<ol>
<li><p>If you don't go to class, your GPA's screwed</p></li>
<li><p>A 3.5 in engineering is considered an amazing GPA</p></li>
<li><p>Calc 3 sucks</p></li>
<li><p>Physics 140 sucks too</p></li>
<li><p>and so does UROP because of the seminars. Just contact professors. It doesn't matter if you're actually in UROP.</p></li>
<li><p>People out of state think this is a big party school because of the "I'm Shmacked" video but in reality it's only close to being that crazy during Welcome Week, Football Saturdays, and St Patty's Day</p></li>
<li><p>Academics always come before parties, especially if you are in engineering</p></li>
<li><p>Football Saturdays are amazing not because of the game itself but because of the pregames (except for Notre Dame (night game), MSU and Ohio State)</p></li>
<li><p>A lot of people actually give away their tickets for free in the last minute</p></li>
<li><p>A lot of upperclassmen don't even get season tickets anyway because they are wayy overpriced</p></li>
<li><p>Welcome Week is by far the best week of school. Open parties everywhere, free food, booze, etc.</p></li>
<li><p>St Patty's Day is hit or miss depending on how early it starts to warm up</p></li>
<li><p>If you want to get into a frat party and you are a guy, you need to show up exactly at 10, bring a lot of girls or be very close with a brother (NOT a pledge) in the frat. Otherwise be prepared to wait in the cold until people leave.</p></li>
<li><p>All the frats serve this sh*ty beer unique to the midwest called Hamm's</p></li>
<li><p>Frats stop giving guys shots after a period of time</p></li>
<li><p>Ann Arbor is the best college town ever. Young people everywhere, eager to meet new people</p></li>
<li><p>You can pretty much walk into any random house party in the student ghetto without it being too awkward. Great way to meet new people</p></li>
<li><p>Eating Pancheros at 3 in the morning to sober up after a night of partying is the greatest feeling ever</p></li>
<li><p>If you want an awesome social life join a fraternity. There is bound to be that interests you</p></li>
<li><p>North campus sucks</p></li>
<li><p>Especially Baits and Northwood. A lot of people coming in who think living in an appartment is cool and want a lot of space select Northwood as their first choice. But they do not know these are actually shty apartments and it is very hard to meet other people since it is not a dorm.</p></li>
<li><p>Bursley (where i lived) sucks too but is better in comparison. It is one of the dorm halls in the nation so you meet a ton of other freshmen. However, since it is so big, you are pretty much only tight with your hallway so if you're in a bad one you're screwed</p></li>
<li><p>You will think the 15 minute bus rides from North to Central aren't bad at first but wait till the 15 degree winter nights when they only come every half-hour</p></li>
<li><p>West Quad and South Quad are the best dorms a freshman can get. Great location at the heart of central campus, huge rooms and great social life. You also get to know some of the athletes</p></li>
<li><p>Markley is the most social dorm but the rooms are tiny and most classes are a 15 min walk away</p></li>
<li><p>The hill dorms (Couzens, Alice Lloyd, Stockwell) are renovated and really nice. But they're rare to get unless you're in a learning community. Also, they tend to be kind of quiet</p></li>
<li><p>Oxford is pretty much off-campus even though it is considered a central campus dorm. Bursley is preferable</p></li>
<li><p>Sophomore year if you don't get North Quad or one of the hill dorms live off campus. It's actually much cheaper.</p></li>
<li><p>Housing for upperclassmen is pretty much a scam because they open up very few doubles. If you want to stay-on campus, count on being in a single or a suite which is $2000 more.</p></li>
<li><p>Also, the meal plan that comes with living on campus is a rip-off. You pay $13 per meal. You could even eat out everyday and still save money!</p></li>
<li><p>But the dorms are very fun. You make a ton of friends living close to so many people. Your experience freshman year mainly depends on the hall you're put in.</p></li>
<li><p>After sophomore year, you are weird if you live on-campus and are not an RA or on scholarship</p></li>
<li><p>As far as off-campus housing goes, U-towers is shty but has great price and location. Amazing view on the top floors</p></li>
<li><p>Landmark and Zaragon are amazing but too expensive and you don't really need that kind of luxury in college</p></li>
<li><p>Living in a house senior year is the best as you can do whatever the fk you want and throw parties every weekend</p></li>
