<p>So I got into Michigan a few weeks ago and after hearing from other places it's on the top of my (disappointingly shorter than expected) list. I was wondering what Michigan's top programs were and what people would recommend a very undecided guy like me to get into in such a great place as UM. </p>
<p>(Oh and sorry for the title...had to get your attention somehow)</p>
<p>michigan has a top 10 or top 5 program in like 20 or so areas, honestly. i don't know every single category, but the 2 categories that REALLY come to mind are business and engineering. ross (business) is VERY good (ranked 3rd in the country after the almighty wharton and sloan at mit). the engineering program is consistently ranked top 5 (although it was ranked 6 this year).</p>
<p>Michigan's strongest departments (ranked top 10 nationally). * denotes top 5 department:</p>
<p>HUMANITIES (top 5 overall in Humanities):
Classics *
English
History *
International Studies *
Philosophy
Romance Languages</p>
<p>SOCIAL SCIENCES (top 5 overall in Social Sciences):
Anthropology *
Economics
Political Science *
Psychology *
Sociology *</p>
<p>SCIENCES:
Geology *
Mathematics </p>
<p>ENGINEERING (Overall ranking between #5 and #8):
Aerospace *
Biomedical
Chemical
Civil
Computer
Electrical *
Environmental *
Industrial *
Material *
Mechanical *
Nuclear *</p>
<p>BUSINESS (Overall ranking between #2 and #3):
Accounting *
Finance *
Management *
Marketing *</p>
<p>WEAKEST DEPARTMENTS AT MICHIGAN:
Biology #12
Physics #13
Computer Science #15
Chemistry #17</p>
<p>MUSIC (top 5 nationally)</p>
<p>NURSING (top 5 nationally)</p>
<p>ARCHITECTURE (top 10 nationally)</p>
<p>In short, Michigan is ranked pretty high in every field imaginable. Even Michigan's weak departments are ranked very high!</p>
<p>Damn, what an awesome school.</p>
<p>Alexandre: The physics department at Michigan is one of their biggest draws for me. After talking with eight professors from University of Wisconsin, Northwestern, and the University itself. All have said Michigan plays with the big boys. Chris Monroe is the worlds leading scientist working on quantum computation (controlling individual atoms in computer chips rather than electrons) and Michigans physics department basically built the detectors for the latest and greatest particle accelerator to be functional at CERN (the worlds largest physics lab in the world) in 2007. And you cant forget that the researche programs at Michigan were HUGE when i toured the place. Combine that with the great facilities and i would say those rankings got it wrong.</p>
<p>Not that i am questioning your support for michigan...i just thought i'd throw in another positive about my, probable college.</p>
<p>Alexandre also forgot to mention Michigan's top medical research and health disciplines.</p>
<p>One of Michigan's unique strengths is in the interdisciplinary programs it offers, tapping the resources of its world-class programs across the board. The Life Science Institute is a good example.</p>
<p>Incidentally, this is also one of the goals of President Coleman for the university:
"This University is characterized by world-class programs across a broad range of disciplines. Our academic reputation blazes across the globe and even beyond, with our alumni who have traveled to the Moon... My goal is this:... We will expand the collaborative innovation that is our signature in a way that reaches across traditional disciplines, into the classroom, and out into the world around us."</p>
<p>JazzMan, my point was that Michigan doesn't have weak departments. At best, our individual departments are among the top 3 or 4 in the nation...at the very worst, our individual departments are ranked among the top 15 in the nation. In terms of overal academic excellence, only 4 or 5 universities in the US can match Michigan.</p>
<p>GoBlue, I was only referring to undergraduate programs and departments. If I wanted to include graduate programs, I would have listed our top 10 Medical School, our top 5 Law School, our top 5 schools of Public Health and Social Work, our top 5 school of Dentistry, our top 10 school of Education and our top 5 school of Pharmacy. Did I miss anybody?! LOL</p>
<p>To top it off, we have one of the nation's top 10 hospitals and we spend more on research than all but two universities! </p>
<p>And with Michigan's skyrocketing endowment (7th largest today, should be 5th largest by 2010), we are poised to make big strides in the future. I can just see it now. Our next fund raising campaign will be a $5 billion in 2 year goal and it will be spearheaded by none other than our very own Larry Page, who will donate $250 million to the CoE! hehe</p>
<p>mackinit, you don't have to have any idea what you're going into when enrolling to michigan. Many sophomores and even juniors are still very undecided about their majors, and you should never go into something because it's one of michigan's "better programs", just do what you like.</p>
<p>Alexandre,
I was referring to the undergrad programs too. Michigan's top medical and health programs contribute significantly to interdisciplinary research in areas like biomed engineering and life sciences. Undergrad can participate through independent studies or even UROP (see Undergraduate Students in <a href="http://www.med.umich.edu/pfund/facultystaff.htm)%5B/url%5D">http://www.med.umich.edu/pfund/facultystaff.htm)</a>. "David Zhen, 2nd year UM student and UROP Research Scholar was selected to present his research at the Posters On the Hill Conference on April 19, 2005 in Washington, DC... David has conducted research for the past two years in Dr. Eva Feldmans lab along with Dr. Schwab investigating IGF-I Signaling in human neuroblastoma cells."</p>
<p>And it goes beyond the lab "into the classroom". Under the Undergraduate Life Sciences Initiatives, "new interdisciplinary courses are being created for undergraduates which bring together teachers from across campus." (see <a href="http://www.lifesciences.umich.edu/education/undergrad.html)%5B/url%5D">http://www.lifesciences.umich.edu/education/undergrad.html)</a>. And that's just a beginning.</p>
<p>That's true Goblue. There are many opportunities at the medical school for undergraduate research.</p>
<p>if we get so much money, why can't out of staters get a break on tuition! lol</p>
<p>We spend it on more important things. Michigan essentially has a quota of 1/3 OOS students, and they still fill that with students who are, on average, more qualified than in-staters, meaning from an economic perspective, it might actually be in the university's interests to raise OOS tuition (equilibrium reasons)</p>
<p>Actually Chibears, I am not so sure Michigan has an official quota for in-state vs out-of-state student ratios. Some years, it is 70/30 other years, it is 60/40. On average, I'd say it is 65/35. I think Michigan's policy on the in-state vs out-of-state ratio is more of an understanding than actual quota or rule.</p>
<p>Right. They don't have a quota, but if the ratio leaves the range you just mentioned, it will raise eyebrows on the smiling faces of those friendly folks in lansing. So no, not a quota, but pretty close to one.</p>