<p>How do you feel about the size of the school? Obviously if you're a student, you probably didn't mind the size too much... I'm just wondering if anyone felt overwhelmed at first or still does...</p>
<p>What are your opinions?</p>
<p>don't really care, but didn't care upon coming in anyways. I think a big school allows you more opportunity though. </p>
<p>I'm from the suburbs of Detroit, so you don't really see big groups of people walking down the street ever, not really even in Detroit unless for a game or something. To travel to a major city and see the hordes of people and see the same thing near campus here makes you realize the size of the school though. I like Ann Arbor and its size...minus the bums.</p>
<p>Size isn't an issue.</p>
<p>I'm a soph. now but I still remember when I drive up here for Campus Day. Yeah, I felt pretty overwhelmed by the size of the school but that goes away after like 1-2 weeks. You'll get used to Central Campus after a few days and all the other areas are connected by bus systems.</p>
<p>I'm a freshman now. I actually kind of like the size -- with a school this big there are always new people to meet, and always things going on ( party! :) ). But seriously, there are a lot of opportunities on campus. It'll take a couple of days during Welcome Week for you to really get used to everything but its not a problem once you do. Ann Arbor is a pretty chill town too...</p>
<p>I've always wanted a big school, so UM was perfect. I love being able to see new faces everyday.</p>
<p>The only thing that annoys me at times is the city of Ann Arbor. I'm from the east coast so Ann Arbor can seem really small and isolated at times, at least for me. Sometimes I wish UM was located in a big city.</p>
<p>Not an issue</p>
<p>My daughter ruled out Michigan, not on the basis of size per se, but because the north and central campuses are a 4-mile bus ride apart. She's interested in engineering, so most of her classes would be on north campus. North campus felt so isolated...and the dorms are on south campus...another bus ride.</p>
<p>Actually, there are dorms on North Campus and many freshman get placed there.</p>
<p>schmoomcgoo, there is a very safe, regular, timely and free bus system that connects Central and North campuses. The buses leave every 10-15 minutes and it generally takes 10-15 minutes to go from Central to North Campus. It is not ideal, but it is not a good reason to cross Michigan out. North Campus is self sustaining. It has nice dorms, its own libraries, a student union and a pretty new and large recreation facility. Besides, Michigan's Engineering facilities, labs and research oportunities for undergrad are hard to match.</p>
<p>My D is a freshman who lives in Sout Quad and takes the bus up to North campus a couple times a week for an architecture class. She's never mentioned it to be a hassel or problem. If she ends up going into architecture, she may move to North campus for her last couple of years, the university has some appartment style rooms that might be a nice break from the dorm.</p>
<p>Being on North Campus, it's not "isolated" or anything. There are plenty of students up here living at Bursley/Baits I, II. Bus system during the weekdays aren't bad at all, in fact, I leave for my classes later then many of my friends who live in Markley leave for their classes, and we both make it there at the same time. On the other hand, weekend/night time buses make me cry. If I want to get somewhere on Central during the weekend I usually have to leave my room like 30 minutes ahead of time</p>
<p>Getting up to North really isn't that big of a hassle. One gets to know the bus routes pretty quickly and sometimes it is nice to "get away" from the hustle and bustle on central campus.</p>
<p>I take the bus every single day for my classes as an engineer who lives in South Quad, pretty much as far away from North Campus as the dorms get. It's really not a problem. The distance is also definitely less than 4 miles. I've walked it a few times and it's rarely more than a 45 minute walk, and from the middle of the diag to the north campus diag is even less.</p>
<p>North campus is also much nicer than Central, where there's tons of construction going on. To be honest, apart from the diag, Central campus is ugly!! I wish they wouldn't do all the construction at once. </p>
<p>A lot of people used to complain about being on North campus at the beginning of the semester, but everyone just gets used to it. And honestly, its not so bad because the buses run quite frequently on the weekdays and weekends.</p>
<p>When I visited UM, I didn't get the sense it was all that big. I mean, I know in my head it is, but it really felt like a tight, small campus.</p>
<p>It is big but definitely walkable. And its not in the middle of the woods or something.</p>
<p>I am always amazed at how Michigan manages to conceal its size. Obviously, one will never get a "LACish" feeling at Michigan, but at the same time, Michigan does not have the impersonal feeling that one would expect of a university with 40,000 students. I think there are four reasons for this:</p>
<p>1) With over 3,000 acres, Michigan's campus is spacious.
2) Each department has its own building/facilty, so students tend to hang around the same students and faculty for a chunk of their 4 years at Michigan.
3) Michigan has a huge faculty, which allows for small classes.
4) Michigan has a lot of resources so it can cater to the individual. </p>
<p>The only time I really felt the school's size was at football games or walking down the Diag between classes during "peak hours".</p>
<p>D & I just got back from a campus visit. We were expecting it to be overwhelmingly large, but honestly it didn't feel like it. Maybe it's the way it's designed or the quaintness of Ann Arbor...it just didn't seem as large as it is. Also, you notice that people seem to know each other. It seems as though the campus is very active and has many opportunities for students.</p>
<p>Campus is pretty tight-packed. If the diag is the center of central campus, then everything else is honestly within a 10 minute walk.</p>
<p>North Campus is not far away at all, nowhere near 4 miles, just the busses make it take longer. I drive up there 3 days a week, on a good day with little traffic I can do it in just under 10 minutes, on day with traffic it could take 20. All that to move maybe 2 miles. Traffic here sucks.</p>