<p>I'm a New Yorker but a Michigan resident. I've been accepted to both University of Michigan and Columbia University. I'm thinking of majoring in Human Rights and am much more intrigued with the program at Columbia, but due to my in-state status Univ. of Michigan would be drastically cheaper. I know UofM has a good reputation, but is it worth re-locating and giving up my option in the Ivies? Or, is Columbia going to be worth taking the financial risk considering UofM is a highly regarded state school? HELP! ; )</p>
<p>Hey all, thanks for responding. UofM would be less than 1/3 of the cost of Columbia, though my family is willing to help pay for some of Columbia if I go there. I would walk away with some debt by choosing Columbia, but no debt if I choose UofM. I’m really open to ideas and/or thoughts, this is a tough choice, thank you!</p>
<p>Sorry floridadad55, but Columbia is not worth the considerable amount of dollars it would take to attend there over Michigan. However, I can understand why you personally might consider spending the extra money to send your child to Columbia if the alternative were The University of Florida.</p>
<p>Human Rights majors OFTEN go into law. There’s a program at Michigan that doesn’t 100% guarantee, but says you have a really strong chance, of getting into Michigan Law (ranked #2 in the country by Gourmet report, and like always in the top 10 of most reports) if you score higher than 3.8 gpa- no lsat, no ec’s, etc- that alone is a VERY strong pro for Michigan.
Also keep in mind that odds are, at Columbia a LOT of people go there to study human rights, etc so what if you’re competing against loads of people for that professor attention or that internship position? There’s competition at Michigan too, but I’m guessing at Columbia and NYC in general it’d be excessive and overbearing like wayyy too much.
Also, I don’t like NYC; I don’t know about you, but have you ever even visited? I really wanted to go to Columbia then I saw NYC and I was like noooooooooooooooo
Also, isn’t the American politics program at Michigan #1 in the country or something?
In addition, a lot of people say that it doesn’t matter where you go to college anymore, because everything’s really global especially with the internet. Quite a few top lobbying firms for instance recruit interns in different parts of the country- all the work done thru the phone and internet.
Hope that helps!</p>
<p>You have to do a basic cost benefit analysis. How much can you expect your starting salary to be?</p>
<p>As I see it, Michigan doesn’t offer a “human rights” major, but that’s basically a more specialized sociology and political science major. Since Umich is higher ranked for both those fields, I would seriously doubt that Columbia would provide a substantially higher education in those fields compared to Michigan. Second what do you plan on doing after undergrad? Law School, Business, public policy, Grad school in Sociology or Poli Sci, etc?</p>
<p>For all the above with the exception of working in Finance, Columbia would not open any doors that Michigan won’t. Sure Ross gets amazing recruitment for finance jobs, but if you plan on studying social sciences (excluding Economics) it’ll be tough. </p>
<p>For a financial standpoint, Michigan is the clear winner. This comparison only makes sense if you enjoy Columbia’s atmosphere substantially more. Columbia’s location is advantages but not necessarily worth the large price difference.</p>
<p>There’s honestly no difference in the quality of programs you’re interested in - if so, Michigan might even have a slight edge. For 1/3 the price, I think you can tell us which one you should choose.</p>
<p>I would likely be 35-40K in debt going the Columbia route, and after graduation might consider grad school in Human Rights, Public Health or Public Policy. Or else, I may end up working for an organization, non-profit or not. I should have specified that UofM does not offer a Human Rights program, so I would likely be finishing in Anthropology and choose more current up-to date topics for my coursework.</p>
<p>One last thing, I’m a New Yorker and a non-traditional undergraduate student, while the financial benefit is clear should I come to Michigan, I know that I am more comfortable in New York all around. Thoughts? Thanks for your time.</p>
<p>In my personal opinion, If you’re looking to go to grad school you might as well take the cheaper option and aim for Columbia for grad - but a 40k debt is pretty small difference between the two schools. </p>
<p>I was expecting more along the lines of 100k when you mentioned that it’s 3x more expensive ;)</p>
<p>Yes, but NO DEBT is much better than 40K debt. Remember his/her parents are going to be shelling out a lot of money to ONLY go into that much debt. Also remember that the cost of living in A2 is going to be considerably less than in NYC. Nevertheless, the OP sounds like his/her heart is set on staying in NYC and would probably always question why he/she went to Michigan instead. If I were the OP in this case, I would probably go to Columbia.</p>
<p>Here’s what I’m reading (correct me if I’m wrong). You would prefer going to Columbia over Michigan, but don’t know whether it’s worth the money.</p>
<p>There’s no ‘right or wrong’ answer to this one, it’s really a personal decision based on individual family circumstances and values. People will come out in different places on this. You have to decide whether the expense/debt is worth what you believe to be a superior school.</p>
<p>My question is: How is OP able to decide in August which school to go to. Did he (she?) accept both schools in April and is now deciding? By accepting both schools, he kept out another student from potentially going to his/her dream school. I know that students sometimes accept multiple schools, but it still aint right. Also, generally you have no more information to decide in August than in April, so what was the point?</p>
<p>MichorPlan2 - apparently this may be more common than many of us thought. 6540 paid their enrollment deposit to Michigan, per Lester Monts, senior vice provost for academic affairs. I then subsequently read that U of M actually expects less than 6000 to enroll.</p>