<p>haha cuz i'm taking out so much $$$ in loans -_-
i most likely won't transfer out though. i do love it here despite the workload.</p>
<p>CCRunner, from the little I know, forgiven really likes Michigan and would only transfer if he got into Wharton. </p>
<p>Forgiven, give Michigan time, it will grow on you.</p>
<p>Wow... if MSU has more students, it's pretty funny to compare the activity between the forums on this site.</p>
<p>The students who frequent this forum tend to aim very high, so typically speaking, the top 25 universities get far more attention to other schools. Furthermore, MSU is very popular among in-staters but does not have a huge national or international following. Michigan does. Finally, Michigan's forum is easy to find. MSU's is more hidden. That explains why the Michigan sub-forum gets far more attention than the MSU sub-forum.</p>
<p>Not to mention that it's kinda exponential - if there is a forum that has few visitors, some one may show up and not think to show up again because of the few amount of people, but here there are topics being discussed so they're more encouraged to stay. So a more active forum brings more people because it's active.</p>
<p>yessss.. wharton's always been a dream for me since my uncle went there. oh well. MBA i guess? all i know is that michigan better finish up that building by sept 2008 like they said!</p>
<p>Forgiven, my uncle is a Wharton MBA and my mother a Columbia MBA. I got into Penn, Columbia and Michigan for my undergrad and both my mother and my uncle recommended Michigan. They felt Michigan was a more pleasant setting for an undergraduate education.</p>
<p>"let's conclude that msu is not in the same category as UM."</p>
<p>Please elaborate...(I have every right to be defensive since I attend MSU). Until you've actually spent time here and get to know what programs MSU has to offer, please don't expect me to agree with you on that one. </p>
<p>If you are going to say that UM is more elite than MSU based on rankings, I feel sorry for you. You're missing out on a really excellent school. I used to have the same feelings that MSU was so low compared to UM. Now, I'm actually <em>glad</em> that I'm here at MSU. MSU is prestigous in its own right and I think people are starting to realize that. (People turning down UM for MSU). I can give you so many names of famous people who have graduated from here and they are very successful.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I can give you so many names of famous people who have graduated from here and they are very successful.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>You're setting up a straw man, here. Yes, there are people who believe U-M is in a different category, and they have said so. That is not equivalent to saying things like:</p>
<p>"MSU is a terrible school"
"MSU students are unhappy"
"MSU graduates are not successful"
"There are no famous MSU graduates"</p>
<p>You're arguing against point that no one (well, no one credible, anyway) is making. </p>
<p>You are proud of your school, and that's great. You have ample reason to be. But IMHO you're letting your defensiveness interfere with your advocacy of your future alma mater.</p>
<p>In the midst of logical reasoning, this might but out of place. However, I just like the color blue.</p>
<p>I used to marvel that anyone would choose Lehigh. "You'd attend a school whose colors are BROWN and WHITE?!"</p>
<p>We can't be logical all the time, can we? </p>
<p>I went to college just 20 miles from a school whose colors were pink and green. Yikes.</p>
<p>Oh god, yeah, that's terrible. And of course I'm not entirely serious, I'm in love with Ann Arbor and UM's reputation and the possibilities it provides are amazing, and I want to go there for all of the right reasons. But a "green" atmosphere just isn't exciting to me. Bah, agriculture. And I really do like blue.</p>
<p>Reason #6 for MSU over UM.... Mr. Mike Valenti! </p>
<p>In a world of overanalysis of sports, the now infamous rant is highly entertaining.</p>
<p>Let’s be intellectual about this and state what has already been said, both UMich and MSU have great options and Michigan as a state is truly lucky to have such top-ranking schools. Now let’s break it down. I recently finished my undergrad at MSU and before you go bashing allow me to explain why I picked MSU. I got accepted to both UMich and MSU out of college. I had a 32 on my ACT, 4’s or 5’s on my AP tests and was in general, a nerd (and completely fine with it). So why did I pick MSU? A couple of main reasons: UMich and Ann Arbor offered a lot of off-campus things that East Lansing as a city lacked, but MSU campus and the feeling the students offered was so much more welcoming than UMich. It isn’t meant as an insult. MSU tends to have a more open-door policy regarding professors, study groups, student groups, etc. And that social aspect in an academic setting was huge for me. I am not saying UMich doesn’t have comparable groups, I had/have many friends and colleges who go to UMich and enjoy it. It just wasn’t right for me. UMich does have an academic air to itself, one that many argue is deserved, but it just wasn’t my fit (to be honest neither was the “party school air” may claim MSU has but I have been pleasantly surprised by the academic tone I find on campus). And I do happen to love nature and outdoor beauty so that was a plus too on the MSU side. Cost, again, was a huge factor. UMich is known for their competition, yes, so many people go there and are willing to pay full tuition for that chance and “recognition”. MSU is better at financial aid which won me over. What surprised me, however, was how competitive MSU actually is. My advanced genetics class competed with Harvard. Same books, same curriculum, the