<p>Campus is not a dump. </p>
<p>But U of I…wow I was so disappointed I’m from Illinois and I didnt even apply, nothing was kept up nice.</p>
<p>A. Campus is a dump
Wow. I personally don’t think Michigan’s campus is beautiful, but a dump? That’s a little extreme.</p>
<p>B. student body most arrogant of any in the u.s. (maybe behind Notre Dame)
You obviously have not been around. Even in the Midwest, there are several schools that match, if not beat, Michigan on this front, to say nothing of Michigan’s East Coast peers. </p>
<p>C. Weather. I think most people can agree on this one. Schools in the Northeast (north of Rhode Island) and Midwest have cold winters.</p>
<p>"What about other major, like literature, art history, drama? I am a international transfer student " - I’m a history major & their history department is TOP notch. It’s top 10, for my field it’s 7th ranked & that includes higher than most Ivy’s. Seriously their liberal arts program is top notch. I am considering several schools for graduate school, but UM is definately up there I’d say in my top 3 choices. Their library is huge & nationally known. Their history program also has one of the largest faculty bodies I’ve seen. The US history dept itself has around 25 professors or so. That’s more than some colleges & universities have in TOTAL. Look up the individual departments on the internet & check out their faculty & pedigree. If there is a weakness UM has, it definately is NOT in the history department of liberal arts.</p>
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<p>I can tell you, I really do hate how they put drastically different styles of buildings right next to each other. No consistency at all. Ross is right next to the Law quad, and it makes them both look awful. </p>
<p>Like I said Vlad, I do not think the campus is pretty, but it is not a “dump”.</p>
<p>To the “arrogance” thing – I used to work at UM and the students whom I personally knew were wonderful. Salt of the earth types. But I can tell you that many times, in casual conversation w/random undergrads, I was questioned about “what school did you go to?” in a snide/snarky manner – as if they were looking to cut me down based on what I’d say since it’d likely be not as prestigious as UMich. I’d casually drop that I went to school “out east” and you’d think they started to gag. “What? Where” I’d drop the name of my HYP alma mater and quickly move on to another subject. I knew I had knocked him off a peg or two. And I’m not making this up – this happened to me several several times.</p>
<p>Disclosure: I turned down UM to go to my college. I live in MI again and my 11th grader is seriously considering it – frankly as 1st or 2nd choice. But UMich sure doesn’t work at ALL to make someone feel wanted. We may end up sending her there but there are other schools of equal caliber that really have worked hard to win us over. UMich public relations needs some upgrading. They believe their own hype a little too much. Their loss.</p>
<p>T26E4, I guess we will have to disagree on this one. </p>
<p>I completely understand your viewpoint – like I said, personal friends, who were students, were great. I happened to know several of the FB players and they were super-respectful and hard working. But those few instances I cited above really colored things for me; their current lack of outreach plays into that feeling, too</p>
<p>It’s a personal conflict – I’d love my daughter to attend (in state tuition) and frankly, I consider myself a UMich sports fan (our first house was about 1/3 mile away from the Stadium). </p>
<p>“Ross is right next to the Law quad, and it makes them both look awful.”</p>
<p>Oh yes, the ugly law quad. </p>
<p>T26E4, you should not let a few rotten apples tarnish the whole lot! I am sure you have a lot of arrogant students at Michigan. I do not question that. I merely question the claim that Michigan has THE most arrogant student body in the country. </p>
<p>I think the snobby comments could apply to just about any college or university of any amount of prestige. I would add, especially among undergraduates since most of them are kids fresh out of high school. Yes, snobbyness does exist in high schools. </p>
<p>The only dumpy part of campus is the CCRB. What a joke that crap hole is.</p>
<p>@franko5150: if I may, at UoM it was different. I went to what would portend to be a pretty stuffy Ivy. However most people were very down to earth. The snobs that were there just ran in other circles. What I found irksome at UoM was the willingness of people, strangers to question me about what school I had attended (since I clearly wasn’t a UoM alum or student). To be frank, it spoke of their quick need to size someone else up based upon schooling. That didn’t happen when I worked at Stanford or other colleges.</p>
<p>T26E4, your experience is very bizarre. I actually don’t even understand what you mean since you are being very cryptic. I do not understand under what circumstances a 50 year old man is socializing with a bunch of 20 year old college students and discussing educational backgrounds. In fact, I am not sure why any student would be interested in knowing a random stranger’s academic background. But I am very familiar with several universities, and from what I have seen, Michigan students are among the most down to earth among the nation’s elite. Even students who attended peer schools (like the Ivies, Chicago, MIT, Northwestern, Stanford, USC and several top LACs like Swarthmore and Williams etc…) admitted when they spent time at Michigan (either as visiting scholars or as graduate students) that the Michigan community was relatively down to earth and welcoming. </p>
<p>I’m wondering how long ago that was. My brother went to Michigan in the early 80s. He said that his freshman year, first day of class, each of his professors went on about how they were the elite, the best at the best school, etc. I’ve asked more recent students if they are fed those lines now and they all said they were not. I think they used to be spoon fed that stuff. I’m not sure when it ended. </p>
<p>I was at Michigan from 1970 through 1975, getting a bachelor’s and master’s and I never heard the type of elitist talk described. It was very down to earth. And now my son has enrolled as part of the Class of 2018,</p>
<p>@Alexandre: I worked on campus from 1990-1993 and 1995-2005 and often had interactions w/students. I don’t recall in what scenarios my background was questioned – I found it unusal too. That’s why it sticks out in my mind. I think you mentioned this though: perhaps I’m letting a few rotten apples spoil the bunch. As for students who were friends, I found them to be great.</p>
<p>You are always going to have bad seeds. I wouldn’t judge a university’s student body by the actions of a few. For example, is Susan Patton a good representative of Princeton alumni/students? I hope not. If the attitude of Duke students visiting the Michigan forum were any indicator, the Duke student body has to be one of the most unjustifiably arrogant student bodies in the nation. But those are just the actions of a few rotten apples. Even if only 1% of Michigan students were insufferably arrogant, you would have 300 “rotten” apples scattered around campus. That’s plenty of damage.</p>
<p>" Even if only 1% of Michigan students were insufferably arrogant, you would have 300 “rotten” apples scattered around campus. That’s plenty of damage." - Excellent point. </p>
<p>If any of you are in the New York area and have questions about going to Michigan, feel free to come out to a football game watch party. There will be tons of alumni there who can help you out 
Details for the Rutgers/Michigan game are here: <a href=“https://www.jetivity.com/page/event?event_id=agpzfmpldGl2aXR5chILEgVldmVudBiAgICAmYOrCQyiAQpwcm9kdWN0aW9u”>https://www.jetivity.com/page/event?event_id=agpzfmpldGl2aXR5chILEgVldmVudBiAgICAmYOrCQyiAQpwcm9kdWN0aW9u</a> but we have them every week.</p>