<p>Daughter accepted to LSA and also the Undergrad Studies school at UT/Austin, and will visit both for first time this month. Curious if anyone else out there had the same decision to make and why you chose Michigan. Any insight would be most appreciated.</p>
<p>Well, are you in-state for either?</p>
<p>Great question. OOS in both instances.</p>
<p>My son was accepted at both schools and we are going through the same discussion at our house. However, we are in state for Michigan which would make the tuition more reasonable. Weather would be better in Texas during the winter but Michigan would get the nod from April through October. Austin is a larger city with lots of traffic during normal rush hours. Sports better at Texas. Michigan is more of a national school with many (34%) international and out-of-state students enrolled for fall of 2008 while Texas is more regional with approximately 6% international and out-of-state students. If you wanted to stay in the south to work UT would be the choice, if the Midwest or east coast was your preference then Michigan would be the better choice. Then again it may all depend on what your daughter wants to study.</p>
<p>Assuming both schools are in the same price range, definitely Michigan. I visited UT a couple years ago, not because I was interested in school but was just there on a visit. Michigan has a more cosmopolitan, intellectual, academic feel, which I prefer. Overall, Michigan is the stronger school.</p>
<p>Agreed with CCRunner. UM is the more prestigious, academically sound school (nothing wrong with UT though).</p>
<p>Yes CCR, but Austin really rocks, the women are hotter, and the weather much nicer. Not to mention the great food, music scene, mellow attitudes, and booming economy. Lots of people come to Austin and never want to leave. Also much lower COL and no state income tax.</p>
<p>Gee barrons if those were the only incentives for anyone to go to a school, why would someone even want to attend HYP or MIT? I have been to Texas enough times to know that it’s not for me at all and I’m sure many feel the same way as I do.</p>
<p>The costs for Austin are far cheaper than michigan; however, michigan has stronger academia. Visit both places and see which your daughter fits in. Your daughter will most likely succeed in the college atmosphere she feels more comfortable in.</p>
<p>Visiting the two schools should make up her mind. Those are two very different schools. </p>
<p>Michigan is slightly stronger academically and slightly better overall, but the difference is negligible as both are excellent.</p>
<p>Both are large, but Michigan’s campus is designed in a way that allows it to hide its numbers effectively, whereas Texas’ campus isn’t. Michigan has 40,000 students spread out over 3,200 acres (12 students per acre) of campus. UT has 50,000 students crammed in a 350 acre (140 students per acre) campus. </p>
<p>Austin and Ann Arbor are both excellent places to live. Austin has a much larger population, mostly made up of 25-45 year old professionals and has more to do. Ann Arbor is smaller and has more of a college town feel than Austin, quainter and more intellectual. </p>
<p>Weather favors Austin, but some people actually don’t mind the cold and like the change in seasons. In such cases, Ann Arbor is not bad. </p>
<p>I do not agree with JZ about sports being better at UT. Michigan’s football program has been as dominant as UT Football in the last 15-20 years. Michigan had a couple of bad seasons in the last 4 years and Texas has had a great run over thelast 7-8 seasons. Michigan is undergoing a major transformation as we speak and should struggle for the next couple of seasons but should return to its winning ways by 2010 or 2011. however, when comparing their overall football programs, Michigan and Texas are both excellent. In other sports, both universities have winning traditions, Michigan in Hockey and Texas in Baseball. </p>
<p>Cost of attendance may play a part in the decsion. But one must keep in mind that Michigan’s costs are HUGELY exaggerated and UT’s costs have increased dramatically over the last 3-4 years. Michigan costs roughly $45,000/year for OOS students. UT can cost as little as $33,000/year but as much as $45,000/year for OOS students. On average, UT costs around $40,000/year. For some majors, the cost difference is significant, but in most cases, Michigan is not that much more expensive than UT, if at all. </p>
<p><a href=“http://finaid.utexas.edu/costs/080undergradcosts.html[/url]”>http://finaid.utexas.edu/costs/080undergradcosts.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://www.finaid.umich.edu/Financial_Aid_Basics/cost.asp#2009-2010[/url]”>http://www.finaid.umich.edu/Financial_Aid_Basics/cost.asp#2009-2010</a></p>
<p>And no, Ann Arbor is not more expensive than Austin. </p>
<p>“…the women are hotter,…”</p>
<p>Barrons, even if that were true (which it isn’t!), the OP’s child happens to be a daughter, not a son. As such, I don’t think it is likely that she will care whether or not the women in Austin are hotter! hehe!</p>
<p>Hoosierfriend, let us know how your daughter’s college visits plays out and which school she decides to enroll in. She can’t go wrong either way.</p>
<p>"
Let us know how her college visits play out and which school she decides to enroll in. She can’t go wither way. "</p>
<p>She cant go either way??? DARNN that would suck :-p</p>