two professors were friends so they co-taught, etc. Not to sound pretentious but we went further and delved deeper into the material than Harvard and in a comparison exam we were on par (or very slightly above them) so the argument that MSU isn’t competitive doesn’t hold. Both are equally competitive but go about it differently. To each their own, right? Each school has their own niches and does well in them. It wouldn’t be a “niche” if they hadn’t fine tuned and perfected them. Finally, in regards to previous notions that UMich doesn’t care about MSU/doesn’t compete with them, that is so very untrue. The pandemonium that is the UMich vs. MSU game is so energy-packed from both sides that MSU students camp out to protect their mascot statues (and when the game is at their home campus, UMich does the same) because members of the other school try to graffiti it. It goes both ways, the competition and animosity is there, there is no denying it. And although you may find MSU students in a bar after games, I would be quite certain that there are UMich students in bars too. It is healthy to celebrate and take a break now and then. I would also wager a bet that both schools have a decent proportion of students still studying after games, I being one of them. It goes both ways and no broad, generalized statement will ever be accurate enough to completely encompass the magnitude of both schools. Both are amazing and amazingly unique, both have pros and cons and despite what we all feel and believe, the animosity is part of the “school spirit” and these harsh competitions will probably never end. It does make us bigger people to admit the pros in others and the cons in ourselves though.</p>
<p>^Take it easy. First off, this thread is like 5 years old. Second, you might regret your choice when you start looking for a job.</p>
<p>So in like 95% of degrees you are better at Umich</p>
<p>and in like 5% you are better at MSU</p>
<p>got it</p>
<p>I take it Carlilyst majored in some sort of life science and is probably pre-med. If that is the case, he/she would be no worse off having gone to MSU. In some fields, such as the life sciences, education and nuclear physics, MSU is as good as Michigan. In some fields, such as agriculture, hotel management and industrial and labor relations, Michigan cannot compete with MSU because it does not offer them and MSU is considered a leader in them.</p>
<p>This said, I do not see how MSU can be a better “fit” than Michigan in academic or social terms, unless one was raised in a radical Spartan household and has personal issues with the University of Michigan. Michigan and MSU are both public universities in the same state and they both compete in the same athletic conference. Both schools are close to home and have many students who grew up in similar areas and settings. Yes, MSU is more homogeneous while Michigan has significantly more geographic diversity and a wealthier student body, but by and large one can as easily fit in at Michigan as MSU. </p>
<p>Wow, some people have a gift for resurecting 5-year old threads! ;)</p>
<p>Wow–getting this jived up over a five year old thread is amazing.</p>
<p>My favorite passage from the lengthy (five year) reply is this:</p>
<p>"My advanced genetics class competed with Harvard. Same books, same curriculum, the two professors were friends so they co-taught, etc. Not to sound pretentious but we went further and delved deeper into the material than Harvard and in a comparison exam we were on par (or very slightly above them) so the argument that MSU isn’t competitive doesn’t hold. "</p>
<p>Does anyone want to run this through Logic 101?</p>
<p>I’ve lived in Michigan for a long time and have known a lot of people who went to both schools. I agree with the OP about the fact that a lot of really smart students choose MSU over U of M. It’s also true that some really smart students pick Central Michigan, Western Michigan, Wayne State, Michigan Tech, Grand Valley, or a community college over U of Michigan. When I was 16, my family moved from Michigan to the Boston area. The smartest guy in my Michigan high school graduating class went to MSU, and the valedictorian went to CMU. At my [crappy] Massachusetts high school, even “B” students were begging, borrowing, or stealing to get into fairly prestigious private schools and avoid going to the perfectly competent but painfully unprestigious UMass. After pondering this issue for literally decades, I’ve come to 2 conclusions:</p>
<p>(1) People in Michigan tend to respect ALL colleges, and have faith that they will learn a lot at ANY of them. A lot of successful people in the state, and the vast majority of the high school teachers, went to colleges not located in Ann Arbor (or even East Lansing). So there isn’t a belief that in order to be smart or successful, you have to go to a high-ranking college.</p>
<p>(2) It would never occur to MOST people in the state that one’s value or prestige would be significantly affected by going to this college rather than that college. It might be affected by not going to college at all, but… In other words, prestige is based on your car, your house, your looks, your job, your boat, your lawn, your ability to fix a car engine or shoot a deer, etc. Usually NOT that you went to a certain college. In fact, having gone to a fancy out-of-state college would make a lot of people think you are pretentious and don’t have the common sense to know how to spend your money (“He paid $40,000 per year at Colgate to learn the same things he could have learned at Western Michigan U. for $10,000” would be a typical reaction).</p>
<p>Having a nice boat, house, etc. helps when you make a lot of money. Going to a more prestigious college will help you get that better job</p>