CMU vs. UMich?????

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Michigan
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Okay, so I just came back from admitted students days at both the University of Michigan and Carnegie Mellon University.

I had also previously toured both schools before applying.

On paper CMU seems like the better choice I think but after visiting both I really liked UMich.

UMich is more expensive for me than CMU because I’m out of state (about 5-7k a year more).

At UMich I would be in LSA, and I got into the LSA Honors program. At CMU I would be in Dietrich.

At the moment, I want to study stats and bio but I’m not sure which one I want to major in or if I want to try and major in both.

At CMU I have been accepted to the college with the stats but the college does not have bio. I can minor in bio or double major in stats and bio, but I can’t switch majors without switching schools. At CMU most of the general requirements unfortunately are humanities because Dietrich is the humanities college.

At UMich everything (sciences and humanities) is in one school so I can easily change my major.

CMU however is renowned for its Stats department, so if I choose to stick with stats… It’s just annoying that I’d be in the humanities college.

I am leaning towards UMich, but I fear that this is a mistake because it seems CMU is academically superior/viewed more like an Ivy type school, would get me a better paying job out of college, and the tuition for me is cheaper. But I liked UMich a lot. It is big and everyone seems very happy.

I am worried about being too stressed and unhappy at CMU. I also felt like an outsider a bit at CMU since females and caucasians are both in the minority. I am excited to find diversity at college but I’m afraid at CMU since it is so small compared to UMich that I will feel alone. It also seemed that many kids come from private schools while I come from a public school.

I am very torn and worried that picking UMich would be a mistake.

Advice???

NOTE: I’m posting this under both schools’ sections to get a variety of opinions.

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sigh…something tells me you’ve memorized the top 20 in the USNWR rankings. Anyway, to calm your nerves, I’d like to point out that recruiters view UM and CMU on the same level (here’s some others for scale: UVA, UCLA, Northwestern, Penn, Cornell, Berekely, etc).

Academically, CMU has more smarter people on average because it’s a smaller school, but when compared to UM’s top students, it’s a wash. Case and point, my roommate: he was accepted into both Columbia and Penn, and is interning in cybersecurity for Boeing as a Freshman this summer. If you’re worried about being dragged down by idiots, don’t associate yourself with them.

As for the stressed part: CMU is definitely rated as more stressful than UM - I have an Electrical Engineering friend there. He’s also annoyed that it’s too boring lol. However, that’s more of based on what kind of person you are, so I won’t elaborate on that unless you want me to.

Now, ultimately, I’d like to point out that CMU and UM have very similarly top notch Stats programs, and UM is a feeder into it’s on grad school (top 10 in country) for Premed if you plan to pursue that route. So it comes down to whether you want to add the more rounded college experience at Umich, or the more focused academic oriented experience of CMU for 7k less.

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@Wolverine19 Thank you so much for your thoughtful and helpful post. At first I thought I wanted the more “focused academic oriented experience” but now I don’t think so. I loved everyone I met at UMich. There seemed to be many smart but interesting and involved students. The amount of stress at CMU is the most negative part to me. I know at UMich I will have stressful days but at CMU it seems to be a constant. I worry that I would be too stressed, and yes, bored to some extent. Each time I visited the CMU campus it seemed so quiet, and kind of sad in a way if that makes any sense.

I wanted to love CMU but I feel like I love UMich.

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As to statistics, a 3 spot difference in the graduate rankings is vanishingly small:
http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/statistics-rankings

This is a graduate ranking, but I would imagine teaching, facilities and faculty research would span both graduate and undergraduate departments such that the former would be a good proxy for the latter.

Some posters argue that there is some sort of huge differential between the undergraduate and graduate experience. The fact is that the graduate rankings are high and have been persistent for several generations, so it is more likely that
the undergraduate ranking (which slide 18 spots overnight with a methodology change) is significantly understated.

As to Wolverine19’s comments, I would go a tad stronger, as you may note the following:
The Michigan median GPA is 3.85. The Michigan interquartile ACT is 30-34 (essentially fungible with Brown, Cornell, Penn) and the interquartile SAT is: 2040-2280 http://admissions.umich.edu/apply/freshmen-applicants/student-profile

There are roughly 28,000 undergraduates at Michigan, so 7,000 total students in Michigan’s upper quartile (roughly the size of the average Ivy League school for all 4 quartiles, have a perfect unweighted GPA of 4.00 and an ACT above 34 (99th percentile)), and with SAT scores above 2280 (99% plus…which I believe reads as 99.5%). So in the upper quartile, you will face off against 7,000 kids that are stronger than the Ivy median, but for the entirety of the cohort.
In other words, you could helicopter out the entirety of, for example, Penn or Dartmouth or Cornell or Brown, and substitute Michigan’s top cohort, and the school’s scores would actually go up.

71% of Michigan’s kids have a composite ACT above 30, or roughly 20,000 kids

At CMU,
The figures are: 1) 1600 kids in the entering cohort or around 6,200 in total, so total population (all 4 quartiles) smaller than Michigan’s upper quartile alone; 2) CMU ACT interquartile of 31 to 34, so pretty fungible with Michigan (30-34), but while CMU’s top quartile, as does Michigan’s, starts at the same level of 34, it is a far smaller group of roughly 1,500 versus Michigan’s 7,000 or so; 3) 86% of CMU’s kids have a composite ACT above 30, or roughly 5,200 kids or ballpark of ¼ the comparable Michigan cohort of 20,000 plus kids above that level; 4) the upper quartile of 1,500 to 1,600 kids weighs in at roughly 1,540 on two parts of the SAT, roughly equal to Michigan’s 2280 for all 3 parts. Again, the cohort is far smaller.

So if you are going to compare the score levels for the most elite test takers, the Michigan cohort completely matches with CMU as to level, but has far more students at those levels. So if you care to measure competition by the number of competitors with fungible scores, it isn’t close.

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@blue85 Omigosh wow! Thank you so much for taking the time and effort to break down all the stats regarding the GPA and SATs at each school. This is really helpful.

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Glad to hear that it may have been of help to you.

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Thanks to everyone who posted. I really appreciate the time you all took to help me out. I just wanted to post in case anyone in the future looks at this thread that I ultimately chose the University of Michigan! Go Blue!!

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You have chosen…wisely! :wink:

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Well this makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. See you next year!