Michigan Questions

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Michigan
1

<p>I'm unable to visit Michigan before May 1st due to a variety of reasons and I would really appreciate any input on these questions I have (engineering)</p>

<p>Answer as many as you'd like, thanks!</p>

<p>1)How would you characterize the student body, (I know it's big so the majority of the student body how would you characterize them)
2) How motivated are the students
3) How motivated are the teachers?
4) Do they off good job opportunites even for someone who plan on moving to NY after (Electrical engineering)
5) Are the dorms nice sizes?
6) Is the food good?
7) Is the laundry free?
8) How late do the libraries open until?
9) Is it hard to meet people if you are out-of-state?
10) Is it worth the high tuition?
11) Is the campus aesthetically pleasing?
12) Are there a lot of clubs//activities available?
13) How often would you say you party?
14) How difficult is it to adjust to college life (do they offer any programs--are the upperclassmen friendly?)
15) Is the size overwhelming at times?
16) What do you think about the communal bathrooms?
17) Do you recommend using AP credits first year?
18) Is it possible to work 15 hours or so a week without it being a major infrigement on social life or academis?
19)What can you do before UMich starts to help your transition into UMich college classes?
20) Are there benefits for attending an orientation earlier in the Summer rather than later?
21) Is the surrounding city (Ann Arbor) considered a good college town?
22) What made you choose Michigan over all other colleges?
23) How is the parking--do you recommend a car for first year students..or at all?
24) Do you have any particular meal-plan recommendation? Are you allowed to take food out of the cafeteria (like a box of cereal or piece of fruit or something)
25) How often do busses come around--do the buses cost money for UMich students?
26)Is there a major store like a costco or other huge warehouse stores nearby?
27) Is it hard to change colleges if I decide I dont want to be an engineering after 1st year? Will I need to take extra classes?</p>

2

<p>Although I don't attend Umich yet, I live nearby so I know the campus well, and I recently toured it so I'll try to answer as many as possible.</p>

<p>1)How would you characterize the student body, (I know it's big so the majority of the student body how would you characterize them)
- Diverse group of people who are really friendly and open to new ideas... they have all kinds of people here so anyone can fit in.
4) Do they off good job opportunites even for someone who plan on moving to NY after (Electrical engineering)
- Yes, especially for engineering because UMich is in the top 10 for every single engineering major they offer and in the top 5 for some. You shouldn't have a prob finding a job with an eng. degree from umich.
5) Are the dorms nice sizes?
- They're decent... some are a bit smaller but there's also options for the multiple person suites and learning communities and apartments. Even in the smallest dorms and with a roommate you'll have enough room.
6) Is the food good?
- Ann Arbor has the best dining ever... there's tons of restaurants, like everything from vegan to thai to whatever all along state and main streets and in the whole area basically. There's also your basic subway, wendy's, and stuff and the dorm cafs are supposedly pretty good.
8) How late do the libraries open until?
- I think it depends on the library, there's so many, but you can be there until 5am and study. Some get locked after a certain time but you can get in with your ID (just for security purposes) and you don't even have to walk home in the dark by yourself if you don't want to- they have student volunteers you can call, though umich is so safe you don't need to.
9) Is it hard to meet people if you are out-of-state?
- Not at all... there's millions from out of state. Nobody knows each other anyway.. even in-staters all get split up around campus so it'll be easy to meet new people.
10) Is it worth the high tuition?
- YES. Umich is probably the top public university out there.
11) Is the campus aesthetically pleasing?
- Parts of it... most of the buildings are your general college buildings, then there's the oxford/cambridge style law quad, then there's some pretty sweet older buildings, and then the really modern ones on north campus.
12) Are there a lot of clubs//activities available?
- Yes there's clubs that admit 18yr olds, there's hundreds of student groups you can join and pretty much all of them offer food. There's always something going on so you'll never be bored.
15) Is the size overwhelming at times?
- They tell you that even though it has a huge amount of students, it can still feel like a small school, and that's pretty true because you'll be around people in your major and get to know all of them. There's also learning communities you can join and some of them you just live with and others you can even have the same classes or something like that.
17) Do you recommend using AP credits first year?
- Depends on your major and if that class is important for it or not. If you have like a million, the engineering information session person said that they are increasingly discouraging people getting to soph-junior status with AP credits because they really want them to take the classes because it's beneficial.
19)What can you do before UMich starts to help your transition into UMich college classes?
- summer programs, get to know umich
21) Is the surrounding city (Ann Arbor) considered a good college town?
- best one I've ever been in. Ann Arbor is huge. There's a ton of restaurants, museums, and sporting events. Plus there's stuff to do in Ypsilanti, which is right next to it and it's where eastern mich univ is. Go to <a href="http://www.annarbor.org/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.annarbor.org/&lt;/a>.
22) What made you choose Michigan over all other colleges?
- It's high on pretty much all the ranking charts, it's a great environment, there's lots of opportunities, the people are fun, it's close by.
23) How is the parking--do you recommend a car for first year students..or at all?
- No because first year students aren't allowed to have cars on campus and plus you seriously don't even need one. Ann Arbor's a walking town. If you want, you can bring a bike. To get from campus to campus there are buses every 5-10 minutes. And also if you have a car you might have problems parking in central campus but there are parking garages, meters all around, and stuff. Some prefer not to bring a car because you'll get all these people continually trying to bum rides off you.. you'll become the designated driver pretty much.
24) Do you have any particular meal-plan recommendation? Are you allowed to take food out of the cafeteria (like a box of cereal or piece of fruit or something)
- They have this thing called the M-card and you can buy different meal plans (like how many meals per week) and it works at any cafeteria in the school even if it's not your dorm... and if you still have money off of it you can just buy candy or cereal at the little store next to the caf.
25) How often do busses come around--do the buses cost money for UMich students?
- the buses are everywhere so the most you'll ever need to wait is probably ten minutes
26)Is there a major store like a costco or other huge warehouse stores nearby?
- There isn't a costco, but there's a sam's club in ypsilanti and that's basically the same thing as costco.
27) Is it hard to change colleges if I decide I dont want to be an engineering after 1st year? Will I need to take extra classes?
- no it's not hard because 1st year engineering students don't declare their major yet so you won't really be taking many specific classes until later. you may need to take extra classes but it all depends on what you want to switch into.</p>

