your high school, but believe me when I tell you that there are many excellent students at all top universities that will be your peers.</p>
<p>The average GPA at UCLA is a 3.1. The average entering high school GPA was a 4.3.</p>
<p>Still think public schools aren’t challenging enough?</p>
<p>I’m looking forward to it, and I will do my best. ^-^</p>
<p>But is it that every university got enemies trying to degrade it just because they don’t like it?</p>
<p>With all due respect Henrycow, I have a slight problem with foreign students who are prestige fanatics. The fact that your English is sub-par should put you at a disadvantage when compared to comparable students who are more proficient in their own language. In other words, if I were you I’d be more concerned about my language skills at this point than mingling with students who as you put it, “have less momentum.”</p>
<p>believe me, I think i am most qualified to touch on this topic because I went to what you would call a “high caliber” highschool where more than 30% went to ivies, MIT, stanford, duke and comparables. and another 40% went to top LAC in the country like williams, amherst. So needless to say the competition and coursework is a lot stiffer than almost any highschools in the country.</p>
<p>I myself got into wharton, carnegie mellon’s CS program and tepper (you apply to specific schools and they can both accept you), wash u st louis, and was a ross preadmit.
and just to be honest, i still wish i went to wharton or tepper or even ross and not give up my preadmit spot, but that’s not my point it’s just me misunderstanding the ibank/consulting recruiting process i somehow think they like engineering students as quants.</p>
<p>but anyway, i chose michigan because once i visited it, i fell in love with it. I had the same concern with you, that there are lower caliber instate students who get admitted and i’ll be “stuck with them”.</p>
<p>once i started here i realize i was wrong. the caliber of students were comparable if not better than most of the students at my highschool (and mind you at least 60% of my highschool classmates ARE now in fact students at HYP ivies and LAC). True i have a much higher gpa than i was in high school, i had a 3.1 in high school but i also work 10 times harder. I pull all nighters every other night here. </p>
<p>my point is, you will find yourself in a pool of brilliant minds, dont worry</p>
<p>The University of Michigan regardless of public status is a top research university and is filled with some of the most brilliant minds in the nation. While there are many brilliant minds in Emory and URochester, the University of Michgan has just as many within its general student body. There is no evidence to suggest that Michigan’s courses are easy easier or harder on average, and really, it all depends on your own educational path. The classes are large, but not so large that they impair your ability to learn. Lots of rumors exist about public universities that aren’t true, and the same thing goes for private too.</p>
<p>As the parent of an OOS student, all I can tell you is that my D has a wonderful group of friends that I would consider to be quite high caliber. My D also came from one of the top Newsweek ranked (also top ranked internationally) high schools in the country and is used to being in a community of high (over) acheivers. She finds many students at U Mich to be at that level. </p>
<p>All, except one, of my D’s classes have had less than 20 students (she’s in the RC). She had no complaints with the class that had over 200 students. In fact, she really enjoyed those lectures. Overall, she’s very happy with the quality of the faculty. She’s also had a great experience doing UROP.</p>
<p>See… your question of Emory vs. Michigan is a logical one. But, Rochester and Lehigh? …I don’t even want to talk to you. jk…</p>