<p>I am a Junior in HS and have been doing some college research. It isn’t totally pressing to get a school down, so I have been looking at a range of schools just to have some in mind for the upcoming year, hopefully making it easier to choose later on.</p>
<p>Anyway, my problem here is that I have been looking at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor, but I am not entirely certain if and how the economic instability in Detroit (especially with recent events, most notably the possible bankruptcy) will effect my college experience, should I choose to go there.</p>
<p>I have read that the university shapes it’s economy significantly, but its proximity and therefore probable connections to Detroit is notable.</p>
<p>Detroit has also been unstable for the past 40 years or so now while the university has been successful, so I could also just be silly and this doesn’t even matter.</p>
<p>In general, the question I am trying to ask is whether or not I should take Detroit (mostly present-time) into consideration while thinking about applying to the University of Ann Arbor.</p>
<p>Your question is really confusing. I don’t know what the economy of Detroit would have to do with the University of Michigan.</p>
<p>Ann Arbor and Detroit are two entirely different cities. The only connection to Detroit I’ve noticed while here is that most students are Tigers fans.</p>
<p>Also the university is beginning a bus route to and from Detroit in December if that counts.</p>
<p>Otherwise, I really don’t know what you’re talking about. Your college experience won’t be negatively affected by Detroit. So far it’s only helped me because I’ve been to a few concerts there and where I’m from we don’t get many big shows.</p>
<p>They are physically far enough apart that you will not need to go to Detroit for any reason if you don’t want to. I recall a couple of trips there during college with friends for fun, but certainly not something you have to do. The Detroit airport is really in Romulus, on the Ann Arbor side of the Detroit area and a short shuttle/bus ride via highway to campus.</p>
<p>Regarding economic stability, Michigan as a state and the two top public universities have done fine economically for years while Detroit has struggled. U of Michigan has one of the top 10 college endowments in the US (including public & private colleges) – 7th in the nation in 2011 with over 7 billion in the endowment fund, and is the only public university in the top 10. </p>
<p>Don’t worry about Detroit – worry about getting in to Michigan and whether you can afford it.</p>
<p>Ann Arbor is a thriving town full of BMWs, Audis, and Mercedes as far as the eye can see (not even joking). Ann Arbor is also quite far from Detroit, like a 30-40min drive on the highway from my experiences so far. You’ll probably never go to Detroit, unless you happen to go to a Tigers or a Lions game, so you shouldn’t really concern yourself.</p>
<p>The University of Michigan is one of two or three public universities with AAA bond ratings by all major bond rating agencies, a clear indication that savvy people in the investment community think the university’s finances are sound. And the local economy in the Ann Arbor/Washtenaw County metropolitan area is thriving.</p>
<p>Don’t confuse the City of Detroit’s fiscal problems with bigger picture economic issues. New York City almost went bankrupt in the 1970s. That didn’t mean Wall Street was going under, or that Columbia and Cornell were in trouble. It just meant that the City of New York-- a municipal corporation–had spent more than it collected in tax revenue and over a period of years had borrowed heavily to make up the shortfall, to the point it had trouble paying all that debt service and paying its current bills at the same time. A similar thing occurred in the City of Detroit, but most cities in the Detroit metropolitan region are in fine shape fiscally, the “Detroit Three” automakers are making record profits, unemployment in the Detroit metro area is declining, and home prices in the Detroit metro area are rising. The City of Detroit’s fiscal problems don’t affect those things at all, except possibly home prices in the City of Detroit proper because the city’s fiscal problems will likely affect future property taxes and municipal services within its own boundaries. Yet despite that, the overall trajectory i real estate prices in the Detroit metro area as a whole is sharply upward. And those are communities much closer to Detroit, and more economically tied into Detroit, than is Ann Arbor, which is the center of its own smaller but more affluent, more educated, more high-tech metro area. </p>
<p>I don’t think the City of Detroit’s potential bankruptcy has any more to do with the University of Michigan’s financial soundness than the City of Bridgeport’s actual bankruptcy had to do with Yale University’s financial soundness. They are just independent entities that don’t affect each other very much at all.</p>
