What do you think of the University of Michigan Ann Arbor versus Vandy? Any and all opinions encouraged.
It is a hard choice. My family has considered both schools seriously. My older son’s final choice was been between Wash U and Vandy (but chose Wash U) and my younger son is a freshman at Michigan. But we have always loved Vandy (and in fact my older son has been accepted to both Michigan and Vandy law schools (and others) for next year so Vandy is still in the picture. My son was a bit concerned about the focus on Greek Life at Vandy but that might be something you would like. To the extent that Vandy is like Wash U because of its smaller size, that has been a great experience for my older son. Still, despite its size, Michigan has also been great for my younger son and the size hasn’t seemed to matter. He wanted the sports and atmosphere of Michigan. Hopefully you have visited both schools. You really cannot go wrong but go with where your heart tells you.
At the undergraduate level, both are excellent in their own way. What is your intended major? Do you have any immediate career plans when you graduate? How about graduate school aspirations? Are their financial considerations? Assuming those factors cancel each other out, I would go for fit. Vanderbilt and Michigan offer very different environments.
2135ar, Michigan Law school is significantly better than Vanderbilt. If I were your son, I would definitely go with Michigan.
Alexandre, thanks for your comment on Michigan versus Vanderbilt for law school. We are pretty sure my son will be choosing Michigan even though he got a small scholarship there and full scholarships elsewhere. Don’t know about scholarships yet at most schools and we are awaiting some acceptances from other top 14 schools. I think Michigan is his first choice but hard to know without all information. That raises the question often seen in CC, is paying the extra tuition worth it? It is a personal choice but he will not need to take any loans and it is worth it in this case to us (his parents who will be paying).
So as to not completely sidetrack this forum on Vandy versus Michigan for undergrad, I agree that environments are very different so it is a personal fit decision. If you are out of state like we are, Vandy may have a better “wow” factor than Michigan and it is rated a bit higher. All I can say is that my freshman son’s experience has been great at Michigan. The freshman class size (over 6000) concerned us versus my other son at Wash U (about 1600, similar to Vandy), but it really hasn’t seem to make any difference. Both are great schools. You cannot go wrong.
2135ar, I think it really depends on what part of the country you come from. For example, Michigan has as large a wow factor, if not larger, than Vanderbilt in the Midwest, Tri-State area and California. Internationally, Michigan has a significant reputational edge because it has a larger international student community and far superior Engineering and Business programs. I can imagine that Vanderbilt has a larger wow-factor in the South, Mid Atlantic and Southeast.
Also, when you say that Vanderbilt is rated higher, I assume you are referring to the US News ranking that has Vanderbilt at #16 and Michigan at #29. However, the US News Ranking is intended to compare private universities to each other. Public universities cannot hope to do well given its methodology as it does not do anything to adjust for their fiscal and ideological standards. As such, it is not an accurate representation of a public university’s quality or reputation in the real world, particularly not in academe or industry. Academic ratings usually favor Michigan over Vanderbilt. For example, Fiske gives Michigan a five star rating for academics, compared to 4 stars for Vanderbilt. Even the US News World Report Academic Reputation rating favors Michigan (4.4/5.0) over Vanderbilt (4.1/5.0).
Although I will be in the undecided program I’m leaning towards a major in marketing or communications.
Ross is one of the top 5 BBA programs in the nation, and Marketing is one of Ross’ core strength. Michigan is not known for Communications though. If you are interested in Marketing, Michigan is hard to beat.