<p>My cousin is deciding between these programs for a probable major in EE or possibly Computer Science for admission in the Fall of 2012. How would you rank these schools? Cost is not a factor and she cares about these attributes in a university in this order...1. overall reputation, 2. social life, 4. employment prospects in her intended field and 4. ethnic/geographical diversity of the school. Any advice is appreciated! Thanks in advance!!!</p>
<p>My cousin's top choices are Michigan and USC for their well-balanced undergraduate environments.:)</p>
<p>Overall reputation: Michigan has a significant edge. Schools in Michigan’s peer group include Cal, Cornell, Northwestern and Penn. </p>
<p>Social life: It depends what one likes. Michigan and USC each has its own charm. The other schools are not known for having great social scenes.</p>
<p>Employment: All five schools excel in this department. Given their size and the strength of their Engineering programs, employers flock those schools by the hundreds.</p>
<p>Ethnic and geographic diversity: Michigan and USC have the edge here.</p>
<p>Hmm, I agree that Michigan has the slight edge though I don’t agree that Michigan is superior to USC overall. We are talking about the University of Southern California just to clarify here. They both have about an equal reputation among most college-goers and educated adults I know though your mileage may vary. It would make sense that Michigan is better regarded in Europe and the Middle East (where you work) while USC has the edge in Asia.</p>
<p>To all Michigan students/alums: what are your favorite things about Ann Arbor?</p>
<p>I just started an internship at a software company in San Francisco and there are 5 Michigan alumni’s here and 3 Georgia Tech alumni’s here(Company of about 40 people). So I would say these two school are equal when it comes to employment, but talking to many of the GT alumns, it is not a very enjoyable place to spend 4 years. And you can never go wrong with Michigan’s reputation</p>
<p>As far reputation goes, both Michigan and USC have extremely well respected reputations. As far as social life goes, I would definitely give Michigan the edge. Overall, Ann Arbor is a great (safe) college town with a lot of restaurants and attractions to keep people busy. On the other hand, USC is located in South Central LA (dangerous area), and the area around the campus is not that safe. You can’t go walking around South Central the way one can walk around Ann Arbor, and you’ll need a car (or friends who have cars) to get anywhere off campus. Los Angeles isn’t a walking-friendly city, and public transportation is pretty sub-par.</p>
<p>“Hmm, I agree that Michigan has the slight edge though I don’t agree that Michigan is superior to USC overall. We are talking about the University of Southern California just to clarify here. They both have about an equal reputation among most college-goers and educated adults I know though your mileage may vary.”</p>
<p>Not really. Michigan belongs to the group of universities immediately following HYPSM according to most educated adults. USC belongs to the next group of universities (same league as Emory, NYU, Tufts and Vanderbilt). The distinction is not glaring, but it is clear. </p>
<p>“It would make sense that Michigan is better regarded in Europe and the Middle East (where you work) while USC has the edge in Asia.”</p>
<p>Again, that is not accurate. Michigan’s reputation is much stronger than USC’s in Europe and the Middle East, but it is also significantly stronger in Asia. Only HYPSM, Cal and maybe UCLA and UCSD have stronger reputations than Michigan in Asia.</p>
Certainly not in Greater China and India. I doubt if it is true in Korea or most Asean countries. that is if we are talking about people in academia and employers.</p>
<p>It’s completely safe… Campus police there is better than anything else in existence. You absolutely can walk around, and it’s only a mile or two from downtown LA. </p>
<p>If you like, you can compare the crime statistics. It’ll turn out that being a student in AA is more dangerous than being one at USC (though, naturally, neither is particularly dangerous.) </p>
<p>UM wins out in most of these respects, but not here.</p>
<p>tetrahedr0n, I am not sure I can agree with your statement. LA’s crime rates are as high as Ann Arbor in a relative sense…and USC is located in one of the more dangerous areas of LA while Michigan is located in one of the safer parts of Ann Arbor.</p>
<p>That is not to say that USC students are not better protected by the police, but it does not alter the fact that USC is not safer than Michigan, although I admit that it is not more dangerous either.</p>
