<p>So I was recently admitted to Michigan LSA a few days back and I'm very happy about that (oos)...But I have been hearing a lot about Michigan's lack of diversity. I know blacks and hispanics are not prevalent and that's not really my concern; I'm more concerned with asian (specifically Indian) representation at LSA. I would imagine COE has more indians/asians but that's not what I'm doing.</p>
<p>How's the Indian/middle east/asian representation at Michigan LSA? And is the student body inclusive of them or is there a sort of "self segregation"?</p>
<p>One more thing - is it true that many of the students at Michigan (esp in state) already know each other from high school so it's more difficult for out of state students to make friends?</p>
<p>First of all, it’s important to note that umich is a very diverse school. (Including a fairly established Indian population). However, there is little to no ‘self-segregation’. There are many cultural groups/clubs on campus, but the members don’t only stick to themselves.</p>
<p>I myself am an OOS student and have had no problems making friends. Although there are a fair amount of in-state kids, the vast majority of them are still looking to meet people and explore beyond their friend groups from hs.</p>
<p>A couple more questions regarding social life (I know academics are top notch):</p>
<p>Is the student body friendly and welcoming? I’ve heard mixed things. Many people tell me Michigan has a somewhat arrogant and pretentious student body, coming mainly from wealthy areas. Is this accurate?</p>
<ol>
<li>Is joining a frat worth it freshmen year at Michigan? Are frats generally popular among freshmen?</li>
</ol>
<p>Michigan isn’t nearly as diverse as it should be or as the university wants you to think, but there are a fair number of Indians. I was friends with a few last semester, and they were friendly with a mixed bag of people, but also found niches in primarily Indian social circles as well without much difficulty.</p>
<p>The student body of UMich certainly has its share of pretentious people, but pretentious doesn’t necessarily equal unwelcoming. The student population is large, and there will always be a good share of a**holes, but for every one of them, there are a handful of people who are very welcoming and open-minded. They’re easy to find, so don’t worry about that too much.</p>
<p>I couldn’t tell you much about social fraternities. If you wanted to know about professional fraternities, I could probably help you out a bit more with that.</p>
<p>~The diversity is pretty good. I notice a significant amount of indians walking through my dorm or between classes, although not as much as asians per se (of which there are a ****ton, especially on north campus). </p>
<p>~There are a ton of cultural clubs on campus so I’m sure you could find some that suit you. </p>
<p>~I’ve seen some indians that seem to hang out with exclusively indians, and some that don’t. It all depends on the people, not really on the university.</p>
<p>~This isn’t true at all from my experience, no to mention there is a huge percentage of OOS students at Michigan (pretty sure over 40%). That story is more true with MSU, not here. I know of some people here from feeder high schools in Michigan with ~60-80 people coming from their school and you wouldn’t even know it because everyone wants to make new friends here.</p>
<p>~These accusations of us being arrogant are usually in regard to our school spirit, and most of those accusations are coming from rival schools. I have (certain) friends at Penn State that love to call me arrogant simply because I love my school and am not afraid to show it. This “arrogance” I had heard about before coming here honestly attracted me here instead of deter me. To go to a school where every single person is proud of where they go and where every single person comes together for a common purpose is a great feeling, and I can’t imagine the alternative-- a school where everyone is in it for themselves only.</p>
<p>~Going into this year, I had zero intention of joining a frat. But I hung out with a specific frat through welcome week and rush process and eventually accepted my bid to it. To be quite honest, my first semester here was made absolutely amazing by choosing to go Greek. I’ve already made what I can tell are going to be my best friends over the next three and a half years, and the sense that you’re part of something that thousands of other kids are in as well is electrifying. Yeah, you have to be the right kind of person to be willing to put a lot of time, effort, and money into something like a frat, but I urge you to at least put some feelers out and try out rushing no matter what. Better to not accept a bid anywhere than regret not rushing at all.</p>
<p>i noticed in my eecs classes that there is probably 50%+ Asians and Indians/Pakistan/Middle Eastern combined. So yes, Indians are a pretty big group.</p>
<p>In a class like Psych or Comm, expect like 85%+ white</p>
<p>Not sure who your source is, but from what I know UMich is very diverse and no, not everyone there is wealthy and a pretentious ******. Of course there are some individuals probably like that, but that could be said of any school, and you would find more of those at private schools like Notre Dame, and a lot of the Ivy Leagues.</p>
<p>Prakash - you should really be looking to make friends with all students and not just Indians. Otherwise what is the point of coming to the USA? Why not go to st.stephens or Loyola college or Poddar? That being said, you will find a lot of students of Indian origin (I assume that is what you meant and not international students from India) in michigan LSA. my nieces are 2 of them. Also, given that michigan is a public school, you will find kids from all walks of life and not everyone is pretentious. Good luck.</p>
<p>CoE is mostly White, Asian, and Jewish, but there is a significant number of Indians too. If you walk around North Campus you’ll see maybe 3 or 4 out of every 100 people you see is Indian/Paki/Bangladeshi.</p>
<p>“If you walk around North Campus you’ll see maybe 3 or 4 out of every 100 people you see is Indian/Paki/Bangladeshi.”</p>
<p>I see way more than that in North Campus. It’s much more like 10-15% (probably closer to 15%) in my experience. I have a lot of Indian friends, they’re everywhere.</p>
<p>Yes there is a lot of diversity. The only self segregation going on is by choice, and there is certainly plenty of that (that goes for pretty much everywhere in the world, not just colleges).</p>
<p>There are a lot of Indians at Michigan. Most of them are from the Metro Detroit area and are in the Indian American Students Association (IASA), the second biggest student run organization on campus. The ones from around Detroit all seem to have know each before college probably because they are concentrated in towns such as Troy and Farmington Hills.</p>