<p>Wake’s alumni network is small by numbers compared to some state schools, but its very very zealous and very close knit. You want a job? Find a Wake Alumnus at the company you are contacting.</p>
<p>Wake has two strikes against the alumni network: 1) it is small; 2) it is focused primarily in the SE. Thus, if one wanted to work in the SE, Wake would be a big plus.</p>
<p>Historically, UCLA has been 97%+ instaters. Thus, it’s network, such that it is, focuses on California. Michigan has a nation-wide network, and I would guess, is stronger than UCLA’s which tends to attract a lot more non-spirited types than does UM; non-spirit types would tend to be less active in the alumni network.</p>
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<p>i was actually trying to find this number on Michigan’s wikipedia page but it wasn’t there. The closest i found, i thought, was a figure that said it had 30k applicants.</p>
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</p>
<p>No we only received 92k this year (including transfers.) however, we might get that next year though :D</p>
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<p>That’s largely because of their economic situations. California’s economy was able to support its elite public institutions to a much larger degree than a state like Michigan was and for a much larger time. Hence, schools like Cal and UCLA were able to support more California residents for larger periods of time than a school like Michigan was. Certainly that feeds back into California if the figure posted by the UC is true that for every $1 california invests in UC, it gets $8 back. </p>
<p>Now that the playing fields between Michigan, Cal, and UCLA have been leveled (in terms of acceptance of international applicants) it’ll certainly be interesting to see what universities applicants decide to apply to.</p>
<p>I don’t doubt that Michigan has a stronger alumni network than Cal and UCLA outside of its own state, but i nevertheless think that internationally both schools are equally if not more respected.</p>
<p>
Cal yes, UCLA no.</p>
<p>bephy, it is not fair to compare the number of freshmen applicants to Michigan in 2010 to the number of freshman and transfer applicants to UCLA in 2012! </p>
<p>2012 figures are not yet finalized, so I am going to use 2011 figures from common data sets.</p>
<h1>of freshman applicants to Michigan: 39,584</h1>
<p><a href=“Office of Budget and Planning”>Office of Budget and Planning;
<h1>of freshman applicants to UCLA: 61,564</h1>
<p><a href=“http://www.aim.ucla.edu/CDS/cdsForm.asp[/url]”>http://www.aim.ucla.edu/CDS/cdsForm.asp</a></p>
<p>So UCLA has ~1.5X more applicants than Michigan, not 2.5X. This is to be expected given the fact that UCLA is in a state that is 4 times more populous than Michigan.</p>
<p>I am not going to go into discussing reputation in national and international domains since I would only be stating opinion. Suffice it to say, Cal, Michigan and UCLA are all very highly regarded…and deservingly so.</p>
<p>
Source, please? :)</p>
<p>My two cents. Personally, I’d probably go to Wake Forest for the small classes sizes/ personal attention, sense of community, tradition (TP-ingthe quad anyone), sports, and general experience. But that’s me. The issue with Wake is that, despite being an excellent college its not very well known. They are nicknamed Work Forest though, so be warned. My second pick would probably be Michigan for is balance between academics, and sports/school spirit, and great college town. I don’t know much about UCLA other than its a big school. My best advice to you would be to re-examine why you applied to all three in the first place, and research of potential areas of interest. Which one were you most excited about when you researched it/ submitted your app? The great thing is though, all three are excellent schools and you really won’t make a bad choice. Congrats and good Luck!</p>
<p>PS–If you can, you should try and make it to the accepted student days also.</p>
<p>OK, so essentially, this is what I learned:
1 - Visit the campus
2 - Alumni all love their alma matter
3 - There’s not really a wrong or a correct decision that I can make.</p>
