<p>
If that is the case, the brainpower in those households probably need to be questioned.</p>
<p>Well it is a Spartan household</p>
<p>mjmay, department rankings are usually quite accurate because they are determined by experts in the field. Michigan’s school of education is as good as MSU’s. The reason MSU has a stronger reputation in the state is because Michigan’s school of education is dwarfed by its far more prestigious schools of Business, Engineering, Law, Medicine etc…</p>
<p>eziamm, whether it is justified or not, I have known many highly educated and intelligent people who grew up in fiercely Spartan households. In many instances, Michigan was not an option. If they stayed in-state, it had to be MSU.</p>
<p>I always find it amusing to hear certain people claim to have “turned down Michigan” for MSU, when I know for a fact that said person did not get into Michigan.</p>
<p>Another coping strategy Spartans have is to concede that while Michigan is better overall, their particular department is better than Michigan’s. In about 20% of majors this might be true, but I have heard this for areas such as Business and engineering, which lol no.</p>
<p>Kids from my high school who got in to both MSU and Michigan and went to state did it for these reasons.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Money: About 70% of those who went to MSU over Michigan did it because of money. The tuition isn’t that much higher at Michigan, but MSU is better at giving scholarship money out to high fliers. can’t fault them for that.</p></li>
<li><p>Their particular major/areas of interest actually IS better than Michigan’s, or it isn’t offered at U of M. This accounted for about 20% of these students. Usually those who wanted to be vets or teachers.</p></li>
<li><p>They grew up in a family that was so pro-MSU/anti U of M that it would be inconceivable for them to go there. This was about 10% of these students. The salutatorian of our class wanted to major in business, an area in which U of M is top 5. He definitely would have gotten into Ross, and money was no object (he would have gone to ND had he gotten in). Nonetheless, he went to MSU because he had been a diehard, season ticket holding Sparty his whole life, and could not go to their rival (he only applied to ND, U of M, and MSU, which even he said was stupid in retrospect).</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Some people are pretty sutpid. Even I applied to OSU… I mean… they were behind a few schools, even Cincy, but they were there.</p>
<p>A lot of people that I know that turned down michigan for MSU were education or agriculture majors or they got scholarship money from MSU/parents worked for MSU so they got 1/2 off of tuition. the only reason that I am going to Berkeley instead of michigan is because I got absolutely no financial aid from michigan and I have to pay for college by myself. Berkeley, on the other hand gave me a scholarship and some gift aid. Berkeley’s math department is better than michigan’s and I got a scholarship from Berkeley’s math department and nothing from michigan.</p>
<p>mjmay, if you are a resident of Michigan, Cal would still be more expensive than Michigan, unless you got a Regent’s scholarship, in which case, Cal would cost roughly as much as Michigan. Although Cal’s mathematics department is ranked slightly higher than Michigan (Cal is top 5 while Michigan is top 10 nationally), I would say that at the undergraduate level, both are equally good. If cost were the same, I would have gone for fit, but if one of the two was cheaper, I would have gone for the cheaper option.</p>
<p>I was one of those who turned down U of M for MSU. I grew up in the Detroit area and I was a huge U of M fan. It was always expected that I would go to U of M and I was completely fine with that. I was a 3.8+ GPA student, numerous AP classes and tests, 33 ACT, club president, etc. I applied and was admitted to both U of M and MSU- both of their RCs (RC at U of M and RCAH at MSU) and ultimately decided that I was a better fit at MSU. I really am not a huge fan of Ann Arbor, never have been. The cost for both places was the same for me. And I really just liked the RCAH far better than the RC at U of M. I don’t drink and I don’t party and I still found MSU to be a better fit for me- much to my surprise.</p>
<p>Whichever place you choose is going to be the best for you as long as it is the correct fit for you. For me, MSU was the correct fit. For others, U of M is the correct fit. Ultimately, when it comes down to deciding which one you want to spend 4 or more years of your life at, you need to make sure that you are comfortable with the culture and the people of that school rather than basing your decisions on rankings or other people’s opinions. If you decide that MSU is a better fit- great, if you decide that U of M is a better fit, then that’s great as well. I know people that have transferred to U of M from MSU and people that have transferred from U of M to MSU and all of them did much better after they found the university that was correct for them.</p>
<p>cal isn’t top 5, it is tied for 1st with princeton though its ranking is not a significant reason i am going there. and with the financial aid if i get cal residency next year(which is basically 100% i will) then it was roughly $15,000 cheaper than michigan over 4 years.</p>
<p>“cal isn’t top 5, it is tied for 1st with princeton…”</p>
<p>…and this kid is going to be a math major?</p>
<p>Enjoy the budget cuts at Cal…</p>
<p>If Cal is going to be $15k cheaper and you are paying your way through college, you definitely made the right choice. </p>
<p>As far as Cal’s Mathematics ranking, I think top 5 is a fair assessment. Harvard, MIT and Stanford are up there too. Michigan is a slight not below, more on par with Chicago, Caltech, Columbia, Cornell, NYU, UCLA and Yale.</p>
<p>@rj- I think what he meant was that it’s not JUST top 5, it’s number 1.</p>
<p>top 1 or top 5, what difference does it really make?
oh wait it does, it satiates one’s ego.</p>
<p>i don’t have an ego, i was just clarifying. anywhere in the top 25, the students are getting a truly exceptional education. Alexandre, i would have loved to go to michigan, i just can’t afford carrying the extra debt through grad school. i was kind of crushed because all of my good friends are attending uofm and i’m going out to california for money reasons. i have a friend this year that is going to uofm with a 35 ACT, 3.9 GPA, has 44 credits of college math and cs(we took calc1, 2, 3, differential equations, discrete mathematics, and complex analysis together) and he did not get a scholarship to attend uofm. i honestly do not get how you could be a stronger applicant for a scholarship unless you cured cancer. who gets them???</p>
<p>On this forum, almost everybody seems to believe that U of M is better than MSU for this, that, or another reason. </p>
<p>At my school, people don’t. I only know of one teacher who went to Michigan at my in state school, and she’s one of the worst. Nobody in my school even knows about prestige, and many smart students would rather go to Ferris State than Michigan.</p>
<p>not all of us get to live in the boonies</p>
<p>mjmay7, I think the math dept. at umich just doesn’t really give out significant scholarships.</p>
<p>I also have a friend that is rather good at math – he took differential geometry in 10th grade – and I’m pretty sure he only received 1k from the math dept</p>
<p>Well, HiimCole, people at your school are woefully misinformed.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>-_-
What kind of school is that?!</p>
<p>I actually had to look up Ferris State. God it’s in Big Rapids, Michigan and they’re not considering Michigan?
Very wise if you ask me.</p>