<p>Wow that was a lot of questions, sorry I couldn't answer all of them but I hope that helps! Don't worry about UMich, it's a great school and you'll have a lot of fun.</p>

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<p>wow crazy14. gj, thats was a lot of good info for people like me who don;t know much about umich</p>

4

<p>My daughter goes there and is having a great time.
Crazy14 did a great job answering the questions.
My daughter would answer
2) Yes
7)no
9)no
12)yes
13) As much as you want
15) The size is great
17)for her, yes
20) definitely yes. You get to sign up for classes before the later orientation people
21)fantastic college town
23)do not take a car</p>

<p>10) depends on financial situation of family</p>

5

<p>I have two kids there. My opinion of their responses:</p>

<ol>
<li> All kinds of people. You can find whatever you want.</li>
<li> very</li>
<li> very</li>
<li> Yes. My oldest son has had many friends graduate and move to NY</li>
<li> No dorm room is a nice size</li>
<li> If you're not a picky eater.</li>
<li> No</li>
<li> You'd find one open almost 24 hrs. Especially during finals
9, Not at all</li>
<li> Depends on your financial situation</li>
<li> Depends on your taste.</li>
<li> You'll find whatever you like
13 As often as you want</li>
<li> Easy for some, hard for others</li>
<li> Probably.</li>
<li> Some people love them, some hate them
17 Depends on your major</li>
<li> Not the first year</li>
<li> Relax
20 Rumor is the class selection is better. But otherwise, not really
21 The best</li>
<li> The biggest bargain around for an instate student</li>
<li> No parking. No car</li>
<li> I don't think you can take food out. But you can keep snacks in your room. Meal plan is an individual choice. Do you eat breakfast? But they have a lot of options.</li>
<li> All the time. Busses are free on campus, as well as the ones that take you off.</li>
<li> Yes. You can find almost any store you can think of in AA</li>
<li> Depends on what you took and what you want to change to.</li>
</ol>

6

<p>Holy scmholy! That's a lot of questions you got there. They are excellent questions though, so I will try my best to answer a few of them. </p>

<p>DStark and Crazy 14, you answered the questions very nicely...you done me proud! LOL </p>

