When I visited Michigan I didn’t like it all that much for a couple reasons. For one, I felt like the campus was pretty spread out and there wasn’t much of a distinguished “quad”. Secondly, for a state institution, it was a little pricey. Plus, the student body is massive, which is a definite con for me. While Michigan is obviously the holy grail of colleges for many students, it simply did not strike my fancy; it did not seem to constitute its price tag.
decent, your personal preferences are perfectly understandable. No university will appeal to all types. Michigan’s twin campus (North and Central) does not appeal to all, nor does its size.
That being said, I am not sure I understand what you mean about tuition. Among its peers, Michigan is actually reasonably priced. I cannot think of many top universities that cost less than $45k/year. In fact, Michigan does not even make the list of the 100 most expensive universities.
Also, student indebtedness at graduation is among the lowest. If anything, I would say that Michigan is decent value for money, offering undergrads an elite education with all the qualities you would expect of a top university at a price lower than most of its peers.
Maybe you cannot get over Michigan being a public university. Associating a university’s status as private or public with quality or cost is illogical. Is a mediocre private university justified in charging $50k in tuition? Among public universities, Michigan is one of the most expensive (up there with the UCs, UVa and Vermont), but then again, Michigan is one of the top 5 public universities in the nation, so it is only natural that it charges more than your average public university. But beyond the public/private label, Michigan is truly elite, regardless of its affiliation, and as such, its cost of attendance is an incredible bargain for state residents and perfectly reasonable for OOS students.
When I visited Michigan I didn’t like it all that much for a couple reasons. For one, I felt like the campus was pretty spread out and there wasn’t much of a distinguished “quad”.
"distinguished “quad.” What exactly does that mean? Did you see the law quad? Walk through the diag? Actually tour the campus? I think you were predisposed to not like the university before you took your visit. Besides that fact, your comments are not germane to this thread.
@decent “While Michigan is obviously the holy grail of colleges for many students, it simply did not strike my fancy; it did not seem to constitute its price tag.”
I am not sure if you are a troll or if this was a legimate comment. In the chance it’s a legitimate comment, one’s perception of “the quad” has no relevance to the price tag of the university. UMich is one of the greatest universities in the world. If you can perform there “the world is your oyster”. My daughter, who is in the honors program at UMich, has internship offers at FORTUNE 500 companies, that would be exiting for a Harrvard student.
BTW, my nephew, who scored 2400 on SATs and goes to a top three elite private high school in America, want to go to either Pricetion or Michigan for engineering.
I understand that environment may be subjective, but UMich is one of the most electric campuses in the US… Ann Abor, Sports, beaucolic setting.
Troll
My reply was sent from a phone. Sorry for the spelling errors 
I did tour the campus. I saw all of the quads. Coming to the campus, I was really excited about touring the university, I thought for sure that I would end up applying. Yet, at the end of the day, it simply wasn’t for me.
@MichiganDad22 how the campus presents itself to me upon touring is actually a sizable factor for me. I envision if I could see myself walking around the campus for four years, and for most colleges that I have I toured, I have been able to do that. For Michigan, it did not happen, it was too spread out. Call me crazy, but little things like that matter to me. Sure, Michigan is obviously a great school, that’s why I was initially drawn to it. But is that the only thing I should consider in my college application process, disregarding the fact that I did not like the environment of the campus, and felt that I wouldn’t feel “at home” there? The answer was no for me, and the 60K OOS price tag of Michigan helped me justify that decision. The college search process should be objective, yes, but I believe that a good amount of subjectiveness is required to make the “right” decision. So, for many people, the price tag is plenty justifiable, but I suppose it wasn’t for me.
and @rjkofnovi I suppose you’re right about my post not being germane to this thread, but I wanted to express how I thought Michigan was “weak” for me personally
@decent Makes sence. Go where you feel connected, believe you can thrive and the investment is right… Best of luck!
My two cents:
I decided to attend Michigan over ivy league schools and other schools at Michigan’s caliber. I genuinely know that I made the right choice—Michigan is a NEARLY perfect school for me.
PROS:
- The balance b/w social life and academic life is nearly flawless. Everyone seems to balance their academics and social lives very well. Everyone is smart but school is not intense.
- Ann Arbor is literal college student heaven. Amazing restaurants left and right. Bars. Clubs. Art. Culture. There's really everything.
- The professors are geniuses. Though you might not get all the attention you always want every single employee I have ever been taught by is extremely talented and intelligent.
- The football tradition is energizing and amazing. It's so great to be part of this huge fan club and attend the most fun football games.
CONS:
- The food is decent. It’s completely edible and there are some good foods that I’m addicted to, but it’s not amazing. Other schools that I visited (VA Tech, Cornell) had better food.
- Winter weather can suck.
- It's not as diverse as I would like.
Bit off topic but damn, in 4-5 years applicants won’t even be as old as this thread.
Hehe! Good observation. Perhaps we should update some of the facts! 
In my view, Michigan’s campus in Ann Arbor and it is fantastic. There are several quads, and a definite center. But to me Ann Arbor is what makes the place so special.
As for the weather, yes winters are cold and there is (sometimes) a lot of snow. But fall and spring are great and the summers are terrific. Plus, you get out early which means you can enjoy the weather!
Lol how has this thread been around for 13 years
As a student i think it’s interesting to see people think the size of the campus is an issue. When you get here, your classes are actually super concentrated- most kids are in the same two or three buildings and don’t walk much at all. As a ross student next year, 3 of my classes are in the business building and my fourth class is literally just across the street, so that complaint is kind of ironic to me honestly
As the thread title begs the question, IMO Michigan is weak in that it relies on full pay OOS students to make up for the lack of state funding. It does not offer enough (in quantity and amount) of merit aid to high stat out-of-state applicants or even enough need-based aid to make the cost of attendance at least close to what an instate school would cost. So for an alum like myself with two or more high stat kids to put through college (who both at least applied and got accepted to Michigan) it’s too bad that the lack of merit aid and lack of need-based aid received made the school not a viable option to seriously consider and hence no point in even considering going to admitted students day. The kids lose out on not being able to attend a preeminent university that their parent attended, a school which has a fantastic college town Ann Arbor, and top academics, facilities, sports and school spirit. And Michigan loses out by students such as my kids having to choose other more affordable schools to attend. Each year Michigan loses out on a lot of high stat out-of -state students who end up going to Michigan’s arch-nemesis Ohio State, because of the national buckeye and other scholarships on top of that which made that school only a few more thousand than their in-state option (and about thirty thousand dollars less per year cost of attendance compared to Michigan (approx. $28,000 versus $58,000). Is Michigan worth $120,000 more over 4 years when the money is just not there? And Ohio State has a lot of the sizzle (division 1 sports, rah rah school spirit, Greek life, wonderful new facilities and modernized infrastructure) and some of the steak (solid academic programs) that Michigan has. As I’ve said before imitation is the greatest form of flattery
@trackmbe3 uc berkeley and ucla don’t even give financial aid to out of state students because the uc system is so depleted of funding while umich endowment is financially healthy with their huge endowment, so umich is doing pretty well in need based aid for a public university. why should umich give merit aid if they already have enough out of state students willing to pay for it? the whole point of merit aid is to attract people, and umich already is prestigious enough for many students. umich is academically a better school than ohio state, so of course it will give less merit aid. all of umich students admitted are very smart, so its hard and unncessary to give merit aid. the general rule of thumb is to not expect generous need-based aid from out of state public universities and don’t expect merit aid if it’s also prestigious like umich.