<p>For the first 17 years of my life, I constantly told my dad, a UMichigan PhD, that I would go to any other of the 2,000 research universities over the University of Michigan. Talk about eating my words…deciding where to go was hard for me, my first choice changed from UPenn to Cornell to UChicago to Case Western to a debate between Vanderbilt and Michigan in the end (much more money from Vanderbilt). I came to my senses after visiting the University of Michigan math department. The basic average classes at any school are the same: Calculus is taught from the same book and curriculum, there’s first year writing seminars, etc. What makes the difference is being at the very top, in the very hardest classes, taught by the very best professors…in the world. That’s where the graduate school rankings come in handy.
I don’t strive for prestige, money, or any of that stuff that most people go to college for…I really want to learn in the purest form. I realized in the depths of academia, this is what Michigan provides at the top…and it is all easily accessible to me as a student.</p>
<p>So basically, if I could go to any school in the world and if I were capable of succeeding at any university in the world, I’d be going to the University of Michigan.</p>