<p>In our continuing search for (hopeful) safeties, can someone compare Boston University and U of Michigan? Academically and socially? Input appreciated. Thanks.</p>
<p>Academics: about the same.</p>
<p>Social life: BU students have access to Boston. UMich students have opportunities to participate in a wide range of campus clubs and activities, but the closest big city is Detroit, which is not comparable to Boston to say the least. Ann Arbor itself does have vitality though, but it can’t compare to Boston either.</p>
<p>Academics: Michigan is one of the world’s greatest universities, with strength in almost every discipline imaginable. BU is clearly a step or two down from that level—no one would ever mention it among the world’s greats. It does have some strong programs, but they’re spotty.</p>
<p>Social life: BU has no real campus and not much campus life, but some people prefer to go to college in a big city, and as big cities go Boston is an interesting and lively one. Ann Arbor is one of the all-time great college towns. It’s a matter of personal preference.</p>
<p>Academically, Michigan is slightly better than Boston University. Regardless of what rating/ranking you look at, Michigan will typically be ranked slightly above BU. The difference is not glaring, but it is worth noting. Of course, it all depends on your intended major. For example, BU is excellent in Biomedical Engineering and Communications.</p>
<p>Socially, you cannot compare the two. BU has a non-descript campus with relatively understated social/extra curricular activity. Michigan’s campus, on the other hand, is very spirited and active. As far as the cities go, I am not sure I understand what IvyPBear is trying to say. Boston is not exactly a bastion of culture. It does not have an extraordinary art, entertainment or music scene, nor is it known for having major outdoors offerings. It is a pretty typical city, no different than say Denver, Philadelphia or Seattle. Ann Arbor is a mid-sized city and is very much centered around the university, making it a pretty typical college town.</p>
<p>Note that for OOS applicants, Michigan is seldom a safety, especially if you complete you application past the November 1 EA deadline.</p>
<p>My sister decided between these two last May and ultimately went with Mich. She’s going into communications, and while enticed by BU’s great program and internship opportunities, decided that Michigan’s world recognition and alumni network along with school spirit was more “right” for her.</p>
<p>Wow! Either BU has really ramped up its academics or there is some serious exaggeration going on. 15+ years ago, equating BU as on par with UMich for academics…or even one or two levels below would have prompted a serious ROTFLOL. Heck, even had a few teachers/college guidance counselors criticize BU as a place providing an average to mediocre state university education at an Ivy-league price. </p>
<p>Especially when from the high school I went to, anyone with a C-/C average and mediocre SATs(we’re talking 1000s/1600 pre-1995) were able to get in whereas even B/B+ students with 1300s tended to struggle to gain admission to UMich. </p>
<p>Moreover, for employment opportunities from places that hire only from Ivy league/Ivy-level universities and colleges like…UMich is usually included in the recruiting process…not schools like BU.</p>
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Judging by past posts, the areas of interest are classics and/or linguistics. They’re pretty much comparable at the undergraduate level.</p>
<p>I personally prefer Boston to Ann Arbor, but I think a lively campus scene (i.e. Michigan) should not be underestimated. Why not apply to both? It’s rarely a good idea to apply to only one safety anyway.</p>
<p>*In our continuing search for (hopeful) safeties, can someone compare Boston University and U of Michigan? Academically and socially? Input appreciated. Thanks. *</p>
<p>without knowing your child’s stats and home state, it’s really impossible for us to know whether UMich or BU are safeties for your kid. And, can you afford those schools. A school isn’t a safety if you’re not sure how costs will be covered. </p>
<p>Are you in-state for UMich?</p>
<p>“Academics: about the same.”</p>
<p>What? You are talking about the University of Michigan, right? Not Michigan State? There is no comparison between the University of Michigan and BU. UM is substantially better and much harder to get into than BU. These two schools are not really comparable. </p>
<p>UM is academically superior.
UM is a big state school with a beautiful campus in the suburbs. BU is a big private school in a large city with an urban campus (think NYU).
