<p>U Michigan, Duke, UCLA, Cornell, UVa, or Northwestern and why.</p>
<p>I had the choice between Brown, Cal, Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Duke, Michigan, Northwestern and Penn among others. Academically and reputationally, you cannot go wrong with any of those schools. </p>
<p>Before deciding, I interviewed very senior executives (including 2 CEOs) of major financial institutions (primarily at BNP Paribas, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan), family members who attended top universities (including Columbia, Georgetown, MIT and Penn) and professors at major universities (including Harvard and the University of Chicago). </p>
<p>The general sentiment was that all of those universities were equal. They are all excellent. So I personally based my decision on my campus visits. I felt most at home at Michigan/Ann Arbor and that is why I chose it. </p>
<p>Good luck with your decision.</p>
<p>Wow, Alexandre I see you had many great schools to choose from and I agree that those schools are pretty equal academically; however, what most of those schools are lacking in is the great Michigan campus feel. </p>
<p>To Alexandre, on the side note, money or any other factor (Football, etc) was not an influence on your ultimately decision to attend Michigan? And by the way thanks for the reply.</p>
<p>Depends on the money. If I had a lot of money, I’d choose Duke because it’s heavily involved with basketball, which is the only collegiate sport I follow. However, because I do not feel like dishing out an additional 30k a year for an education that is not exceedingly better than one I can get at UM, I’d go to Ann Arbor.</p>
<p>The same applies for Northwestern/Cornell, except Duke has a good mainstream sport team and NW/Cornell do not.</p>
<p>Wow Alexandre! You turned down a lot of great schools for Michigan. That must have been a VERY tough decision.</p>
<p>I’m sure being in Los Angeles would be nice as a college student, and Cornell is a great university also. Though I would say University of Michigan- Ann Arbor. Located in a college town, not too far from home ( could easily travel there within a hour if needed so), etc…</p>
<p>As an international student, I had to pay full tuition regardless of which university I attended. As such, cost was not really a factor in my decision as all my choices were expensive. </p>
<p>krw, my decision was tough and at the same time, it wasn’t. Once I established that I could not go wrong academically, I was just concerned with the environment. From that point of view, knowing that I could not go wrong, the decision was easy. My campus visits clarified whatever doubts I may have had. In some cases, I did not like the location of certain schools. The areas around Chicago, Columbia and Penn were a little too ghetto for me, Cornell was too isolated and the area surrounded Duke seemed a little too conservative and racist for my taste. Those were all personal observations at the time mind you. I revisted Columbia a couple of years ago and I actually liked it. Of the schools that accepted me, my favorite were Brown, Cal, Michigan and Nothwestern. Chosing between them was not easy, but ultimately, I felt most at home on the Michigan campus and I preferred Ann Arbor to Berkeley, Evanston or Providence.</p>
<ol>
<li>Michigan</li>
<li>Northwestern</li>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>UCLA</li>
<li>Duke</li>
<li>UVA</li>
</ol>
<p>Ann Arbor is a very diverse town, everyone will fit in, also this personal ranking is based on perceived global brand as well.</p>
<p>Mich
Reason: Ross</p>