This is so many years late but I will post for anyone with the same question
I am currently an MSU student. This is my first year here. I transferred here. I was a U of M fan in the past.
Now all these comments talk about oh, this has the best this this is better in this. Well, here is why I came to MSU.
You could skip past this part it’s just the story of how I decided on MSU (Bullet pointed list at the end)
When I was in HS I was set on going to Wayne State. Why? Oh, because I heard it had a good Chemistry program. I then saw Michigan Tech visit my school and I thought that school was appealing. I refused to even think of going to MSU and UMich because I thought they were all football. I didn’t need that in my life. I also knew I was going to go to a community college first and transfer. Why did I do that? Because I was too lazy to do research on colleges and sign up for scholarships. When I was a senior I did Science Olympiad. I remember when our HS went to states to compete. The first time I was at states I just competed. The second year, my friends convinced me to come exploring with them while we waited for our events to start. Mind you, this was in May so it was definitely past the time to apply to a university. I went with them and fell in love immediately. I loved how MSU was like a little cute town and how all the buildings looked all old. Now I already know that UMich has older buildings too but I never saw UMich (Makes my argument suck doesn’t it). Anyways, by this time I decided I wanted to be a Chemical Engineer. Not too many schools seem to offer the major so as soon as I came home I checked to see if they offered it. They did! This started me on the idea that maybe I could go to MSU. At this point I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go because I knew they are a high ranked school. Number 2 in Michigan if I am not incorrect. I was just a girl who had a 3.7 GPA but a 25 on the ACT (I don’t believe in the ACT no way was I going to retake it). One day I was passing the sign to my community college because I was getting paperwork turned in. I saw Michigan State’s name on it and I knew that my credits would transfer easily to MSU. It’s hard to say what really set my decision on MSU but I think it was that moment. My next step was knowing if I would even be a good candidate for the school. I talked to friends and they said that they go easier on you when you transfer. I also learned that my ACT wouldn’t matter once I went to a community college. When I was a freshman in college, I signed up for the MTA and the transfer program for MSU. As I went through classes, I kept in touch with a friend who went to UMich. He liked to do this thing where he would talk about UMich and how it was better than MSU and such. I was like well okay great for you, but I still don’t want to go there XD. Why did I refuse UMich at the time? Because that. Also, as I said above, my ACT was lower than theirs which was 28 (They actually care about ACT even for transfers). The other reason was because from what I saw, credits don’t transfer as nicely. I can also confirm this since my friend did dual enrollment at my community college and UMich wouldn’t take the credits he earned there (I know people who didn’t have this problem but I mean if he did…). He also said they don’t accept AP credits for certain classes. I got a 4 on AP Chem, Calc, and Physics. Now I understand why UMich doesn’t allow certain credits to be transferred and accepted but I wanted to go to a school where I wouldn’t be wasting my time and money taking classes over again. I also was told by my friend that at UMich they make classes significantly harder to make them look oh so rigorous. That’s not necessarily a bad thing I suppose but it depends on the person. Oh and my last reason which is silly is because MSU has Science Olympiad
So here is the summary. Sorry for so much typing
-They offered my major but I didn’t need my ACT to prove myself. My college grades would be good enough
-Easier transfer of college credits
-MSU accepts my 4s on my AP classes
-UMich is made to be stupid hard (I am not saying that that’s a bad thing, but MSU is more reasonable. I still have to work hard)
-MSU has a nice look to it (It made me really happy)
-MSU has Science Olympiad so I can volunteer there
To anyone who reads this, don’t just go to a school because it is said to be the better one in such and such. Don’t go because you would look good doing it. Go because you feel happy there. If you don’t like the school you are going to, you won’t be as passionate about learning. Go where there are opportunities to prove yourself in the field you are majoring in. I know for a fact that both MSU and UMich have a ton of opportunities for that. When you see people from jobs, you see them from every college. UMich, MSU, Ivy Leagues, and Wayne State. It’s not what school is the best. It’s about what you can do. If I had the mindset to just go to the best, I know I would have tried for UMich. I hope this helps someone out:)