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U of M is a great school, but if you're looking for the rural, Midwestern, wildlife setting, then you won't find it in Ann Arbor.
If you're looking for that, I think you'll be much happier at Northern Michigan University (NMU) in Marquette, Lake Superior State University (LSSU) in Sault. Ste. Marie, Michigan Tech in Houghton, Ferris State University in Big Rapids, or Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant.
What are you looking to major in? Although none of these schools are as well-known as U of M, they each have a handful of really good programs, and all will be much cheaper than going to the U of M. You can stay over the summer and get in-state tuition after your first year, which you can't do at UM.
I really wouldn't recommend Ferris State to someone who is serious about their education. They've got like three good programs including the art school and the remaining student body is the people who couldn't get into Saginaw Valley State.
In terms of general educational quality, U of M is on a top tier all by iteself among the publics, and then Michigan State, Michigan Tech, and Grand Valley State (one of the most improved universities in the country over the past 10-15 years) in the second tier for undergrad. Wayne State is second tier for grad programs, but their undergrad is in the same third group as the Eastern/Northern/Western/Central directional schools, SVSU and LSSU.
U-M is a great choice for a Californian. You will get a healthy dose of different culture while earning a degree that is recognized favorably all over the united states and even in many other countries. It is one of the best buys for the money as far as quality and prestige for the price that you can find aynwhere. A large number (maybe a majority) of U-M graduates leave the state for jobs elsewhere when they graduate. A U-M degree with good grades is a ticket to grad school or jobs virtually anywhere in the US. It is a highly recognized and highly regarded school everywhere.
Ann Arbor is not crowded like Southern CA is and it is a very different atmosphere. It is also physically very different. Bring a coat, gloves and a hat, it is very cold in the winter. Picture the top of Mammoth every day for a month or two. The campus is somewhat spread out with some buildings scattered in amongst the City buildings. Ann Arbor is an aboslutely great town to live in if you are young. (not bad if you are older either, except for all the rowdy college kids running around).
You do not have to get far outside of Ann Arbor to get into wide open areas. For just space, farms, etc, you can head towards Pinkney or stop in Hell (everyone has to say that they have been there). You can go Conoeing on the Huron river right through Ann Arbor and in places, you would not know that you are in or near a city. You can go Canoeing in the nearby metropark system and in the fall you can stop and park your canoe for Cider and doughtnuts at an antique cider mill along the way, you will usually see deer wading in the river and lots of water birds and fish. Depending on how wild you want wlidlife, there are planty of State parks and Metro Parks within less than an hour away. There are also some fabulous quaint small towns to visit right near Ann Arbor.
Do not be looking for non-stop excitment and loads of dining and entertainment opportunities. There are some in Ann Arbor, but when you get not too far outside Ann Arbor, you are mostly looking at farms and trees (plus loads of rivers and lakes). If you want to get up to find endless forests and no people at all, you need to go quite a way north and/or west or go all the way up to the UP. Few U-M undergraduate students go up to the UP nore than once or twice during their 4 years and some never get up there.
U-M is havily infested by the Greek system, which is not an entirely bad thing, but you can readily attend U-M and have a great time, learn a lot, and never set foot in a fraternity or sorority. It is a large school and you can find pretty much anything that you want there.
As someone mentioned, the City and cmampus are not reall less crowded than any other campus. It is spread out and a lot less municipal than USC or UCLA, but it is still pretty tight. It is very pretty. Ann Arbor is a tree city, that simply means that it has a lot of trees int he city. You can always walk to the Arboretum to toss a frisbee around or go traying down the Hill, and/or ejoy the Huron River all through the city. There is somewhat less of an atmosphere of materialism than you will find in many of the larger CA colleges, unfortunately it is replaced in part by an academic sophmoric know it all attitude amongst a large number of students. However again, you can avoid anything you want and find anything that you want. You will need to quickly learn not to watch for cars when you cross the street. Forget what your mother taught you, it is ther job to get out of YOUR way. Just walk right out in front of them, everyone else does. Apparently you learn how to bend the laws of physics when you are a U-M student.
When you get out of the City if you are looking for rural, go West and or North. If you go East, you are heading into Detroit metro and you will find only pockets of wilderness type areas. If you go south, it is very flat and pretty empty. Besides if you go too far south, you will touch Ohio and need decomtaimination before you will be allowed to return to U-M Campus.
A weekend in traverse City cna be very pleasant. THere is mediochre skiing at Boyne which is nto too far away. There is no real mountina skiing that you can reach without an airplane. However other winter sports abound, and water is everywhere.
If you miss home, you can always visit the Casinos in Detroit and pretend that you are in Vegas. If you close your eyes, you will not be able to tell the difference. You can actually find CPK, P.F. Chang's, Dave & Busters and lot of other CA favorites in the nearby communities. For Claim Jumper you have to go all the way to Chicago though.
Detroit is not as bad as it is made out to be and there are quite a few neat events in Detroit and the nearby suburbs. Ann Arbor is about an hour away. A trip to Canada is usually pleasant if you bring your passport and now what you are looking for and where to go. Chicago is only 4-5 hours away as well.
Smoking in resturaunts will drive you crazy at first, but you will eventually get used to it, or learn where the resturants are that do not allow smoking.
Iff you can, stay for a summer. Although Fall is Michigan's best time of year, summer is pretty wonderful too. With most of the students gone, Ann Arbor in the summer cna be very very nice.
Good luck. And if you are admitted - COngratulations! Getting admitted is an accomplishemnet in itself.
