<p>There are many myths associated to the university of Michigan. Most of them as a result of its size and its being "state funded".</p>
<p>I think it is important for students to realize a few things:</p>
<p>1) Michigan is indeed large. It has 24,000 undergraduate students and another 14,000 graduate students. But Michigan hides its numbers very well. The campus is even spread out accross 3,000 acres. 8,000 students occupy North Campus. Those students belong to the schools of Art and Design, Architecture, Music and Engineering. And additonal 4,000 students study on the Hill. Those are primarily Medical School, Nursing and Public Health students. The Business School, Law School, School of Social Work, School of Kinesiology, School of Dentistry, Foreign Laguages and International Studies, and School of Education have their own little corner. Those 8 schools have roughly 7,000 students. Furthermore, there are several colleges within the university, such as the Residential College and the Honor's Program. Those also provide students with the smaller college feel. The remaining 17,000 strudents (graduate and undergraduate), take their classes in the DIAG. Each major field (Biology, Chemistry, Geology, Physics, Economics, Mathematics, History, Political Science, Anthropology etc...) has its own building. So the students are very well disperesed. And with a faculty of over 3,000 professors and instructors, classes tend to be reasonably sized for a research university. In my four years at Michigan, I took close to 45 classes. Of them, only 8 (all intro classes and all during my Freshman and Sophomore years)had more than 50 students and approximately 30 had fewer than 30 students. I was never forced to wait in long lines and I always registered for the exact classes I wanted. If it wasn't for walking on the Diag, I honestly would never have guessed that Michigan had 38,000 students. I attended classes at several other major universities (including Northwestern, Chicago, Cornell and MIT) and visiting friends of mine from several top schools (including Harvard, Dartmouth and Stanford) attended some of my classes and it was generally agreed that there really wasn't a difference in terms of class size, quality of instruction, attention to undergrads or opportunities to interact with professors.</p>
<p>2) Although Michigan is officially a state funded university, less than 10% of the University's operating budget comes from the state of Michigan. Last year, Michigan received $300 million from the state of Michigan. Michigan's operating budget is $4.1 Billion. In other words, only 7% of Michigan's budget came from the state. The rest came from tuition, corporate and federal donations, alumni contribution and hospital and athletic revenues. In short, Michigan is pretty much an independent entity. </p>
<p>It drives me nuts each time I hear a student say they are scared of Michigan because they do not want to be "just another number". Michigan cannot give a student the same spoon-feeding attention that a Liberal Arts College like Grinnell or Pomona can. But then again, neither can most major research univertsities. </p>
<p>The one way in which Michigan is unfortunately limited, as are most state universities, is in its ability to give financial aid and scholarships to out of state and international students. Michigan has historically been limited in that regard. However, the university's balooning endowment (from $500 million in 1990 to $6 Billion in 2005)is going to provide Michigan with the necessary resources to change that. But when it comes to financial aid and scholarships, Michigan is still a couple of years away from effectively competing wit the likes of Ivy League, Emory, Washington University etc...</p>