UM has a great athletics program. BU has a good hockey program, but lacks other programs.</p>
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<p>You know I rarely disagree with you Alexandre, but I have to take issue with you on this one. Michigan isn’t “slightly” better than BU academically. Michigan has better faculty, better students, and a better academic reputation in almost any discipline you can imagine. It’s just not that close between these two schools. Here are a few points of comparison.</p>
<p>US News overall rank: Michigan 29, BU 56
US News Peer Assessment score (rating by peer institutions): Michigan 4.4. BU 3.4
US News ranking, Undergrad Business: Michigan 4 (4.4 rating), BU 42 (3.2 rating)
US News ranking, Undergrad Engineering: Michigan 7 (4.3 rating), BU 56 (2.9 rating)
US News ranking, Best Undergrad Teaching: Michigan 8, BU not ranked (not in top 12)</p>
<p>US News Graduate Program Rankings (primarily based on faculty reputation): Econ, Michigan 12, BU 24; English, Michigan 13, BU 46; History, Michigan 7, BU 48; Poli Sci, Michigan 4, BU 51; Psych, Michigan 3, BU 50; Sociology, Michigan 3, BU 57; Math, Michigan 8, BU 46; Statistics, Michigan 12, BU 45; Biology, Michigan 20, BU 82; Chemistry, Michigan 16, BU 60; Computer Science, Michigan 13, BU 47; Earth Science, Michigan 9, BU 58; Physics, Michigan 11, BU 40 </p>
<p>NRC 2010 grad program ranking, Classics: R-Ranking, Michigan 6-19, BU not ranked; S-Ranking, Michigan 5-16, BU not ranked. Michigan ranked 7th highest of all programs nationally.</p>
<p>NRC 2010 grad program ranking, Linguistics: R-Ranking, Michigan 11-32, BU 21-48; S-Ranking, Michigan 11-23, BU 29-48. Michigan ranks about 11th or 12th nationally, BU rather further down, probably around 30 though I haven’t done the calculations.</p>
<p>Philosophical Gourmet ranking of philosophy programs: Michigan 5, BU 48</p>
<p>THES ranking, World’s Best Universities: Michigan 15, BU 64
Shanghai Jiao Tong Academic Ranking of World Universities: Michigan 22, BU 77</p>
<p>Average HS GPA of entering freshmen: Michigan 3.8, BU 3.5
Freshmen in top 10% of HS class: Michigan 92%, BU 55%
% of freshmen scoring 700+ SAT CR: Michigan 24%<em>, BU 14%
% of freshmen scoring 600+ SAT CR; Michigan 73%</em>, BU 63%
% of freshman scoring 700+ SAT M: Michigan 47%<em>, BU 23%
% of freshmen scoring 600+ SAT M: Michigan 89%</em>, BU 77%
% of freshmen scoring 30+ ACT: Michigan 46%, BU 27%
- Michigan doesn’t superscore SAT, BU does. With superscoring Michigan’s figures would be higher.</p>
<p>Average freshman retention rate: Michigan 96.0%, BU 91.0%
6-year graduation rate: Michigan 89.0%, BU 81.0%</p>
<p>BU is preferred by people who prefer a city to campus/college town life, and by some Northeasterners who prefer not to leave the Northeast. Especially for undergrads in business, engineering, or liberal arts honors, Michigan is clearly a superior choice academically. The difference may be slightly less clear-cut for non-honors liberal arts majors, especially those in popular majors. But I would argue that even for non-honors liberal arts students in smallish majors like Classics or Linguistics, the academic opportunities at Michigan will simply be much greater, except in the rare academic disciplines (and I haven’t yet identified any) where BU has a stronger program.</p>
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<p>That’s actually an interesting comparison. I’d say BU and Michigan State have a pretty similar profile in terms of how their faculties stack up, with lots and lots of programs in the #30 to #60 range, but far fewer in the top 10 or top 25 where almost all of Michigan’s are. But BU’s students are decidedly better than Michigan State’s. Of all the Big Ten schools, BU’s students are probably most similar to Ohio State’s in terms of class rank and SAT/ACT scores–better than Michigan State, but nowhere near on a par with Michigan. But then again, Ohio State has a lot more top 25 departments than BU. So I’d say from a Big Ten perspective, BU has Michigan State’s faculty and Ohio State’s students—on both counts, well shy of Michigan’s level.</p>
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For undergraduate work, I disagree about classics and in fact anything ancient-related. Linguistics is not my field, however, so you may be correct about that.</p>
<p>Academics – Both have pretty good faculty, with some superstars and some not-quite-famous-yets; Michigan tends to have more of the former than the latter. Greek and Latin are offered every year at both universities, and enough undergraduate courses are offered that a student could easily take 10-12 interesting major courses. Michigan does offer several more language courses each semester, but that is only useful once one gets to the advanced level (i.e. 3 years or more of a language).</p>
