<p>Azurek, I am not sure I agree with your statement above:</p>
<p>"Have you considered Berkeley or UCLA? Going there would definitly trump experiencing a Michigan winter and their academic programs are also stronger than ours (Michigan)."</p>
<p>UCLA is slightly weaker than Michigan academically and Cal is slightly better. All three are roughly equal overall. I would rank Cal anywhere between #6 and #10 in the nation, Michigan between #9 and #17 and UCLA between #20 and #25. Like I said, they are all roughly the same in terms of academic excellence. As far as international reputations go, Cal > Michigan > UCLA. All three have excellent reputations international, but Cal is up there with Yale and Princeton.</p>
<p>Bearcats:
ENGINEERING: According to the USNWR undergraduate rankings, Michigan #6, USC #25. I'd say that Michigan has the edge in Engineering.</p>
<p>BUSINESS: According to the USNWR undergraduate rankings, Michigan #3, USC #9. According to Business Week undergraduate rankings, Michigan #6, USC #21. Again, I'd say Michigan has the edge in Business. However, Marshall has a strong reputation in California and a very loyal and succesful alumni based. If you wish to work in the East Coast, Midwest or Internationally, I'd say Michigan/Ross makes better sense. But if you wish to live in California, Marshall is just as good as Ross.</p>
<p>OVERALL ACADEMICS: Generally speaking, Michigan is considered one of the very best universities by the majority of academe. USC is also respected, but not quite as much. The USNWR peer assessment score, which measures the average rating of a university's undergraduate education as it is seen by peer institutions' presidents, deans of admissions and provosts, for Michigan is an impressive 4.5/5.0 (similar to Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern and Penn) and for USC is significantly lower at 3.9/5.0. </p>
<p>INTERNATIONAL REPUTATION: Both have an good international reputation, but again, all indications show that Michigan has a significantly stronger international reputation. I personally don't believe in "global rankings" because they are generally based on a university's impact on the world rather than a university's undergraduate excellence, but they do measure, to an extent, a university's international reputation. According to the three main "global rankings", SJTU, Times and Newsweek, Michigan is ranked significantly higher than USC:</p>
<p>According to the Times (British publication), Michigan is #29 in the World, #14 in the US. USC did not make the top 70 in the world or the top 30 in the US.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.paked.net/higher_education/rankings/times_rankings.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.paked.net/higher_education/rankings/times_rankings.htm</a></p>
<p>According to the Shanghai Jiao Tong University ranking, Michigan is ranked #21 in the World (#18 in the US) and USC is ranked #50 in the world (#39 in the US.</p>
<p><a href="http://ed.sjtu.edu.cn/rank/2005/ARWU2005_Top100.htm%5B/url%5D">http://ed.sjtu.edu.cn/rank/2005/ARWU2005_Top100.htm</a></p>
<p>Finally, according to Newsweek's top 100 Global Universities, Michigan is #11 in the World (#9 among US universities) and USC is #54 in the World (#31 among US universities).</p>
<p><a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14321230/%5B/url%5D">http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14321230/</a></p>