It's good to have broad horizons, but Berkeley and Michigan are just about the two most difficult public schools to gain admittance to. If you rule out Michigan State, there should be extenuating circumstances, in my opinion, to attend any other school in MI as an non-resident. I don't think wanderlust is enough to offset the large investment and potential hurdles of being thousands of miles from home. Have you considered schools like UC-Davis, UC-Santa Cruz, Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, or even UC-Merced?
I'm from California, and wanting to go to University of Michigan. There's great UC schools in California but it's very crowded. There's so much traffic and people here, gets annoying. Univerisy of Michigan is an attractive option because it is not as dense as places in California, and the seasons would be much better to look at than all the busy cars going from city to city.
California is great, but gets tedious and demanding at times. People here eat really well, lots of good food and entertainment here, but the lack of natural scenery bothers me. So I'm going to come to Michigan to see some wild life and stuff like that. Get away from so many people.
So, I browsed through the forums and found Michigan to be an economically distressed state. Still a good idea to attend U of M, Ann arbor? I'm going to be arriving at the year 2011. I've read on this forum that a U of M economist says the job rate will pick up or something like that.
What are you thoughts?
As some others have said, Ann Arbor is very unique when comparing to the rest of Michigan, that being said it reminds me of a smaller Portland, OR. Yes, the school does tend to attract mainly kids from larger east and west coast populations, as well as a very large international presence. Michigan has been in decline for many years, although Ann Arbor has held the lowest unemployment rate in the state and currently still does have. There is a much larger presence of college grads in Ann Arbor when compared to the rest of Michigan, so job competition is tight (currently 69% of people over 25 hold a BA or higher in Ann Arbor). In saying that, for the size the town has an amazing array of things to do, from fine arts, theater, many individually owned dining options and a excellent selection of healthy food venues. As far as "frat boys going wild", is a bit of a stereotypical exaggeration. The crime rate in Ann Arbor is next to zero and University police have a large presence campus wide. I lived in Ann Arbor for most of my life and after completing school there moved to Portland, OR, and now travel through the Midwest and Michigan. If you have the chance to attend UM its a unique experience, most of their undergrad and grad programs are ranked top ten nationally. Unfortunately there is a great deal of negativity around Michigan, but Ann Arbor is always a bustling city still developing and growing.
Having been to so cal many times I can tell you its a completely different vibe, (think pacific NW types, organic food, mtn biking..etc). I noticed you mentioned the Pinckney Rec area which has a 20 mile mtn bike trail, dozens of lakes and many campgrounds. Its about a 15-20 min drive NW of Ann Arbor. No, its not "wild", but if your a student in Ann Arbor its perfect for getting out of town for the day.
Well, hope I provided some info for you to digest...have fun!
What are you planning to study? If you are thinking about becoming an engineer then you could try Michigan Tech. If you want wild life and no traffic then it would be the place to go. However, it's not sunny and warm in Houghton, MI. Below is a picture of Lake of the Clouds which is probably an hour or so away from the school.
It's good to have broad horizons, but Berkeley and Michigan are just about the two most difficult public schools to gain admittance to. If you rule out Michigan State, there should be extenuating circumstances, in my opinion, to attend any other school in MI as an non-resident. I don't think wanderlust is enough to offset the large investment and potential hurdles of being thousands of miles from home. Have you considered schools like UC-Davis, UC-Santa Cruz, Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, or even UC-Merced?
This is true. Very generally speaking, unless you get into a Top 25 school (or one for your particular academic focus), you will be better off attending an in-state school; or attend school in an area that you are sure you want to live in for a considerable period of time. All things being equal, an employer is more likely to hire someone from a local or regional college versus someone from a school that the employer is unfamiliar with. If you think you might like to live in Michigan permanently, by all means consider all of our good public schools; if you will be moving on back home or someplace else, I'd be hesitant to consider any other schools here besides UM and possibly that school in East Lansing.
I'm not sure what the OP's definition of crowded is. Just to toss some numbers out for the OP's information: UM has about 37,000 students, in a city of 120,000; unlike Berkley, it is not adjacent to a large, thriving metropolis (San Francisco). Consider this as well: on Football Saturdays (and yes, if you attend UM, you will learn to think of them worthy of capitalization), Ann Arbor becomes the second largest city in the state, with nearly 110,000 at the football game alone.
I graduated from UM in 2007. That said, hands down, one of the few places in this state I would choose to live in. If you have the opportunity to go and can foot the bill, then go for it. You can always transfer if you hate it, but California types typically love AA. Clean city, not too large, not too small, things to do, places to eat, places to hang out. I loved it there.
Yes Michigan, even Ann Arbor will feel more spread out than California. As others have stated though southeast Michigan is more built up than the rest of Michigan. If your not afraid to drive a few hours you can get to some really nice places from Ann Arbor. Lake Michigan shore is about 2 hours, upper Michigan is about 6 hours away. I live about 90 miles north of Ann Arbor and although its alot of farmland, wildlife is very common. You will find all of Michigan very slow and relaxed compared to California. The economy is bad here as I see you already know. If a good job is necessary to get you through school, than yes I would rethink it. Our bad economy brings some benifit though in the form of what you would see as extremely cheap housing. In much of Michigan you can buy NICE houses for 50 to 100k. Houses in bad areas can be as cheap as 5000 dollars. We have the cheapest housing in the nation. U of M has high tuition, so look at other colleges here. A place like Central Michigan is literaly half the cost, and its in a more rural part of Michigan. Lake Superior state, Northern Michigan and Michigan tech are all in the UP surrounded by the wildlife you talked about. These colleges are not as prestigious as U of M but the education is still good. Good luck
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I'm majoring in EECS
