<p>"It is somewhat unlikely that an international student will stay in the US, even more unlikely that the student will stay in Michigan. Your country will get the benefit, they should pay for it."</p>
<p>I feel compelled to respond to dsmo, and say that statement is utter nonsense. The REASON I am going to Michigan is to secure a career in the USA. I have always wanted to immigrate to the United States since I was a kid (most of my relatives are Americans). If I wanted to stay in Canada I would go to a Canadian college. And I agree with GoBlue81 that US immigration policy is ****ed up big time. The Congress needs to get its act together and formulate a policy that makes it easier for skilled professionals and college graduates (especially those who have studied in the United States) to obtain citizenship, not give amnesty to 12-20 million people who just sneak in and do nothing (1 million which have purportedly committed crimes).</p>
<p>Stop whining about the in-state students. You're not paying the state of Michigan taxes towards the school. You guys have your own in-state schools that your parents are funding that you can attend, where you would have tuition discounts and increased admissions chances. It was your choice to go to the school where you weren't a resident. </p>
<p>Just be happy you don't live in Michigan where the country's worst economy resides, the nation's largest declining population, and the worst major city of any state in America. Getting a small advantage in admissions and a tuition discount at what likely is the most expensive in-state public school in the country is not worth living here.</p>
<p>As for Michigan charging less than it's "peers" for tuition, Berkeley, UCLA, Virginia all have direct costs that are within a few thousand to Michigan's. Wisconsin and UNC Chapel Hill both more than $10,000/year less than Michigan. Private schools are obviously more expensive, but you're paying for smaller classes and more attention.</p>
<p>As the parent of an incoming OOS student, I sometimes wonder what the heck we're doing paying so much for college. But then I look at my D's schedule for next year, note that she will be at a school top-rated for her major, listen to her talk about all the activities she's looking forward to checking into, hear her talk about all the profs she'll have that wrote this book or did that research...I could go on and on. In other words, it's worth it for her.</p>
<p>One of our state schools is great for my older D. She loves it and it has a great program for her. It's a great bargain for us, too. But for my younger D, none of our schools really could compare to what U Michigan has to offer for her. Beyond that, she really loves Michigan. On our way back from orientation she told me she could really see herself staying there after graduation. (Of course, we have yet to see if she'll still feel that way after a long winter!) </p>
<p>I see education as an investment, whether it's being paid for through taxes or tuition payments. The cost of a UM education is even high for instate kids, compared to what we pay in FL. Hopefully the value of your experience and degree will bring a return on that investment. Also, you can look at choosing UM over a private college as a way of helping to support public education (I'm certainly no liberal, but I do believe it is important to have a strong public school system.)</p>
<p>Nicely said2forcollege. I would like to see the statistics of where instate graduates are ending up after their time in A2. I'm pretty sure that most are leaving the state. While I certainly cannot blame anyone for going elsewhere, it's a shame that this brain drain is ruining the chances for Michigan to make a significant comeback. I hope I'm wrong with my assessment.</p>
<p>Thank you rjkofnovi. The urban planner/redevelopment specialist in me sees big opportunities in MI. Detroit has so much potential. I was involved in the redevelopment of South Beach and have noted many of the same qualities in Detroit that if the right mix of government incentives and community leadership happens, it could be great.</p>
<p>Community leadership? In Detroit? Bahaha. People all over the world know what a crook Kwame Kilpatrick is, yet I don't see him leaving office anytime soon (Heck, he'll probably get re-elected.) On top of that, you have a regional battle where the suburban leaders pretty much want nothing to do with Detroit (see the water system, Cobo Hall, nobody cares about DPS, etc.) And seeing the state of affairs with the leadership down there, with pretty good reason.</p>
<p>I'm well aware the dismal political situation there. Almost every large urban area goes through that (but between your Mayor and the unions, Detroit is in dire straits). How SoBe turned around was through the absolute determination of one resident (Barbara Capitman) that just kept at it until she moved mountains.</p>
<p>This point was already made, but not counting the merit-based financial aid I got from Michigan's "lesser peers" (Vanderbilt, Boston College, small tech schools...which offered me almost full tuition), most of the schools I looked at, considered Michigan's peers (privates and Ivies) were a whole lot more expensive than Michigan. I believe there's a large portion of the out-of-state population who strives to go to those types of schools, so Michigan honestly is kind of a deal, as spoiled as that makes me sound.
Also, even though Michigan's not just handing out full rides, I feel like it's much easier to get merit-based scholarships at Michigan than say, the Ivies (which give none, right?), Chicago (which gives like 20?), and Emory (which has about a 1500 minimum verbal+math score to qualify for merit aid?).</p>
<p>2forcollege, I'm incredibly interested in urban planning/redevelopment, which makes Michigan the perfect place for me to go to school. I would love spending the rest of my life in this state, studying and helping Detroit or being a journalistic correspondent here reporting about what's going on in the city. That'd just about be my dream job.</p>
<p>Hey, no pessimism about Detroit!
I love the student involvement in Detroit on campus. Detroit Partnership Day is enough to inspire anyone to help the city (Anyone who's ever heard the preacher who speaks/yells/screams at the ceremony afterwards knows what I mean), but there's also so many groups involved in the Detroit Coalition and so many email addresses on the Detroit Partnership mailing list.
Plus, I think community leadership can definitely come from bottom up, from the churches that are a center in some neighborhoods in Detroit, or simply one resident, like 2forcollege pointed out.
So everyone should go to dp.org and sign up to get weekly emails from me about what opportunities there are in Detroit along with information about the city. That's my spiel. (Yeah, I'm the Volunteer Relations Coordinator next year...)</p>
<p>Okay, everyone continue talking about tuition and financial aid now, I suppose...</p>
<p>Well, it really depends on what you identify as Michigan's "peers". BC, Vanderbilt are not public institutions, they have a different academic experience than Michigan. When you pay the extra money, in return you get much smaller student body populations, less graduate students teaching classes, better student-faculty ratios. </p>
<p>A better comparison would to take Michigan and compare them to other top public schools, such as UCLA, UC-Berkeley, Virginia, North Carolina, Illinois, etc. These are schools that have similar academic quality as Michigan, in addition to a similar experience.</p>
<p>I'm glad to see some realism introduced into this thread.</p>
<p>The idea that the financial aid office would somehow be unaware of tuition increases is beyond silly. When they figure your cost of attendance, they will use current tuition. It's true that people who were "gapped" (nonresidents) may still have a gap. But financial aid doesn't lag a full year. The website notes that everyone whose aid is affected will get a new award notice. Go check it out.</p>
<p>Tuition increases not only DON'T surprise the financial aid office, they shouldn't surprise students, either. Unfortunately, tuition goes up just about every year.</p>