<p>I just learned I was accepted off of U of M's waitlist, which I wasn't expecting at all. I'm in a very hard position and I am not sure what I should do, in fact, I only have a few days to make a decision. Any advice would be appreciated. Here is the situation....</p>
<p>I am into politics. Not kinda into politics, I live and breathe it. I have dreamed about going to college in DC for years and decided to attend American University in May (over several other schools, including UCLA). I didn't get into their Honors Program or the University College Program (small seminar program), suprisingly. And my interactions with the university haven't been great (they lost my acceptance packet for 6 weeks, didn't get much $$, and they weren't really responsive to some of my requests for help or assistnace). And I have never visited the campus.<br>
However, I was accepted off of UofM's waitlist, and accepted into the Residential College (any info on this program would be appreciated). I know that UofM has one of the top Political Science Departments (particularly in American Politics), and is an incredible university. I would have small classes in the RC program, so that isn't as big a fact being a public school. Oh, did I mention that though I live in CA now, I grew up in Ann Arbor until 8th grade? both my parents went to UofM (and two grandparents) and my mom worked there for 20 years. In essence, I am from Ann Arbor, though I now live in CA (I have to say, I really do miss Michigan and the midwest, I don't like CA, which is why I didn't go to UCLA). But at the same time, though UofM has some great things, many people have told me that I wouldn't be as challenged, considering I lived there for years and that I should really go to AU because it is in DC. So here is my question: what is the RC program really like? how hard is it to get access to the Political Science faculty and small classes? is it worth it to attend a top-notch school vs. attending a school for its location? </p>
<p>Any advice or comments would be appreciated, as I am not sure exactly how to make this decision. Thanks!</p>
<p>I can't tell you much about the RC--hopefully someone else will be able to help you out there.</p>
<p>Obviously U-M would like to have you, so I hope you lean this way. But I did want to say that if you're going to say yes to U-M and "no" to AU, make sure it's for some solid reasons. Make sure you're legitimately happy about coming to U-M, and make sure the things that vault it over AU in your mind are substantial issues. Some of the things you've mentioned in regard to AU (poor communication) are discouraging but they don't necessarily reflect what your academic life is going to be there as a student. These may have been coincidental glitches, or maybe someone in orientation is lousing up. If that's the case, recall that this not someone you'll likely have to deal with ever again once you get there and start student life.</p>
<p>The aid issues are real, of course. It's just that when you're desperate for some decision-making guidance, it's easy to glom onto superficial annoyances and turn them into huge disadvantages. You're doing the right thing by seeing more concrete information about U-M. I hope you get it. Good luck!</p>
<p>I just met with a professor who got his PhD in poli sci at UM last night. He's currently working in Taiwan. He said that UM's American Politics program is especially number 1, if that interests you. He also noted UM as being the forefront of quantitative analysis, but I'm guessing that only super-interests me...</p>
<p>Personally, I picked UM for political reasons. I knew that it was a big enough school (and a loud enough school) to have random political groups from all areas of the spectrum. I thought about Georgetown for a while...but no...UM provides a much greater variety. I also thought about a lot of smaller schools, tech schools, but went against them purely because I also live and breathe politics.</p>
<p>I plan on double majoring in political science and mathematics...more emphasis on mathematics, but still... Another reason to go to UM? If I do go into politics, I want to be able to objectively judge about global warming, evolution, money to spend on cancer research, on space exploration, etc. Thus, I need more than political science and UM provides me a top program in everything.</p>
<p>I recently transferred from AU to UM and was also accepted into the UM Honors Program. Here's a funny story: while at transfer orientation, they whisked away the engineers (about 65% of the transfer group), as well as the kinesiology/nursing majors. What was left was practically all people from community colleges in MI, such as Washtenaw, or near-by universities like Oakland University or MSU, and a few people from Ohio. Strangely, one person sitting next to me was transferring from AU and there was another person from AU transferring in the room.</p>
<p>I just thought that was a funny story, but if you have any reservations about attending or feel as though you're compromising yourself in going to AU over UMich, you're probably going to end up transferring to UMich or somewhere else sometime down the line.</p>
<p>PS: The fact that you haven't visited the campus signals to me that, like GOB, you're "making a huge mistake!" UMich's campus, even just one of its campuses (central) blows AU's entire campus out of the water. It's difficult to get to DC, too, because you have to take a 20 minute bus ride from campus to the Tenleytown metro stop anyway.</p>
<p>I considered going to American or GWU, because I am interested in politics and IR...but I honestly did not like AU very much after participating in a summer program there. It clearly depends on the person, but AU's campus did not appeal to me in the slightest. I've only heard good things about the poli sci program at UMich, and you can always do summer internships in DC. Good luck!</p>