<li><p>Engineering is the most hardest. Then comes sciences. Then business. Then the rest of LSA</p></li>
<li><p>Like everyone comes in wanting to do Engineering, pre-med or business</p></li>
<li><p>Business majors don't do sh*t while they end up making the same or more amount of money as most engineers.</p></li>
<li><p>Most people in engineering want to do CS or CE. Many CS majors earn up making 80k starting salaries so it's not hard to see why</p></li>
<li><p>If you major in IOE (aka IOEasy), expect other engineers to judge you</p></li>
<li><p>But they eventually shut their mouths when you end up in consulting and earn more than them</p></li>
<li><p>It is a very good idea to minor in CS, no matter what your major is. Computer skills are very valuable today</p></li>
<li><p>If you are in business, consider joining a business fraternity. They are very hard to get in but let you try many times and offer many connections</p></li>
<li><p>It is pointless to join an engineering frat. You will just be labeled as a nerd</p></li>
<li><p>Take 13 credits first semester. This way if you mess up, it won't hurt your GPA as much in the long run</p></li>
<li><p>AP credits make things a lot less stressful and makes planning out your classes much easier</p></li>
<li><p>But your tuition goes up by 5k if you have 55 or more credits. </p></li>
<li><p>UMich is better than Cornell. Cornell just has the name.</p></li>
<li><p>The weather the rest of the year after welcome week is a lot worse</p></li>
<li><p>People tend to hang out with their own race. Many Indians are in IASA. Many Jews are in greek life, etc</p></li>
<li><p>Half of the student body is in-state. 90% of the out of state body is from the Chicago area, Long Island, Westchester, the Bay Area or NJ</p></li>
<li><p>Despite being a public school, we have one of the wealthiest student bodies with high tuition</p></li>
<li><p>You will meet crazy rich people. By rich I mean taking cabs to class, flying out of state/country every other weekend to meet friends at other schools and living in a $33,000-per person per year penthouse in Zaragon</p></li>
<li><p>No Thai is one of the best places to eat in town</p></li>
<li><p>The school has an $8 billion endowment. There are many opportunities/resources available to you. But be prepared to fight for them as this is a huge school</p></li>
<li><p>Overall this is one of the greatest schools ever as it is a great combination of academics and play. Be willing to work hard and you will succeed. If you are just looking for parties, consider a transfer to State. GO BLUE!</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Another one of these? </p>
<p>Well at least you waited longer than one semester…</p>
<p>Let’s look at a few of these </p>
<p>1) Not necessarily. I would definitely plan on making as many as you can. But that’s not always true. I never went to EECS 314 and got an A+. But the class was easy and everything was online.
2) I wouldn’t say amazing. Maybe very good.
3) Diffy Qs can be worse, especially honors.
4) 240, I’ve heard, is much worse. </p>
<p>6) I never thought of Michigan as a party school. Is that stupid video even popular? I don’t think drunk idiots outside of frat houses constitutes a school.
7) Correct
8) If you enjoy football, the games are amazing. Its the drunk sorority girls and what not that ruin them haha
9) Which is a problem, and now we’ll all suffer.
10) Is that true? I’m not sure. They also really aren’t overpriced when you consider what you are paying for.</p>
<p>19) Not exactly necessary
20) Depends
21) I wouldn’t want to go to Northwood freshman year, but I was there sophomore and the apartments aren’t really that bad, especially when you weight them against a dorm. </p>
<p>23) And then wait until you have to ride it with all of the drunk freshman…</p>
<p>30) Is $13 per meal including the blue bucks and dining dollars?</p>
<p>32) Some people just get unlucky. I got off campus, but **** happens</p>
<p>35) I like how you are talking about what’s best to do Sr year and you just finished freshman year, haha
36) Starting this with “most hardest” really hurts your credentials. Engineering can definitely be a ***** though. And if you aren’t in engineering and your friends are, you’ll hear about how much worse it is. Within the sciences it depends on the sciences. I wouldn’t put business about all of the rest of LSA
37) Might be true. Idk about engineering but I remember a ton of “pre-meds” in my Gen Chem class freshman year that couldn’t even do well in that.
38) I wouldn’t say that’s true. Business majors are everywhere, that’s a lot more competition. Good engineers aren’t.
