<p>I, personally, am full aware of how great a school Michigan is, but what kind of reputation does it really have. What kind of responses do you get when you tell people you're going to Michigan?</p>
<p>Depends if they're educated or not. A lot of people locally say "Michigan...State?" and you want to slap them (I live 500 miles south of Ann Arbor). Those who are well-read and informed know that you can't pick up any kind of news magazine or scientific journal without the University of Michigan being mentioned every few pages.</p>
<p>responses from Southern/socially conservative/traditionalist/and/or un-higher-educated people:</p>
<p>To friend next to me: "Oh, you're going to Auburn(/Alabama/Sewanee/Vanderbilt)? Great school!"
To me: "WWWWWWHHHHHHHHYYYYYYYYY Michigan????????"
Me: "Well, it's top in just about every field, so I can study whatever I want and still be getting the best education possible and it's big, so it has lots of different activities and stuff..."
<em>watches their eyes glaze over</em>
Me: ..."and my dad got his Ph.D there."
Questioner: "Oh yeah. I knew there was a reason."</p>
<p>"WWWWWHHHHHHHYYYYYYYYYY??????!!!!!!!!"</p>
<p>"Isn't that a really big party school? Aren't you really smart? Then why..."</p>
<p>"You're insane."</p>
<p>Behind my back: "She's insane."</p>
<p>"If you had applied to Boston U, would you have gone there instead?"</p>
<p>"I don't usually think of state schools as..."</p>
<p>"You turned down HOW MUCH money from Vanderbilt for Michigan?!"</p>
<p>"Don't worry. That schedule's easy. Next year's going to be so easy for you... I mean, I'm going to Furman. I'm not going to be able to breathe next year, but you get a bunch of in-state students to dumb down classes."</p>
<p>"Oh. Um, that's..."</p>
<p>Responses from Non-southern/NASA/higher-educated/international/and/or educated-outside-of-the-South people:</p>
<p>"WOW! That's a really hard school to get into!"</p>
<p>"You're taking that course load at a REALLY, REALLY good college?!"</p>
<p>Yeah, I don't know many of the second kind of people... and I don't hate the South. In fact, it makes me sad that a place that I love so much and people who've shaped me into the person I am don't get it...sigh. Oh well. I wouldn't go anywhere else.</p>
<p>MatthewM04 , You're more like 483 miles south of Ann Arbor, right? BF calculated our Nashville-Michigan distance next year...</p>
<p>I'm like ~650 miles South of Ann Arbor.</p>
<p>haha good post Christine..... most ppl are not too educated at least when colleges are concerned... im from Northeast Ohio .. and the same stuff happens here... my one friend chose williams over Dartmouth and a couple others and nobody knows what/ how good Williams is.... but thats life... anyhow UMICH is an excellent school nonetheless</p>
<p>I'd say Michigan has a pretty good reputation nation-wide for a few reasons. First of all is the educational factors (mainly research and quality of graduate programs), which is ultimately the most important. Second I'd say the far-reaching alumni base, since I believe Michigan has the most living alumni in the country, and they're spread out all over. I went to SoCal for spring break, and in the line for security at LAX I saw about 3 or 4 people with U of M apparel. </p>
<p>Finally is the sports program, which the average person around the country is most likely to be familiar with. Most Michigan football games are nationally televised, and our rivalry with OSU is considered to be the best in all of sports. Basketball team has seen it's better days, but was bigtime pre-scandal and is slowly starting to make a comeback. Hockey team is consistently top 10 or so in the nation, and our home-ice advantage is legendary. Women's softball was one of four sports at Michigan to generate profit last year (along with the previous 3 mentioned), and along with a recent national championship two of our players directly contributed to America winning the international softball title.</p>
<p>From those who aren't too educted:</p>
<p>"Do they have a football team?"
"So, you're going to Michigan State right?"
"Is that the Spartans...no...darn, what are they again?"</p>
<p>From kids in school who knew colleges fairly well:
"I really wanted to go there but it was way too expensive."</p>
<p>Basically I was the only one who knew Michigan's caliber. Some thought it looked fun, but most were completely oblivious to any reputation Michigan might have.</p>
<p>Lol...I've had that exact same UM <> MSU football conversation...</p>
<p>I've ranted about this one to dilksy, but...
"My cousin said that Michigan's only a good Northern football school, not really nationwide. He says Michigan-Vanderbilt might end up being a good match."</p>
<p>When Vandy beats Michigan, I'll start drinking. That's my allegience of sobriety right there.</p>
<p>Go to sleep, Christine. I've really got to get rid of this gmail notification thing...</p>
<p>They do realize that due to the new BCS system Michigan will only open against teams that they will absolutely steamroll, right?</p>
<p>2005 - Michigan 33, Northern Illinois 17
2004 - Michigan 43, Miami (Ohio) 10
2003 - Michigan 45, Central Michigan 7</p>
<p>Pretty sad when a team decides you suck more than Central Michigan.</p>
<p>Has anybody ever said that "wait, UM is in Chicago, right?" after you told them you were going to UM? I got two of those last week from asian parents who obviously had no grasp of any geography whatsoever.</p>
<p>Whoa...</p>
<p>One Asian parent (out of the like 3 I know who don't live in Ann Arbor / didn't attend UM) didn't know where Michigan was or that it was a state, but not that it was in Chicago...that's weird.</p>
<p>Hehehe...the Vandy game should be fun.</p>
<p>I live in Ohio, where Michigan is a swear word. Everyone I know is an OSU fan, but when the discussion of academics comes up, we all know who powns: EMU, just kidding, its MICHIGAN. GO BLUE!!!</p>
<p>I personally don't think vandy is that weak. Sure, they don't have their only good player back in Jay Cutler, but they are still dangerous after returning their best WRs. This team did give UF quite a batle this past year.</p>
<p>They're ranked number 13 out of 13 in the SEC. Pre-season rankings usually don't matter at all...but they're even ranked behind Kentucky.</p>
<p>I really don't think the loss of jay cutler will affect them that much. they are returning a talented group of WRs and a good O-line.</p>
<p>In USA Today's preseason college football rankings, Michigan is ranked 15th with something like 748 votes. Vanderbilt didn't get a single vote., whereas Northwestern and Northern Illinois (both teams we beat handily last year) each managed to get at least a pair of votes each.</p>
<p>Vandy was also unranked and unheralded when they took UF into overtime at the Swamp, which is arguably harder to play in than the Big House.</p>
<p>"Has anybody ever said that "wait, UM is in Chicago, right?" after you told them you were going to UM?"</p>
<p>I was talking to this guy in Cambridge:</p>
<p>Him: "So where are you from?"</p>
<p>"Illinois"</p>
<p>"What? Where's that?"</p>
<p>"Umm... You know Chicago, right?"</p>
<p>"Ooh, it's in Chicago," with a nod and sense of understanding on his face.</p>
<p>"Uh.. yeah something like that."</p>
<p>Cambridge as in Massachusetts or England?</p>