<p>I’m slightly afraid that at Wake I won’t be able to have all the opportunities of an undecided student due to it’s limited major availability; but at the same time, the fact that it is a Liberal Arts institution, is greatly affecting my decision</p>
<p>Any Ideas why Michigan is beneath WFU and UCLA on the USNWR rankings?</p>
<p>USNWR is heavily biased towards private universities. The highest ranked public school, Berkeley, which is often ranked as one of the most prestigious universities in the world, doesn’t even break the top 20.</p>
<p>Any given ranking should be taken with a grain of salt. However, consensus in rankings can help paint a picture, although a biased picture nonetheless.</p>
<p>Ignore USNWR rankings. It is designed to sell magazines…period.</p>
<p>Certainly, every ranking has its flaws. But I wouldn’t ignore them. I would look into what’s beneath the ranking. For example, there are many factors behind the USNWR ranking. USNWR clearly explained what those factors are and what their weights in the ranking are. Taking all the factors and their wieghts into consideration would give you some very helpful insights into a college and comparison among colleges.</p>
<p>I agree with you that they publish the rankings to make money. But the rankings do offer useful information.</p>
<p>Actually wavelet, the USNWR does not publish accurate information. Garbage-in, garbage-out! It is pretty clear that many universities cook the numbers when it comes to standardized test scores, acceptance rates, class size, alumni donations, financial resources and the peer assessment score. Like all rankings, the USNWR is not to be relied on too heavily.</p>
<p>
Have you lived in Asia or Europe? For better or for worse, UCLA is extremely highly regarded and is probably the second famous American public school internationally. California has served as an entry point for millions of Asians to the U.S. so there’s a high degree of exposure and visibility for the Far East to schools like Cal and UCLA. I would say Illinois and Michigan are neck and neck following UCLA and Cal with regards to international prestige. That’s certainly the case in India at least.</p>
<p>
While there might be outliers, USNWR is generally pretty good at data collection and does a good job given the monstrous task it has. Also, elite universities like the Ivies, Stanford, Chicago, MIT, Caltech, Northwestern, Duke and JHU have better things to do than fudge data to boost their USNWR rankings. Nothing USNWR does can affect the reputation of the 15 best school in the U.S. It would just make USNWR irrelevant if it tried to do any form of serious gamesmanship.</p>
<p>I’m not so sold on LAC’s however. These schools besides AWSMP (the 5 best LACs) are relatively unknown and stand to gain the most by lying to Robert Morse and USNWR.</p>
<p>To the original question posed in this thread, decide based on fit. All 3 of these schools have roughly equal fame at the undergraduate level and each of their own advantages and disadvantages.</p>
<p>
I live in Asia currently. I used to work for a Fortune 100 company with responsibilites over Asia Pacific. I also worked with global customers so I traveled to Europe quite a bit. Now what is your credential again?</p>
<p>Compared to Cal and Michigan, UCLA is relatively ‘young’. To say that “UCLA reputation is significantly better than Michigan’s” and “… that internationally both schools are equally if not more respected (than Michigan)” is simply ignorant.</p>
<p>For example, this is UCLA’s alumni presence in China, the country sending the most college students to the US today:</p>
<p>“About UCLA Club… It was first initiated and established by Davisson Wu’89, David Wang '91, Henry Tao '89 and Ken Wu’98 in a Chinese restaurant located at Wuxing Road of Shanghai in April of 2000. And, UCLA did not have any alumni organization or social club established in China prior to that. The club began with periodical gatherings and then soon developed a website for alumni to keep pace on the fast UCLA developments in China as well as offering advices to newly arriving alumni and providing a space for socializing and mingling.”
