<p>“Twitter also said yesterday that MSU license plates outnumber UofM license plates”</p>
<p>No surprise at all. Michigan students leave the state en masse upon graduation.</p>
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Not a good thing for MSU. It means its grads are stuck in an economically terrible state after graduation.</p>
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At the undergrad level, MSU is way larger than UM because it’s way less selective. Although if we’re talking about the size of an academic “pond” in terms of student body strength UM is obviously the large pond.</p>
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<p>A lot of truth to that, but that’s not such a good thing for the state of Michigan. It means the University of Michigan attracts a large fraction of the brightest and most promising young people in the state, along with a large number of similarly promising out-of-staters; keeps them there for 4 years (or perhaps more if they go for advanced degrees); then essentially flushes them out of the state.</p>
<p>How stupid is that as a matter of social and economic policy for the state of Michigan?</p>
<p>I recently read that well over half of the new residents immigrating to Cook County, Illinois (Chicago and suburbs) come from Michigan–mostly Michigan and Michigan State grads, but more of the former. Great for Chicago. Great for Illinois which gets this huge influx of young, educated talent at no cost to the taxpayers of Illinois. Really, really stupid for the state of Michigan which creates great out-of-state opportunities for its young people (that’s the positive side) but also hemorrhages brains, talent, and entrepreneurial energy. </p>
<p>Somebody’s got to figure out a way to stop the bleeding and keep more talent in-state.</p>
<p>“Somebody’s got to figure out a way to stop the bleeding and keep more talent in-state.”</p>
<p>Unless people can fix Detroit, that’s not going to stop. I have lived my whole life in Michigan and I love the state but if I could choose where to work after graduation my first few choices (in order) would be: NYC, Chicago, Seattle/Vancouver, Toronto, and Austin all before staying in Michigan. All of those are major vibrant cities and I have so many friends who went to high school with me that want to leave the state as well because being in a “real” city matters so much. If Detroit was anywhere near the level of Chicago, staying in state would be much higher on my list. I always felt that so many people who went to UM left the state simply because they could. To a lot of people in their 20s, being in a real city matters.</p>
<p>If Chicago doesn’t get its crime wave and ridiculously high taxes straightened out soon, it’s definitely going to feel a negative affect in the future.</p>
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<p>Create good educated jobs. That’s pretty much all it takes and the only thing that will do it.</p>
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<p>I think Chicago is already a tier 2 city for top Michigan grads. State grads are still very obsessed with it. Michigan grads love California, DC and New York.</p>
<p>I’m in total agreement that we need to do more to keep grads here whether they’re from MSU, Michigan, Tech, etc. To avoid getting political, let’s just say I have no faith in much getting done in the next several years.</p>
<p>I wanna work in Cleveland</p>
<p>My daughter has 2 close friends who chose MSU after being accepted to both. Her gal friend has a sister there and didn’t like the feel of Michigan’s campus. I feel she was more influenced by having a sister already at MSU. Her guy friend got into a research/honors program so that was the deciding factor for him.
There were also a couple of liars (big Michigan fans) who said they got into both but picked MSU because it was cheaper…yeah right! U of M doesn’t care how big a fan you are, but they do care about how many AP classes you took, grade point, and ACT scores.</p>
<p>^ If it was a high stats applicant from an otherwise full-freight family, it is entirely possible for MSU to be cheaper (merit aid). </p>
<p>For me, it was the same price. While MSU is generally stingy with financial aid, they are very generous to poverty-level kids.</p>
<p>I might end up coming off as a second-gen Romani, haha. :P</p>
<p>I ended up choosing the RCAH over U of M for a few main reasons.</p>
<p>1) The “feel” of MSU over UMich. Sorry, but when I toured UMich, it just did not come off right to me. I love Ann Arbor (I’m a city girl by heart, any way), but the attitude that UMich displayed on my tour was…less than pleasant, and felt very stifled and haughty. MSU was much different. In Umich’s defense, I had a pretty bad tour guide, and that could’ve put me off quite a bit from what would have otherwise been a great tour.</p>
<p>2) The RCAH. An undergrad focused liberal arts college, for in-state tuition mind you, within a Big 10, high research university, that has produced a job placement rate of 93%? Yes please. I cannot understate how RCAH swayed me towards MSU rather than Umich. People seem to care at the RCAH. I got to talk to an amazingly diverse group of students and teachers who are doing great community work, and going off to good jobs and schools afterwards. How the RCAH is run is practically what I want out of college. Quite frankly, I don’t think the LSA at Umich could have offered me that, for as good of as a school it is. </p>
<p>3) The fact that MSU is a top 100 global university by most accounts. Yeah, yeah, UMich is higher, but like others before have said–the fact we have two top 100 universities in the state is AMAZING. I’ll still be getting an excellent education and research opportunities at MSU! The fact that I can work my way into the honors college doesn’t hurt, either. ;)</p>
<p>There’s more, but those are the three main reasons.</p>
<p>These couple of kids who “said they were accepted at both” were not in AP classes and are just average students. But being raging U of M fans and MSU haters they had to come up with some story along with their parents.</p>
<p>Seems odd to go to a school that you hate, especially when there are many good universities in Michigan.</p>
<p>“How the RCAH is run is practically what I want out of college. Quite frankly, I don’t think the LSA at Umich could have offered me that, for as good of as a school it is.”</p>
<p>Perhaps you should have explored the Residential College at Michigan inside of LS&A. </p>
<p>Btw, a relative of mine graduated from State at the RCAH. She enjoyed the program very much, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa. She ended up attending graduate school at Michigan.</p>
<p>Fwiw, ime, the a RC at Michigan and RCAH are very different programs.</p>
<p>I cannot speak to that romani. I do know that while my relative academically excelled at State and liked the RCAH in particular, she was not that enamored with the rest of the school in general. In her case, she should have attended a university in a more urban environment.</p>
<p>I’m just pointing out that they’re not interchangeable. Even though they have a similar name, the programs are very different. Where someone might fit in very well at one, they might not in the other. </p>
<p>One major difference is that the RCAH is the actual major whereas Michigan’s RC isn’t. </p>
<p>My post was more directed at people above you who said that choosing MSU over Michigan for a program is stupid :)</p>
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<p>There’s really no such thing as a “Michigan attitude.” I assume you probably hadn’t been around many wealthy (parents easily clear $350k a year) and bright kids prior to your tour. I’d bet the wealthy and bright kids that had the same tour guide as you didn’t detect any of the “attitude” that caught you so off guard.</p>
<p>What city are you from?</p>
<p>@rjknovi</p>
<p>They never mentioned it on the tour, and I found out about it after being accepted to State. I looked into it, and like Romani said, it’s not an individual major, which doesn’t suit me well. It seems like a good program, though.</p>
<p>@cc</p>
<p>Yeah, that was DEFINITELY something that put me off as well. When we went around saying who was from where, the impression of the whole “NYC/Bay Area/-insert elite wealthy area here-” was definitely strong, with very few others like me. My family lives in the Washington/Romeo area, barely clearing 100k a year. I’m not saying that’s poor by any means, god no (it’s rather well off actually), but in comparison to the others…I felt like I was a pauper, hah. I definitely understood why people call it the “Ivy of the Midwest”, in terms of academics and people. </p>
<p>Do I feel like I got a proper representation of UMich at my tour? No. But do I still feel like State’s the right school for me, barring the lack of a city environment? Yes.</p>