Chances of Getting Into U of M Ann Arbor (Detroit: schools, university)

[canudigit]

Originally Posted by Coldjensens

Michigan was about 19,000 per year at the time. Now I think it is in the 23,000 range (tuition and fees, not room and board).

Are you talking about in-state tuition? It's only around $13,000/year, according to their official website (I'm talking about the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts specifically but Education and Business are in the same ballpark, as are pretty much all of the undergrad programs):

Tuition and Registration Fees - Office of the Registrar

Ditto the Cappex website:

University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (U of M) - School Overview - Cappex

which makes it a tremendous bargain, especially for someone like our daughter, since we only live about 20-25 min. from campus.

[scorpio516]

Originally Posted by Coldjensens

Actually U-M is considerably more expensive than most or all of the other public schools in Michigan.

Within Michigan we did nto find any private schools to be cheaper, nor are many of them competitive. Hillsdale for example which my daughter loved is right round $50,000. They offered her a scholarship of around $23,000 per year, leaving her to pay $27,000 per year. Michigan was about 19,000 per year at the time. Now I think it is in the 23,000 range (tuition and fees, not room and board). Havard, my understanding is the tuition is 10-% of your parent';s income up to a certain cap. There is a school (Princeton maybe?) that is so well endowed, there is no tuition. You just have to get in.

So certainly there are a few exception private schools that are good deals, but most are very bad deals. The reason is obvious. You do not have ax payers subsidizing your education at a private school, so unless they get massive endowments, they have to get 100% of the operating costs from students.

Cooper Union has no tuition or fees.

Harvard and Stanford do the whole if your parents make less than X tuition is free. If they make less than Y, tuition, room and board are free (maybe not forever though http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/16/ny...-end.html?_r=0 )

Its all a function of endowment size though - Harvard has $30 billion, Stanford $17 billion, Yale $19 billion, Michigan $7.7 billion. Hillsdale only has a little less than $300 million.
Cooper Union on has $640 million, but they only have 900 students, total.

[stradivarius]

Hi. Lurker from the NJ forums board.

To the OP: Congratulations on your daughter getting into UM Ann Arbor.

I was fortunately on a full academic scholarship at Michigan as an out-of-state student a few years back. I chose UM over a few public and private schools that were/are “ranked” just as high; if not higher. Regardless, I couldn’t have picked a better school for myself, but I have to say that in a crowd of 40,000, it is easy to get lost. Fortunately, I found my own niche through my passion for music, though I am not a full-time musician, and as a result, felt comfortable all four years. Kids can be competitive, but it sounds like your daughter is excelling just fine. I think that in her case, the “intangibles” will let her succeed. I am talking particularly about her confidence level. From the very beginning, she has wanted to go to Ann Arbor. I wholeheartedly believe that the momentum from this transfer will take her very far for many years to come.

As for the debate on whether or not a degree from UM is overvalued…not sure…I think it’s ultimately what you make out of it.

Keep us posted, and Go Blue!

[GreyDay]

Originally Posted by Sparrow_temp

I take it your daughter is white. I can't think of any reason other than affirmative action/racial bias and thus the deduction of "points" in their scoring that would have put her on "deferred" status.

Besides the few Detroit schools that have automatic admissions into UM (regardless of race) there is no massive affirmative action going on there. Sorry.

A 3.9 is good however many kids who do AP classes and junior college courses actually have 4.2, 4.25 averages and 30 on the ACT while high is not a 32 or a 33. Now if she'd come from Cranbrook-Kingswood, Detroit Country Day, Roeper or one of the elite prep schools, you could put more stock in the GPA. But many kids from some public schools got there and just weren't adequately prepared for the rigors (I was STEM) of Michigan.

So not to knock your daughter's scores, but for the prep school kids that were in my cohort when I applied, her scores are good but not stellar.

@Sparrow- you can't automatically assume it's reverse racial bias or affirmative action. Scores were good, not great.