<p>You were saying bearcats?! ;)</p>
<p>I can’t thank you guys enough for your thoughtful responses. I think the visits this month will help tremendously. The problem is that she knows kids that have attended both schools, and NOT ONE has had anything short of a great experience at either! Sounds like two great schools…</p>
<p>I should have given equal credit to the UT males. Obviously nobody has much of a sense of humor around here. But my post was exactly correct–as far as it goes. While Austin has grown well beyond the college town it was when I lived there, the core area of UT to downtown is really pretty much the same–only better. Most of that growth is out on the edges. UT is an excellent school in many regards that on balance would be pretty equal to UM for undergrad. I think it wins on the QOL categories pretty easily.</p>
<p>I beg to differ Barrons. Most people I know who have lived in Ann Arbor and Austin (and I have known several) give the significant edge to Ann Arbor when it comes to QOL for undergrads. Like I said, for 22-40 year olds, Austin has much to offer. For undergrads, Ann Arbor is hard to match.</p>
<p>I’d put UT at the same level of Wisconsin. Just a notch below Michigan academically.</p>
<p>And I’d say the QOL is better than either Madison or AA. It’s really quite awesome. Great cheap food, great music every night of the week, all the major shows come through town, did I say it’s warm and sunny much of the school year, rents are very low, Barton Springs, sports are pretty darn good. While UT may be a little easier to get into there are plenty of very smart kids there attracted by Plan II and low cost. UT will keep getting better as oil will get expensive again and they own lots of it.</p>
<p>I have been to Austin a couple of times. Personally, I don’t care for the area all that much. I like Ann Arbor and Madison better. QoL is definitely subjective.</p>
<p>Barrons, I have been to Austin several times. I did not find it cheaper than Ann Arbor. Larger and more varried, yes. For music lovers, probably a little more exciting, but do not underestimate Ann Arbor and its surounding areas. There has always been (and still is) a thriving music industry in Ann Arbor and in Detroit. Overall, Austin is obviously a more complete city than Ann Arbor. But when all is said and done, I do not think any college town can offer a better quality of life than Ann Arbor to undergrads. And this has been expressed by most people who attended the University of Michigan, many of which also attended schools in other great college towns such as Austin, Berkeley, Boulder, Charlottesville, Gainesville, Madison, etc…</p>
<p>But back to the topic, I was told that Austin is as expensive as Ann Arbor for college students. The undergrads I knew who went there when I was at Michigan (two of them were cousins of mine and several others are close family friends I am still in touch with) were spending as much on living as I was. Tuition back then was roughly half that of Michigan though, so they did save a lot of money that way. However, tuition at UT these days has gone up significantly, so it is no longer thatmuch cheaper to attend than Michigan. </p>
<p>Finally, I do not think the price of oil is going to remain elevated for long. There is a threshold for the price of oil, and it currently stands at roughly $30-$50 per barrel. You can add 7% to that annually. Unfortunately, a weak dollar will keep pushing the price of the barrel upwards. </p>
<p>At any rate, I think UT-Austin is a great university and I agree that it has a bright future. In the long term, it is one of the few public universities I believe can reach the ranks of Cal and Michigan, but it is not there yet. However, as novi points out, we each have our personal preferences and many would much rather have direct access to Austin’s nicer weather, larger and more varried offerings (including its music scene) etc… But for undergrads, I can hardly think of a better college town than Ann Arbor.</p>
<p>As someone who could choose from both (but is choosing neither), even though I didn’t apply to UT (top ten percent instate=auto admission), I would pick UMich in a heartbeat. I think it comes down to preference really. I’ve never been to Ann Arbor, but I’ve been to Austin, and it’s definitely very liberal and “hippy”, for lack of a better term. I think as far as campus goes, UMich definitely wins for having better campus, from the pictures I’ve seen.</p>
<p>I’d say which weather do you like better? Haha. And at UT, you will be with about 90 percent texans, whereas UMich has considerably more diversity (by comparison anyway), so take that into consideration as well.</p>
<p>As far as reputation, once they get rid of this top ten percent rule in the state of Texas, I believe UT’s reputation will skyrocket. 86 percent of the class this year was from the top ten percent rule, and many people I know go to crap schools and are in the top ten percent with an 88 weighted GPA, whereas someone at a good school who is just outside the top ten percent with a 95 WGPA will get rejected.</p>
<p>There’s simply not enough room because they’re forced to take lower caliber students.</p>
<p>Like I said, they’re trying to get rid of this rule right now, and I think that UT’s rep will blow up enormously within a relatively short amount of time afterwards.</p>