<p>ucb,
Unlike PA scoring, the rankings of "good football teams" are current. The voters don't evaluate what a school/team was like 10 or 20 years ago, but rather how it is performing NOW. </p>
<p>Look for both Northwestern and Rice on your TV set this winter as they participate in bowl games. :)</p>
<p>^ well the Wolverines just beat Minnesota, a previously ranked team, 29-6. I'll reserve judgement as to which team is better until UMich plays NU this Saturday.</p>
<p>If UMich played Rice, I believe UMich would be favored by at least 2 TDs - despite their poor showing this season.</p>
<p>C'mon, football rankings based only on this year? If we are talking about overall football programs historically, Michigan is still superior to Northwestern. I know this as a fact, even though I graduated from Northwestern. This is a transition year for Michigan (new coaches/new system/more underclassmen players). Your football rankings don't hold any weight.</p>
<p>Go to Rice and Northwestern if you can afford them and choose between the two in that case based on fit. Go to UMich only if you're in-state since its a solid second option after those two schools. Avoid Carnegie Mellon at all costs unless you're a hardcore Computer Science fanatic because of the terrible social life.</p>
<p>tenisghs,
Spoken like a true Michigan fan. Of course Michigan football has a stronger h-i-s-t-o-r-y, but this year they'll be staying home and watching Northwestern and Rice in their bowl games. Possibly it was an aberration, but maybe not. Just look at Notre Dame which is struggling to regain a position of prominence. Anyway, I was just having a little fun with my Michigan buddies. :)</p>
<p>ringoffire,
Re cost, below are the sticker prices for tuition & fees at the various colleges. Rice is definitely the bargain option!</p>
<p>$28,996 Rice
$32,401 U Michigan ($11,111 for IS)
$37,125 Northwestern
$38,844 Carnegie Mellon</p>
<p>For me, UMich, hands down. Depends on what type of person you are.
I have a work hard, play hard mentality. Therefore UMich is in my best interest. I love a great, big state school with the surroundings such as Ann Arbor. Greek life..football games..crazy parties..GREAT academics. No brainer, right?</p>
<p>greens,
Glad that you like U Michigan, but please understand that a lot of the things you like are available at the other schools as well. The facts are:</p>
<p>Greek Scene-% of students in fraternities/sororities</p>
<p>32%/38%, Northwestern
15%/17%, U Michigan
12%/9%, Carnegie Mellon
None, Rice</p>
<p>2008 Record of Football Teams</p>
<p>7-3 Rice
7-3 Northwestern
4-5 Carnegie Mellon
3-7 U Michigan</p>
<p>But while the team at U Michigan is having a down year, the football/athletic scene at that college is significantly bigger (and IMO, better) than the others, particularly Rice and Carnegie Mellon. </p>
<p>Crazy parties-I don't know how much difference there is among these colleges. I'll leave that up to current students and recent graduates, but Northwestern and Rice both score well in this thread:</p>
<p>Great Academics-Students can have a great academic experience at any of these colleges though certain aspects of how the education is delivered might influence the ultimate choice, eg, </p>
<p>% of classes taught by TAs</p>
<p>0% Rice
0% Carnegie Mellon
14% U Michigan
na Northwestern</p>
<p>0% Rice
0% Carnegie Mellon
14% U Michigan
na Northwestern
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Hawkette,</p>
<p>You always advocate that you learn most from your other classmates.
