Go where you will be happiest. People do best when they are happy. Students are no exception. If you think you will be happier at ND than at Michigan, go there. I am an engineer and the slight differences in rankings are not that important.
Georgia Tech consistently ranks near the bottom in student happiness.
^ all 3 schools have an A+ rating for student life.
And of the 3, GT had the highest degree satisfaction. I forget which poll, WSJ, Forbes, Money.
“Also, people seem to love Ann Arbor, and South Bend is not the greatest of college towns. How much does the area surrounding the college affect the overall college experience?”
I have been to Ann Arbor, not South Bend, and I can confirm that it’s a great college town, the city is integrated into the campus, if you will. But there has to be a difference in feel between a large public flagship like UM and a smaller private university like ND, so again, if you felt ND was the better fit, that’s where you should go.
I’ve been to both and Ann Arbor is a much nicer setting than South Bend. But that said, not sure if you will have lots of time around town with school work and ROTC.
My kid came this close to attending UND, and I have to admit that the alumni network/loyalty was impressive.
@Glass56 - a 2.5 is definitely not unheard of in engineering, especially at GTech (probably pretty common there).
From my point of view, the surrounding town can affect your college experience. The campus and the dining hall food will likely get stale. Just does. Everywhere I bet. So you and your friends will want to go off campus. There’s always some “down time” in college.
I haven’t been to South Bend in a VERY long time, so I will not comment. But Ann Arbor has got everything that I need/want. Great coffee/cafes, fantastic cheap, moderate and expensive restaurants, salad/quinoa bowl/healthy smoothie places, fast food, if that’s your thing, late night cookie and ice cream shops, cool little nick nack shops and then the Briarwood Mall is about 3 miles away. And UMich has a top notch medical center, if you’re premed or sick.
And in terms of off-campus living, adjacent/around Central Campus, there’s a ton of new apartments being built or have been built with a myriad of amenities such as recreation rooms with kitchens open to all renters with free coffee/hot chocolate, study rooms, exercise rooms, TV rooms, etc.
Here’s an example, Vic Village, literally right next door to East Hall, where they hold math classes:
For what it is worth, my nephew graduated in mechanical engineering a couple of years ago from ND with high honors. He had a couple of summer internships in engineering. Coming out of high school, he was accepted to some great schools with excellent engineering programs, Carnegie Mellon, Georgia Tech and USC. I told him that these schools are better known and have higher ranked engineering programs than Notre Dame. He chose Notre Dame for the “rah rah” spirit and football. When he graduated from ND, he had difficulty finding a job and but was later able to land an engineering job through connections with a relative (who has no ties to ND). He does not regret his decision because he did eventually find a job and had fun at ND. The point is that since ND is not as well known for engineering as U of Michigan or Georgia Tech, there are less firms going to ND to recruit engineers.
“The point is that since ND is not as well known for engineering as U of Michigan or Georgia Tech, there are less firms going to ND to recruit engineers.”
As OP has a guaranteed job on graduation, this isn’t an issue here.
All three have A+ Student Life Ratings on Niche, with Michigan being #1 in the country.
True. OP has to stay with ROTC to have the guarantee job in the military when he completes college. The military pays for OP’s college expenses and when OP graduates, OP is committed/obligated to served in the military for a certain number of years. If OP decides otherwise, then all the points mentioned above are valid.
Look at the ROTC groups too at each school, to see the strengths there. You are going to be spending time with the ROTC students at each school, and whats nice about Georgia Tech is that they host the Air Force group for 11 schools so its a huge variety of students you will meet! Georgia Tech has a fine focus on the military, and Georgia Tech Research Institute works with the Air Force, see these websites-
http://www.afrotc.gatech.edu
Also see Georgia Tech Research Institute, GaTech is your Air Force school, and also has very good business program, most focused on entrepreneurship. Students are starting companies, and have strong clubs.
https://www.gtri.gatech.edu
Also there is a variety of students at GaTech, who have lower scores. Its a state school, and not that hard to get As.
Its not that bad, for grading.
Atlanta is a nice city for working, and has a lot of business related career options too, for internships. Its better
than Detroit and Notre Dame really has no city close by, for internships, although both ND and Michigan have much
higher ranked business colleges, which might interest you.
We did not like South Bend Indiana, there is nothing to do there outside of go to football games and study. You can take a bus over to Chicago, but its kind of long and you go through Gary Indiana. This part of Indiana is not very nice, its just pretty boring, cold, and no downtown. There is a small girls Catholic college, for dates. ND is strict about separating boys and girls in dorms, and also has a strict rule about no sleepovers of opposite sex, in dorms. Its good to be aware of that, and I am not judging whether thats a fit for you, but you should be aware of that rule and how it affects students at ND. Most there can live with that rule, if not, its not going to be a good fit. I think about 60% of ND students are Roman Catholic. Its very open though with lots of some non practicing Catholics, and not everyone is religious there. The Cathedral is truly an amazing place for Mass.
Michigan and GT have national reputations, and will look about equal on a resume for any job in engineering. Notre Dame is not the same name recognition or alumni network. GT and Michigan have amazing networks on the east and west coast, and every state in between. Thats what helps with jobs after your military career. ND is just smaller, and students tend to stay in the midwest.
GT is the biggest for Air Force network, nice weather, air force related work, at GTRI right on campus.
“There is a small girls Catholic college, for dates.” Uh, you do know that ND has female students, right?
“Notre Dame is not the same name recognition or alumni network.” Are you kidding? If there is one thing ND is known for, it’s the alum network.
OP, I know a student at ND who is in ROTC and she has managed quite successfully. I believe she is a science major, maybe premed. In any event, you can’t go wrong with any of your choices. Best of luck!
Since cost is not a concern, I would go with fit. Those are three excellent option, so you cannot go wrong, but they are widely different from one another, so it should be easy to choose.
I imagine Notre Dame would beg to differ with @Coloradomama about the strength of their alumni network. https://admissions.nd.edu/discover/career-post-graduate/alumni-network
sevmom, I assume Coloradomama was referring to name recognition and alumni network in the context of engineering.
I doubt that ND engineers have trouble getting jobs. It seems to be a smaller program but is certainly ABET accredited. Notre Dame has a very recognizable national brand and loyal alumni ( including plenty of engineers) everywhere.
Notre Dame is 80% Catholic. Most of those attend Mass weekly. The religious students are accepting and respectful of those who are either non-practicing or have other beliefs.
The 1600 students at the women’s college located about a mile away, St. Mary’s, are socially integrated into the Notre Dame sphere. They buy football tickets in the student section, join clubs, study in the library, take occasional classes. The same is true of the 500+ students at Holy Cross College adjacent to the ND campus.
There are and will continue to be single-sex dorms at ND. Parietals, the curfew and no-sleepovers rules, are often broken but not in a public way.
Notre Dame has detailed career into available online. The median engineering salary is $69, 100. Only 42% ended up with employment in the Midwest in 2017. The rest are scattered in other parts of the country. https://undergradcareers.nd.edu/data/ The engineering info detailing employers (in Public Report First Destination 2017) starts on page 28.