<p>Hey guys, so i got in Carnegie Mellon, UCLA, U of Michigan and its honor program, and Johns Hopkins. My major is applied math. Which one is better? i mean, are they all that different after all? any suggestions regarding academics, dorms, student life, and the city etc.?? </p>
<p>PS:does anyone know about the honor program at u of m?? is it a big deal? does it necessarily make u of m stand out among these four?</p>
<p>Thank u so much!!! Appreciate it!</p>
<p>U of M honors IS a big deal. What is the cost of each? Or is $ not a factor. For applied Math Michigan and UCLA would be the top 2 of your options.</p>
<p>thx for replying! money does have an effect on my choice but not that big a significance. How about Johns Hopkins and Carnegie Mellon? they seem to have good names too? maybe not as good as u of m honor and ucla?</p>
<p>Actually I just took another look at the rankings and UCLA is by far the best option for you in terms of academic prestige.</p>
<p>u mean the overall ranking or the applied math ranking?? cuz im not a big fan of overall ranking. they seem to be not always reflecting the true quality of a school accurately.</p>
<p>[NRC</a> Rankings Overview: Applied Mathematics - Faculty - The Chronicle of Higher Education](<a href=“NRC Rankings Overview: Applied Mathematics”>NRC Rankings Overview: Applied Mathematics)</p>
<p>applied specifically</p>
<p>thank u so much!</p>
<p>[Best</a> Applied Mathematics Programs | Top Math Schools | US News Best Graduate Schools](<a href=“http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/applied-mathematics-rankings]Best”>http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/applied-mathematics-rankings)</p>
<p>what if ignore the major, which school is the best u think?</p>
<p>If you completely ignored the major, I’d say either UCLA or UMich is the best. That is, of course, completely biased, so I don’t think it means much to you.</p>
<p>What part of the country do you think you will end up settling in? The reputation for CMU and JHU is much stronger than the other two in my region (mid Atlantic). I suppose that might be inverted in other parts of the country.</p>
<p>What kind of weather do you like? I can’t imagine Michigan seems like more fun than California?</p>
<p>haha yeah, ucla definitely prevails in weather. im personally looking closely at ucla and cmu, but i guess in general all these schools aren’t that different academically??</p>
<p>i live in socal now. Being the most selective of the four (honestly a metric that I think is useless), Hopkins has perhaps the most prestige of the four based on what I’ve seen (I work in a prestige obsessed consulting firm (think McKinsey/Boston Consulting Group)), even in southern California. In other parts of the country, Michigan and Hopkins would standout in terms of international and national prestige - particularly Ross and Michigan Honors. There’s a reason why Hopkins students from California choose to go to Hopkins even with Berkeley or UCLA as options. They believe in a better brand name that will open doors later. There are also news stories of people paying full freight for Hopkins over UCLA. You won’t find too much of the reverse happening. If it matters, UCLA’s influence dissipates away from the west coast but is strong in Asia.</p>
<p>Personally, I would narrow it down to Michigan Honors (where a lot of Harvard and Stanford admitted in-state Michigan students choose to go) and Hopkins if you’re interested in elite consulting (which a lot of applied math stats majors might go to). Additionally, the above rankings are a bit flawed. Hopkins’ applied math department (the major is called applied math and statistics I believe is actually ranked under the statistics category for instance):</p>
<p><a href=“http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/statistics-rankings[/url]”>http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/statistics-rankings</a></p>
<p>thanks so much for such a long and comprehensive reply! it really gives me a new idea of michigan honor program</p>
<p>I’d also add that graduate rankings are utterly meaningless when comparing undergraduate education as graduate rankings are based purely on research. They are not a measurement of undergraduate teaching, which is a lot more important. Stats 101 will be the same whether taught in Michigan, Hopkins, CMU, or whatever school.</p>
<p>The graduate rankings are NOT useless - if one is considering graduate study or high end consulting - outstanding faculty are KNOWN and have major connections. Oh and by the way faculty teach ALL levels. Also, why not get a head start on working with the BEST and most RESPECTED faculty out there? If you are an advanced undergrad you can even take graduate level courses.</p>
<p>lol…I guess putting stuff in BOLD really makes your argument more SOUND right? If graduate rankings mattered for undergrad, nobody interested in graduate school would go to WUSTL and there would be no engineers at Duke outside of BME majors. Yet I see tons of duke students graduating from MIT and STANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOLS for ENGINEERING and almost NONE at STANFORD and MIT graduate schools from higher ranked programs like PURDUE or WISCONSIN. Boy those poor engineering rankings must have REALLY been holding the undergrad DUKE students back. Imagine that.</p>