Kind of like arguing whether one should buy an Infiniti or a Lexus.
For CS, I’d put Michigan and Columbia into the same tier, and say they have similar reputations. I’d go to Michigan for undergrad, no question, just because of the financial savings.
For CS, I think UMich is better, but if you prefer Columbia, go there. Where is your UMich grad school funding coming from and why would you lose it by going elsewhere for undergrad?
You missing the point, there not peers as overall universities. You can always point out areas of concentration that are strengths, after all, the University of Colorado is ranked #1 in the WORLD in molecular physics (because the professor that teaches it is a Nobel laureate in the field). That doesn’t make CU the #1 Uni in the world. The undergraduate experience will be quite different for an undergrad at Columbia then at UMich. The cohort at Columbia will ALL be top notch. Columbia has a breadth of quality across many disciplines, not just a few. Seriously if you wanted to do just CS, do a boot camp and you’ll probably learn more about programming that is useful to the field than 4 years at Columbia or UMich, or course, what you’ll lack is an education, and Columbia will get you a better overall education by a good margin. We won’t go into class sizes, state legislature dictating tuition etc., and lack of funding for publics, so IMO they are not peers. The top privates are simply in a different class.
No, you’re missing the point. I’ve seen across-the-board rankings, & it was something like 1. Harvard 2. Toronto and Michigan was real close after that. Michigan is not a one-trick pony, nor [condescendingly] good for a public (sneer) school. It’s one of the top universities in the world, PERIOD.
CU123:
You obviously are clueless about Michigan.
Hmmmm I see USNWR as UMich #27 and Columbia #5 I guess that makes them peers…only behind UCB, UVA and UCLA for top publics.
Oh, I’m sorry. If it’s in NYC it MUST be the best, right?
I like UMich alumni, they are passionate about there alma mater. Again I don’t care about location its about the issues that public schools have to deal with that privates don’t. Like I said earlier, for this OP, UMich is the right choice.
CU123:
it certainly is not Colorado. For you to cite USNWR rankings as if they were the gospel, just shows you how truly clueless you are.
Not gospel, but I do feel that the methodology they use is fairly well thought out as opposed to others.
@alexandre “Columbia would not have hired Michigan’s president if the two universities were not peers.”
Which is why Harvard President Drew Faust is a Penn Phd. and Penn President Amy Gutmann is a Harvard Phd. 
Yes Lee Bollinger is such an outsider having been the provost at Dartmouth and graduating from Columbia Law.
D picked Vandy with full tuition scholarship compared to full pay MIT, and $15k annual merit at U Chicago. She is CS/premed. We were willing to pay, but she decided to go where she can have a higher undergraduate GPA, better ROI, and where she can be happiest, etc. She never looked back. For CS, I don’t think it matters where you graduate when you are interviewing, as long as you demonstrate the competency, skills, etc.
Michigan is way better college for CS than Vandy!! Sorry about my humble brag 
I like it, she had the choice between three very fine, private universities.
By the way, I’m not a UM alumnus, though my uncle the Fields Medal winner got both his degrees there.
That’s great! =D>
US News ranks them almost the same for CS.
https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/computer-science-rankings
I think I addressed this already.
I hope that wasn’t a serious statement, because anyone who actually believes that has no business advising someone on where to go for a CS degree. I agree that overall Columbia tops Michigan, but not for CS.
Consider this: https://www.payscale.com/college-salary-report/best-schools-by-majors/computer-science?page=32
Lists Columbia at 7th highest paid CS grads. Michigan comes in at number 88.