[canudigit]

Originally Posted by stradivarius

Hi. Lurker from the NJ forums board.

To the OP: Congratulations on your daughter getting into UM Ann Arbor.

I was fortunately on a full academic scholarship at Michigan as an out-of-state student a few years back. I chose UM over a few public and private schools that were/are “ranked” just as high; if not higher. Regardless, I couldn’t have picked a better school for myself, but I have to say that in a crowd of 40,000, it is easy to get lost. Fortunately, I found my own niche through my passion for music, though I am not a full-time musician, and as a result, felt comfortable all four years. Kids can be competitive, but it sounds like your daughter is excelling just fine. I think that in her case, the “intangibles” will let her succeed. I am talking particularly about her confidence level. From the very beginning, she has wanted to go to Ann Arbor. I wholeheartedly believe that the momentum from this transfer will take her very far for many years to come.

As for the debate on whether or not a degree from UM is overvalued…not sure…I think it’s ultimately what you make out of it.

Keep us posted, and Go Blue!

Thanks!

Our daughter is going to major in Environmental Science, but she loves music and is thinking about minoring in music, so I think she will meet some other "music kids" and find her niche. She can sing really well and she plays several instruments, so it will be a nice environment for her.

Thanks again, and I'm glad that you found such a good fit at U of M. I know that I would be very proud if I had a degree from there.

[GreyDay]

Originally Posted by ram2

U-M's reputation of late is accepting minority students with sub-par grades over non-minority students with excellent grades. Also, many of those minority students are given scholarships while the non-minority students with better grades get nothing. I really don't see the value in going to a school with this kind of reputation. But, again, you are free to spend your money as you see fit.

WTH are you talking about? You seem to have a conservative axe and an agenda. If you're not up to snuff, you will not last long in Ann Arbor, no way around it. Actually Michigan's minority population has decreased over the past decade.

But if you didn't go there anything you state is secondhand at best.

Also saying you don't see th value in going to the school- that's an emotional response. A practical or pragmatic view would be deciding if Michigan could get you to where you wanted to go academically and professionally in life.

[cattrainer]

Canudigit,

Congratulations on your daughter's transfer to M. My son just transferredand is attending M this summer.

I graduated from the U of Texas--Austin (during the period of affirmative action). Affirmative action greatly enhanced my experience at UT because it provided diversity in the student body. My best friends from UT are still my best friends today and they are white. I am not white.

Sadly, most of the top public universities (UT, UC, and M) have gotten rid of affirmative action and have thus seriously weakened their educational institutions; most of the private universities are still using affirmative action.

[MI-Roger]

Originally Posted by Coldjensens

Actually U-M is considerably more expensive than most or all of the other public schools in Michigan.

So certainly there are a few exception private schools that are good deals, but most are very bad deals. The reason is obvious. You do not have ax payers subsidizing your education at a private school, so unless they get massive endowments, they have to get 100% of the operating costs from students.

I would say this is a very common misconception. Although you found proof of it with your daughter's acceptances and financial aid it is by no means a blanket truth. Our sons both attended private schools with excellent national reputations in their selected fields of study for less than the cost of attending Michigan after scholarships were deducted from the stated tuition amounts.

Additionally, our oldest subsequently decided to attend Law School and found Out-of-State tuition at Florida (also a Tier 1) to be less than In-State tuition at Michigan. One semester later he was considered a Florida resident and his tuition costs dropped significantly.

Congratulation to your daughter! My sister and both of her daughters are Michigan grads.

[ebbe]

To the OP - congratulations on your daughter's acceptance to UM. She will love being able to participate in campus life; there is no shortage of things to do. Friends are easily made and the academics are excellent.

Don't forget to get your football tickets. Go Blue!

[ram2]

Originally Posted by BigLake

the University of Michigan is a premier school and is known and respected worldwide.

No, it is not. It is just another state university like Ohio State or Penn State.