<p>It’s a valid concern, but as the other posters here have already mentioned, it’s a complete non-issue. The University of Michigan is extremely strong financially, having net assets more than any other public university and having an endowment larger than the majority of the ivy leagues. As for crime or atmosphere, the metro-Detroit regions are some of the nicest and safest areas in the Midwest interestingly enough. Ann Arbor has been [consistently</a> considered](<a href=“http://www.annarborusa.org/live-here/facts-rankings]consistently”>Facts and Rankings - Ann Arbor SPARK) to be one of the best cities in the country, and has a violent crime rate less than half the national average.</p>
<p>The only key item to add, is that, as a Umich grad your career outlook will have a national view thanks to UMich’s massive alumni network and the national scale of recruiting. Therefore, unlike regional universities that depend on more local/regional recruiting, almost no Umich grads will be impacted by Detroit’s relative lack of new positions. Although, even that is changing with the improved auto industry economy.</p>
<p>As others have pointed out, the investments in Umich have remained and will remain high, as their endowment is one of the tops in the country. Even with lessened State of MI investments in Umich, the quality is as high or higher than ever. That should definately be expected to remain the case.</p>
<p>Furthermore…Michigan is about to launch its new “Victors for Michigan” fundraising campaign in November. I am hearing rumors that the goal is in the five billion dollar range. I think it’s time for Larry Page to have the school of engineering renamed in his honor. :-)</p>
<p>You should worry more about Michigan’s economy as a whole rather than Detroit’s bankruptcy. I live in Ann Arbor for 14 years and I have only been within Detroit city limit a handful of times mostly when I crossed the border. Even the DTW airport is not in Detroit but in between Detroit and Ann Arbor.</p>
<p>"The University of Michigan is one of two or three public universities with AAA bond ratings by all major bond rating agencies, a clear indication that savvy people in the investment community think the university’s finances are sound. "</p>
<p>Not saying U of M credit is not sound, but calling the imbeciles at Moody’s and S&P “savvy people in the investment community” is a huge lol. The worst “investment professionals” end up working at the credit agencies.</p>
<p>Valid concern because as Detroit suffers, Metro Detroit suffers, and since U of M has a majority in-state, it means (in theory) the quality of the in-state applicants may suffer. For instance, the poor quality of Detroit Public school contributes to the fact that only 77% of African-Americans leave Ann Arbor with a degree, compared to 90% of white students. Further, out-of-state students prefer to go to schools in areas that are robust. The national news highlight Detroit & the state’s dysfunctions does the university no favors.</p>
<p>The only problem with that theory is that Detroit economy has been at the bottom for decades. Yet the quality of Michigan applicants (both in-state and OOS) has gone up every year.</p>
<p>What does it have anything to do with “only 77% of African-Americans leave Ann Arbor with a degree” with Detroit’s bankruptcy? Not at all. It has been like that or even worse long before Detroit’s bankruptcy. Many choose not to go to college before was because of the job opportunity as union worker. The bankruptcy of the big three had a much much bigger impact than the bankruptcy of the City of Detroit if it has any. There is a big difference between Metro Detroit economy and the City of Detroit. The opposite may be true though. When the Metro Detroit economy is bad, the City of Detroit suffers due to decrease in tax revenue. Perhaps the only one suffered are those in DPS district, not the University of other students enrolled. After all, the population of students coming from DPS is rather small. They have more problems to solve in school retention and high school graduation rate. How would that affect the African-American students in AA when there are only a very small fraction coming from DPS?
As a matter of fact, there are more and more out-of-state students applying to UMich disregarding the high unemployment rate in Michigan.</p>
<p>We can all agree the University of Michigan would love to see Detroit get out of this dysfunctional mess and prosper, yes? Of course they’d love a robust region. So a good Detroit is beneficial, but a bad Detroit doesn’t matter? Um, that’s not how it works.</p>
<p>The University is absolutely in-tune and concerned with Detroit’s future.</p>
<p>“What does it have anything to do with “only 77% of African-Americans leave Ann Arbor with a degree” with Detroit’s bankruptcy? Not at all.”</p>
<p>The areas failing urban, especially Detroit Public, schools aren’t adequately preparing African-American students for college, which leads to sagging graduation rates. The African-American grad rate was just one of the countless examples the impact a dysfunctional Detroit has on the University.</p>
<p>Further, with the Metro Detroit economy suffering, the movers and shakers continue to flee the state (as those with college degrees have the freedom to move, and their kids are more likely to go and graduate from college), which absolutely impacts the in-state applicant pool, the tax base, donations, etc., etc.</p>