<a href=“http://www.uclaclub.com/index.htm[/url]”>宣城潦钟水电安装有限公司;
<p>According to the same website, there are 40+ active members in the UCLA China Club. Heck, I got more Michigan alumni showing up when I hosted a Michigan-Ohio football at 4AM on a Sunday morning.</p>
<p>Once again goldenboy…garbage in, garbage out.</p>
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<p>My girlfriend’s from China and knows about elite schools of higher education in the U.S. Guess which university she’d never heard of? MICHIGAN. The only two public universities she mentioned were Cal and UCLA, which basically supports what golden boy said (i have anecdotes too!)</p>
<p>UCLA consistently ranks as one of the most internationally respected universities in the world, and the public opinion mirrors this. To try to argue that it isn’t using support from some alumni group is “simply ignorant.”</p>
<p>“My girlfriend’s from China and knows about elite schools of higher education in the U.S. Guess which university she’d never heard of? MICHIGAN.”</p>
<p>With all due respect to your girlfriend, if she knows about elite schools of higher education in the U.S. and has NEVER HEARD of Michigan, she is not very well informed or knowledgeable on the subject.</p>
<p>I agree that UCLA is very well known and respected internationally. So is Michigan. Once again it becomes a matter of fit.</p>
<p>I agree that she’s not ‘very well’ informed. (not like anyone on CC) Perhaps it was my mistake for giving that impression. However, she was slightly more informed than a layman would be. Like she knew of JHU, but had never heard of Michigan, Virginia, UNC, etc. (pretty sure she didn’t know of Duke or Rice either.) All she really mentioned were the HYPSM, UCLA, USC, Berkeley, and a few other privates (the only surprising one she told me was Boston University.)</p>
<p>Neither UCLA or Michigan is leaps-and-bounds ahead of the other. When everything is taken into consideration, they’re probably equals.</p>
<p>
Geez, there’s no need to get so snippy. I’m a recent college grad but I’m actually Indian and my father obviously worked there for a very long period of time.</p>
<p>
Don’t put words in my mouth; I never said that UCLA’s reputation is “significantly better” than Michigan’s. I do agree with beyphy that Cal and UCLA are slightly more respected than Michigan internationally based on what I’ve seen with the former being the clear frontrunner. Michigan is probably the 3rd most highly regarded American public school; I see that as a compliment considering that there are thousands of public schools in the U.S.</p>
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LOL!! You sneer at a weakly supported UCLA Chinese Alumni Club website and fail to provide an example of a University of Michigan Alumni Club website in Greater China that’s filled to the brim with announcement, upcoming event information, etc. etc.</p>
<p>Well two can play the internet game to dig up evidence my friend…</p>
<p>[Alumni</a> Groups - eBeijing.gov.cn](<a href=“http://www.ebeijing.gov.cn/BeijingInfo/BJInfoTips/ForeignCommunity/t948625.htm]Alumni”>http://www.ebeijing.gov.cn/BeijingInfo/BJInfoTips/ForeignCommunity/t948625.htm)</p>
<p>I don’t see a hyperlink to Michigan’s Alumni Club in China anywhere here on the Official Website of the Beijing Government.</p>
<p>Here are some of the other American schools mentioned though (I’ve bolded the public institutions):</p>
<p>Brown University
UNC-Chapel Hill
Colorado State
Columbia
Cornell
Dartmouth
Duke
Georgetown
Harvard
Johns Hopkins
MIT
Rutgers
Stanford
UC Berkeley
UCLA
University of Maryland
Notre Dame
UVA
University of Washington
Penn
Texas-Austin
University of Chicago
Wellesley
Yale
NYU
Princeton</p>
<p>Generally speaking, alumni associations internationally for American public schools are generally weak as you’ve shown with the example of the UCLA club. The concept of giving back to your alma mater isn’t as prevalent with public school grads as it is for elite private school alums.</p>
<p>If you need some evidence of UCLA’s international prestige in Europe…</p>
<p>[Education</a> - Image - NYTimes.com](<a href=“Education - Image - NYTimes.com”>Education - Image - NYTimes.com)</p>
<p>UCLA: #11
Michigan: #52</p>
<p>small nit, but there is another half of the world besides the Pacific Rim. I have no doubt that Cal dominates the discussion in the Pacific area, with prestige rivaling HYPSM. Since Southern Branch is the baby brother/sister, UCLA and the other UCs come along for the prestige ride, again in the Pacific Region. (Not saying that LA is not prestigious in its own right, but all UCs get a boost for being on the Periodic Table of Elements.)</p>
<p>OTOH, Europe…</p>