I would like to know more about U Michigan.
I know Michigan is a great, but how great? UM undergrad is ranked at #29, is it that good, or is it average?
My intention is for a history major, then law school which i know is outstanding, but i want to know more about its undergrad reputation.
How good is Michigan? That is the eternal question, isn’t it? How good is any university? The answer depends on who you ask…or in some cases, what methodology you use.
You cite the US News ranking, which indeed has Michigan at #29. This is certainly very good when you factor in the fact that there are thousands of universities. However, considering the limited methodology that clearly does not understand the way universities work (the folks at the US News are amateurs that know little about education) and flaws of the data used in that ranking, I do not think the US News is reliable. The President of Stanford University subtly said as much in print a few years ago, and actually used Michigan (and Cal) to illustrate his point.
http://web.stanford.edu/dept/pres-provost/president/speeches/961206gcfallow.html
Without a doubt, the US News is entirely about sales, not about journalistic integrity. It publishes a ranking based on inconsistent data, and it knows it.
“My intention is for a history major,…”
Michigan’s History department is one of the best in the country. It is generally considered one of the top 10 departments in the country. No matter which period or region of the world you wish to study, you are bound to have an authority teaching you. According to deans of History departments, Michigan is ranked in or around the top 5 in every single speciality:
African History #2
African American History #3
Asian History #9
Cultural History #2
European History #3
Latin American History #6
Modern US History #6
US Colonial History #7
Women’s History #3
Very few History departments have the breadth and depth offered at Michigan.
“…then law school which i know is outstanding,…”
Not only is Michigan’s Law school outstanding (especially according to Big Law as well as Lawyers and Judges), but it admits 75-90 Michigan undergrads annually. Michigan grads place well at other top Law schools as well, particularly at Harvard, NYU, Columbia, Northwestern, Georgetown, Chicago, UVa and Yale Law schools.
“…but i want to know more about its undergrad reputation.”
If there is one thing the US News gets right is the undergraduate academic reputation rating (aka, Peer Assessment Score). Perhaps that’s because it is intended to reflect an opinion and does not pass itself off as being irrefutable and concrete like the overall ranking, or perhaps because it is based on the opinion of university presidents of peer undergraduate institutions. Either way, it is a straight-forward rating and should be taking for what it is; a reputational survey of undergraduate programs, not fact. According to the Peer Assessment Score, Michigan receives a rating of 4.4 or 4.5 out of 5.0. According to the latest release, Michigan received a rating of 4.4, tied in 12th place with Brown, Duke and the University of Pennsylvania (slightly better than Carnegie Mellon, Dartmouth, Northwestern, UCLA and UVa, but slightly lower than Chicago, Columbia, Cornell and Johns Hopkins).
Given its very large endowment and its prominent alumni, Michigan’s future is very bright…reputationally most of all.