<p>1)How would you characterize the student body, (I know it's big so the majority of the student body how would you characterize them)
-Michigan is so large, there is a lot of everything. You have very wealthy kids, kids from modest backgrounds and everything in between. The majority of the kids come from high-medium income families. You have geniuses and not so intelligent students but the majority of students are very smart (top 5% of their high school class). You have world class artists, musicians, professional level athletes, future heads of state, fortune 100 CEOs in the making, Nobel Prize winnders-to-be all mixed in with a generally intelligent and fun group of normal students. Michigan students are generally pretty laid back, easy going, tolerant, open to ideas and welcoming. </p>

<p>2) How motivated are the students>
- In a word, VERY! Michigan students are self-starters, initiative taking students. Most of them have goals, aspirations and ambitions...and they are generally lofty. Just look at the statistics. In each graduating class of 5,000 or so students, you have:
300 from the Business school. Those students had to maintain 3.4+ GPAs at Michigan, which is not easy. Most of them get jobs with elite firms accross the country.
1,000 Engineers. Do you know how hard engineers have to study?
400 get accepted and enroll into Medical school, including 150 to top 25 Medical schools.
700 get accepted and enroll into Law Schools, including 300 to top 25 Law Schools.
1,000 students graduate in Architecture, Music and Nursing...which are very demanind majors.<br>
That's already two thirds of the class accounted for. Those students are all very motivated and have no choice but to study very hard to accomplish what they set out to do. The remaining students are all over the board. Some study hard whereas others do almost nothing. But by and large, students at Michigan have lofty and ambitious glas and they see to it that they accomplish them.</p>

<p>3) How motivated are the teachers?
-Michigan professors are always passionate about their their chosen profession. Some are simply driven by research, others love to teach, but they all love being in academe. They all have office hours and they adhere to them and professors are almost always willing to take the time if the student takes initative. </p>

<p>4) Do they off good job opportunites even for someone who plan on moving to NY after (Electrical engineering):
-Michigan is a top 5 school of Engineering. Every company under the sun recruits there. And by recruiting, I mean directly from the school of Engineering. The school of Engineering has huge career fairs, and companies like IBM, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank, Citigroup, Boston Consluting Group, McKinsey, Bain, Eli Lilly, Merck, J&J, Pfizer, NASA, Boeing etc... come to speak to the students and frequently give job offers to our undergrads. </p>

<p>5) Are the dorms nice sizes?
- Dorms at Michigan are non-descript. There is nothing special about them, nor are they bad. They are average in every sense of the word. Some dorms, like South Quad, West Quad and Bursely are very large, but they are manageable. </p>

<p>6) Is the food good?
-The food at Michigan varies. Overall, it is like the dorms...non-descript. I would say the food at Michigan is edible and average. But Ann Arbor has plenty of reasonably priced restaurants that serve all sorts of food. </p>

<p>7) Is the laundry free?
- Nope!</p>

<p>8) How late do the libraries open until?
- It depends on the library. Some stay open until 5:00 AM, others close by 1:00 AM. The buses run for most of the night. Students who stay on later than the buses, the library will provide free cab transportation to your dorm! hehe Now that's service. </p>

<p>9) Is it hard to meet people if you are out-of-state?
Roughly 35% of Michigan undergrads are out of state. Of the 24,000 undergrads, 8,000 (30%) are out of state and 1,500 (5%) are international. So you will have plenty of out-of-staters. Also, of the 14,000 graduate students, an additional 8,000 (60%) are out of state and an extra 3,500 (25%) are international. So of the 38,000 students, 16,000 are out of state and 5,000 are international. Ann Arbor itself is also very cosmopolitan. Many Ann Arbor residents are not from Michigan. </p>

<p>10) Is it worth the high tuition?
-Yes. Michigan is about as expensive as all of its academic peers. </p>

<p>11) Is the campus aesthetically pleasing?
-Michigan's campus is very nice...but it is not pretty or gorgeous. It is, however, architecturally pleasing and impressive. </p>

<p>12) Are there a lot of clubs//activities available?
-Ann Arbor has a several sports bars (Scorekeepers, Touchdown Cafe, Brown Jug, Goodtime Charlie's etc...) a couple of clubs (Ricks and a couple of others I forget their names), many pubs and bars (Earle, Grizzly Peak, Dominique's etc...) and over 900 of student organizations. So no matter what you want, you got it! LOL</p>