<p>While crime rate around USC has been decreasing (when my father attended, it was awful), the fact is that South Central LA is a pretty unsafe area. The USC campus is beautiful and safe, however the same cannot be said about the surrounding area. And just because it is 2 miles from downtown LA does not mean that it’s walkable. The easiest way to downtown is by car/shuttle/metro. Also, downtown LA is mostly office buildings (kind of boring), the best places to go off campus as a college student (who hopefully has a car or has friends with a car) would be Westwood (UCLA territory), Santa Monica, or Venice.</p>
<p>In terms of area around campus, I would definitely take Ann Arbor over USC, as Ann Arbor is much more of a college town (part of the reason why as a Los Angeles native, I opted for OOS rather than staying in LA) and easier to navigate than LA.</p>
<p>It’s silly comparing crime statistics of a closed campus like USC to an open ended one like Michigan. To say statistics show that USC is safer than Michigan is simply ridiculous without taking other considerations into account. Just because there is a higher police presence on the campus in LA, which is absolutely necessary given the awful neighborhoods surrounding the USC, should not make anyone think that LA is safer than A2. It’s patently absurd!</p>
<p>i’ve found that the the city of AA is very much like the city of Berkeley…just without so many homeless people. Also, Michigan is a much better choice than USC in terms of reputation, and the recruiting that goes on at Michigan for its engineering students is just insane. Your cousin should base her decision more heavily on job prospects after college because even if you have a wonderful time, you still need to be able to get a job</p>
<p>Wingedvictory, as I understand it, your relative has not yet applied to these schools – and I’m assuming that said relative WILL apply to all, since none are surefire admits for anyone.</p>
<p>One consideration is OOS status and financial need. USC represents itself as a “Meets 100% of Need” school (whether true in practice or not; don’t know) while UMich does not in any way represent that it can or will meet OOS need (though sometimes does for the rare student.) So even though “finances are not a concern” the offers may be considerably different.</p>
<p>If NO aid or scholarship is offered at EITHER school, then UMich offers more value/reputation for the money because OOS tuition and living expenses are slightly less than USC. </p>
<p>In the final analylsis, value should always be a concern, in which case she’d do well to keep USC on the list, despite the fact that I agree UMich edges it out in terms of rep. Privates traditionally have a track record of offering some kind of “discount” via merit or aid that publics often cannot match.</p>
<p>And who claimed that? LA is huge. Just the city alone is larger than the entire Metro Detroit area, including AA. The overall statistics about LA (or about Ann Arbor for that matter) do not really matter.</p>
<p>The most important aspect when it comes to safety is on-campus and near-campus areas, which is where students spend the vast majority of their time. The actual statistics bear out that UM isn’t really safer at all than USC. This is why I object to the notion that one of UM’s selling points is that it’s “safe” or “safer.”</p>
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<p>Santa Monica has the beach and what else? Expensive shops that no college student could ever hope to afford. And Westwood is a soul-less student ghetto whose retail presence has been declining for 30 years. And on top of this you also get the worst traffic in Southern California.</p>
<p>Ann Arbor is a better college town without a doubt - but it’s not exactly as if the million people living in the areas near downtown LA are wasting their lives with nothing to do anywhere near. This area is one of the great cultural centers of the American West. </p>
<p>I completely agree ultimately UM is the better choice for a number of reasons, but it’s not as if UM unconditionally dominates on every consideration.</p>
<p>“The most important aspect when it comes to safety is on-campus and near-campus areas, which is where students spend the vast majority of their time.”</p>
<p>So you think the near campus area around USC is as safe as A2? What do you consider near campus? Two blocks? Please, you can’t walk around the general neighborhood outside of the USC campus and be/feel reasonably safe. You can go ANYWHERE in the city limits of Ann Arbor, using normal caution, and not have that concern.</p>
<p>What a load of crap. Provide some justification for this. I’m getting the feeling we’re a few posts away from invoking big scary black men, which is the usual way these conversations go.</p>
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<p>I guess I’m off by all of 10%. 4.3 million versus 3.8 million. Point stands - talking about the overall crime statistics is utterly pointless.</p>