<p>Museums – BU has extremely close ties with the Museum of Fine Arts. The Sackler museum is also in the Boston area, as is the lesser known but equally important Semitic museum. The Kelsey is a decent teaching museum, but it’s just not in the same league; Michigan’s collections have always played second fiddle to the earlier and more comprehensive collections at Penn, the Met, the MFA, and a couple others, partly because it was not a serious player in classical archaeology until the late 1970s. Michigan does, however, have a very nice papyrology collection.</p>
<p>Journals – BU plays host to ASOR as well as some of the major journals in the field (e.g. the American Journal of Archaeology and to a much lesser extent Arion). It’s also host to a couple dozen research associates and their projects as a result. Michigan is host to no major journals in the field.</p>
<p>Lectures – Lectures in classics and related topics are available at BU as well as other local schools with decent to strong classics programs (Harvard, Tufts, Brandeis). Lectures are also available through the MFA and the AIA chapter. Lectures at Michigan are limited to the university itself and the local AIA chapter.</p>
<p>Related offerings – Both offer courses on Egypt, Mesopotamia, Turkey, and the like. Both offer Hittite, Akkadian, Sumerian, and a couple other ancient languages. Neither is the best for those areas, but they’re more than adequate for an undergrad.</p>
<p>Now, a good classics program is great. The new NRC rankings support my long held belief that the programs at Duke and UNC mop the floor with most other programs, so I’ve experienced the benefits first hand. I’ll be the first to admit, however, that a student in Boston/NYC/Philly has an enormous advantage over peers in other locations.</p>
<p>^^^Wonderful. Someone from Duke, which has nothing to do with thread, has to tell everyone his/her program is superior to the two schools that are mentioned here. The point that bclintonk was making is that overall Michigan is academically superior to BU.</p>
<p>“Academics: about the same.”</p>
<p>I know this might come a shock to you IvyPBear, but public schools outside of the northeast can sometimes be very good.</p>
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Oh, hush. I didn’t make that claim, partly because I’m not sure it’s true and partly because I really don’t see what the point of such a statement would be. </p>
<p>I brought it up because while I haven’t had the privilege of studying at Michigan, I’ve studied in a similar department in a similarly sized city – and although I’m very fond of my alma mater, I would be hesitant to say that it has a lot more opportunities than BU for precisely the reasons I outlined above. Some of my friends and colleagues studied classics and archaeology at Columbia and BU, and being in a major urban location gave them a lot more opportunities than I had available. </p>
<p>Is it surprising that location can be a factor? Take Georgetown, whose political science program gets major attention almost entirely due to its location. You could also say the same for studying marine biology in Florida, film in LA, urban studies in NYC, or any number of other fields.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, this thread is getting somewhat off track, perhaps due to my detours. Apologies to the OP if classics is no longer a major area of interest. ;)</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1065670161-post2.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1065670161-post2.html</a>
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<p>“Mop the floor” indeed…:rolleyes:</p>
<p>“The new NRC rankings support my long held belief that the programs at Duke and UNC mop the floor with most other programs, so I’ve experienced the benefits first hand.”</p>
<p>Well I’m glad then that you think Michigan and BU are not like most other programs…</p>
<p>“Oh, hush.”</p>
<p>Southern gentility at it’s finest. :-)</p>
<p>Alexandre wrote:</p>
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<p>That is one of the single funniest thing I’ve ever read on CC; certainly it’s in the top 5.</p>
<p>UCB,</p>
<p>You’ll be happy to know that I think Berkeley was robbed in those lists, as I would put it #1 in the country in the field. I think UT Austin and UCLA also have strong grounds for complaint. </p>
<p>Alas, my opinion does not count for much! ;)</p>
<p>Oh, and to get back to the original topic – It would also help to know whether your son is a NMF. Boston U makes scholarships available for such students, and Michigan may as well.</p>