Hmmm...it could be argued that TAs are more like your peers than a stodgy, old Nobel prize winning professor. Michigan is an extrodinary graduate school and attracts the top students to its grad programs. These TAs are among the best young apprentices of their fields. I don't see why this is a negative. </p>
<p>Also, if Michigan is like my experience at Cal, EVERY class was taught by a professor. TAs only led the discussion sections...discussion sections are much smaller...i don't see how you can argue having a TA lead the discussion is a disadvantage.</p>
<p>ucb,
I very much believe that the single most important factors in one's undergraduate academic experience are:</p>
<ol>
<li>the strength of one's fellow students</li>
<li>the size of the classroom in which one learns</li>
<li>the quality of the instruction that one receives</li>
<li>the depth of the resources that an institution devotes to undergraduate education</li>
</ol>
<p>I think that TAs are a very poor replacement for a full-time faculty member who has a lot of experience teaching. I don't know many folks who would prefer a TA to a professor. In fact, one of the major complaints that I hear from students is that the TAs can't teach (having had no training to speak of), are much more interested in their own graduate studies, and often have a poor command of the English language. If you think that this is a preferable solution for delivering undergraduate education, then I guess we disagree.</p>
<p>I can't imagine having a TA "teach" a course, because every time I have to deal with one with grading issues or any questions in lab section or discussion, they do a really a half-ass job trying to help us. It's as if they couldn't make it any more obvious that they're here for the three letters, Ph.D., behind their names, not to teach some undergrads. It's just down-right obvious they're only TAing as part of a requirement. What's more is that most of them have a completely condescending attitude towards us lowly undergrads who are just "kids" to them as if they've never been an anal undergrad scrabbling for extra points and eager to get the concepts right.</p>
<p>Hawkette, we don't have TA taught classes at Northwestern either, only lab and discussion sections are often supervised by TAs. All classes are taught by professors. Gives me the chills to even think about having a class taught by a TA.</p>
<p>Hawkette,
So is this your ideal classroom for the "academic experience"?</p>
<p>
[quote]
the strength of one's fellow students
[/quote]
Fellow classmate took the SAT 5 times, with test prep sessions, and eventually scored 2380.</p>
<p>
[quote]
the size of the classroom in which one learns
[/quote]
Let's make the class 1 student, because smaller is better.</p>
<p>
[quote]
the quality of the instruction that one receives
[/quote]
How is this measured?</p>
<p>
[quote]
I think that TAs are a very poor replacement for a full-time faculty member who has a lot of experience teaching. I don't know many folks who would prefer a TA to a professor.
[/quote]
You've advocated numerous times that you learn the most from your fellow students - who happen to have ZERO teaching experience...maybe high SAT scores, yet zero teaching experience.</p>
<p>At all colleges there are some excellent profs/TAs, many average profs/TAs, and some terrible profs/TAs.</p>
<p>ColdWind said: When my son was applying to college, he did not consider Rice due to the high heat & extreme humidity.</p>
<p>The school year is THE best time to be in Houston. Barring unusual hurricane activity ;) the weather is generally mild and comfortable from October - May most years.</p>
<p>^ Really, the "high heat and extreme humidity" occurs in July and August.</p>
<p>Like, the weather right now is gorgeous--past weeks have been very sunshine-y with little to no rain (exception of last couple days), and of course the aberrant Hurricane Ike.</p>
<p>I'm from DC and for all the "OMG it's so hot and humid in Texas" hype, it's actually getting kind of chilly at night and reminded me of the weather back home. Granted, there's definitely no snow, but it's not "hot hot heat" all the time, I guarantee that. </p>
<p>It's nice weather though, and as HighlandMom said, the weather really is pretty mild and comfortable.</p>
<p>I've had to wear a Northface jacket several times and sweatshirts a lot this and last month, so it's definitely no "high heat" nor "extreme humidity."</p>
<p>hawkette spreads pure anti-michigan garbage. Only class I had in my career at Michigan taught by a TA was Calc 1 and Calc 2. And they are perfectly capable, senior PhD candidates, who work on their own independent research, most of them are 1 semester or 2 away from getting an Assistant Professor position. THEY ARE NOT UNDERGRADUATES, or MASTER'S students, they are senior PhD students, and because this is Michigan, they are always the top doctoral students in the country. </p>
<p>
[quote]
I think that TAs are a very poor replacement for a full-time faculty member who has a lot of experience teaching.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>This just goes to show how little you know about the tenure system. Young tenure track professors are just a few years out of school, you gotta be kidding yourself if you think they have a lot more experience teaching.</p>
<p>Hawkette, TAs only teach 3% of classes at Michigan. And TAs at Michigan are generally third or fourth year PhD students at oneof the nation's top 10 PhD program. Those guys really know the material, and typically, are more in touch with undergrads that professors. Either way, most students at Michigan take only 2-3 classes that are taught by TAs. Typically, those classes are intro to English writing and Calculus I or II and first year foreign language. That's it.</p>