<p>13) How often would you say you party?
-You can party any night of the week. A school as large as Michigan will always have a party going on. But if you want to do well in school, you will probably have to limnit your partying to one or two nights a week at the most.</p>

<p>14) How difficult is it to adjust to college life (do they offer any programs--are the upperclassmen friendly?)
- The adjustment to college life is not easy, but it is not difficult. You will have your ups and downs, but you will not have much time to stop and reflect. You will be a little homesick at first and the speed at which classes move will take some adjusting, but all other Freshmen will be on the same boat. It is just part of the process of growing up. Upperclassmen are friendly, but you will draw on your fellow Freshmen and Sophomores more often than not.</p>

<p>15) Is the size overwhelming at times?
-Not as much as you might expect. Michigan is huge, but it is manageable. Michigan does "big" better than anybody. So it will be overwhelming at times, but it is no reason for concern. In fact, Michigan's size has more benefits than drawbacks. </p>

<p>16) What do you think about the communal bathrooms?
-I think they stink...literaly! But it is part of the experience! LOL Actually, they aren't that bad. You get used to it after a while. </p>

<p>17) Do you recommend using AP credits first year?
-It depends on the subject. Definitely not Chemistry, Economics or Physics. </p>

<p>18) Is it possible to work 15 hours or so a week without it being a major infrigement on social life or academis?
-Sure, if you work 15 hours a week, you can still strike a healthy balance between studying and social life, but you will have to plan your time carefully. However, remember that EE is a tough major, so 15 hours of work or not, you will be studying a lot! </p>

<p>19)What can you do before UMich starts to help your transition into UMich college classes?
-Nothing. Just prepare yourself mentally for a fun and exciting 4 years. You are in for a treat!</p>

<p>20) Are there benefits for attending an orientation earlier in the Summer rather than later?
-I never attended orientation, so I wouldn't know. But I would assume that earlier is better. </p>

<p>21) Is the surrounding city (Ann Arbor) considered a good college town?
-Ann Arbor is amazing. I have lived in several countries and travelled to over 40 countries and it remains one of the most special and fun places I have ever visited. It has rated one of the top 5 cities to live in in the entire country. </p>

<p>22) What made you choose Michigan over all other colleges?
-I chose Michigan over 9 other American universities (including 4 Ivies, Chicago, Northwestern, Cal and Duke). According to the people I asked, Michigan is as respected as all the other schools I could chose from. So I went for fit rather than looking at the insignificant details. I just felt most at home in Ann Arbor. I also wanted a collegiate feel. I felt Michigan had the most lively student atmpshere. Since I wanted to major in Economics and then work for an IB, Michigan fit my academic and professional needs. Finally, I am international, and I wanted a school that has a global reputation. Michigan is very highly regarded in Western Europe and the Middle East.</p>

<p>23) How is the parking--do you recommend a car for first year students..or at all?
-A car can come in handy, but it is not practical. Ann Arbor itself does not require a car and parking is a pain in the behind. Plus, the police in Ann Arbor has so little to do that giving out parking tickets has become their specialty! LOL But if you want to go out of Ann Arbor, a car is very usueful. It really depends what you want. Personally, I did not have a car and I managed just fine. </p>

<p>24) Do you have any particular meal-plan recommendation? Are you allowed to take food out of the cafeteria (like a box of cereal or piece of fruit or something)
-I did not have a meal plan. </p>

<p>25) How often do busses come around--do the buses cost money for UMich students?
-Busses are free, clean and they come around every 10 minutes or so. And much of the campus is easy to cross on foot.</p>

<p>26)Is there a major store like a costco or other huge warehouse stores nearby?
-There is a Sam's club within a 10 minute drive from campus. But there is no Costco. I think they are pretty identical. </p>

<p>27) Is it hard to change colleges if I decide I dont want to be an engineering after 1st year? Will I need to take extra classes?
-It is easy for Engineers to trasnfer to LSA. So there is no need to panic. Just keep a reasonable GPA and you will be fine. </p>

<p>I hope this answers some of your questions.</p>

7

<p>wow thanks a lot everyone, that was extremely helpful.</p>