39) Might be true, EECS is pretty popular. But ME is big too
40) I wouldn’t say judge, but it is conisdered one of the easier engineering majors here.
41) Which isn’t true of every graduate and isn’t unique to IOE
42) That’s not always possible, unless its a new thing. I just remember an EE minor for MEs</p>
<p>44) You are an engineer, you already are a nerd
45) I agree. If it doesn’t hurt you in the long run, take an easy first semester to get used to college.
46) True</p>
<p>49) Depends
50) Pretty true. Especially international students. Especially engineering
51) I don’t think either ofs those %s are correct
52) F- the spoiled in-state kids/ East coasters</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Perhaps you’re just exaggerating for effect, but these figures aren’t even close. According to the US Dept. of Education, in the fall of 2010, 3,936, or 63.9% of University of Michigan freshmen came from the state of Michigan. Largest OOS producers of Michigan freshmen that year were:</p>
<p>NY 361
IL 317
CA 297
NJ 234
OH 148
PA 122
MD 104
MA 80
TX 78
FL 65
CT 57
MN 32
IN 31
VA 27</p>
<p>If the 3,936 Michiganders represented 63.9% of the class, that means the entering class should have been 6,160 students (seems a bit low, but I think the Dept of Education excludes internationals from its calculations). And that, in turn, means 36.1% OOS, or 2,224 OOS freshmen.</p>
<p>So the actual percentages are:</p>
<p>NY 16.2% of OOS freshmen
IL 14.3% of OOS freshmen
CA 13.4% of OOS freshmen
NJ 10.6% of OOS freshmen</p>
<p>Highest possible percentage of OOS students from Westchester/Long Island/Chicago Area/Bay Area: 54.5%. In fact, not all the New Yorkers come from Long Island or Westchester, not all the Californians come from the Bay Area, and not all the Illinoisans come from the Chicago area. On the other hand, the “Chicago area” could include northwest Indiana and extreme southeastern Wisconsin, and the NY/NJ metropolitan region also includes NYC (doh!) and southwestern Connecticut. So probably nearly half the OOS students come from the NYC/NJ/CT, Chicago, San Francisco Bay, and LA metropolitan regions.</p>
<p>When all is said and done, half of 36.1% is 18.05%. The OP would have you believe that 45% of the student body–90% of the half of the class that in the OP’s estimate are OOS students–are from NY/NJ, Chicago, or the Bay Area. Off by nearly a factor of 3. I hope if I’m ever dependent on an engineering project in which the OP makes an estimate instead of a calculation, the estimate comes much closer than that. Better yet, I hope the OP stops and makes a calculation.</p>
<p>Some of the advice is helpful. Some of the advice is distressing. All of it is entertaining.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t be surprised to find a bigger representation from the east coast from the graduate programs though - your average undergrad is bound to run into a bunch over the course of a year, which may make the skew seem larger than it actually is.</p>
<p>Great list!</p>
<p>Just out of curiosity, what exactly made you learn that UMich is better than Cornell during your freshman year. You’re not the first to say this and it seems to be only Cornell that is brought up.</p>
<p>Well, Cornell is the low hanging fruit of the Ivies - relatively speaking the weakest academically and tends to rely on its Ivy affiliation to attract students more so than the school brand itself.</p>
<p>To an OOS student who got into both schools I think it’s a harder decision to make than HYP where it’s much harder to justify not going if you did get in.</p>
<p>The issue wasn’t Cornell’s rank amongst the Ivies but about it’s standing compared to Michigan.</p>
<p>Yes Cornell is not as good as HYP but neither is Brown, UPenn, Dartmouth or Columbia, yet I don’t see people comparing Michigan to any of them either than Cornell (with most stating UMich is better than Cornell). I just want to know what in particular makes everyone compare these two specifically and more importantly why Michigan is better (other than engineering of course).</p>
<p>Again, Cornell’s the low hanging fruit - it’s the weakest of the Ivies and has the highest acceptance rate out of the 8. </p>
<p>That means that there’s more overlap of students who students who got into Cornell + non Ivy elites like UMich, UVA, Duke, etc. and seriously considering both than students who who got into the others Ivies. The fact that it’s located in the middle of nowhere in upstate NY doesn’t help either.</p>
<p>The fact that it’s known as the weakest of the Ivies makes some pause from a branding perspective. If you go to Cornell it’s a usually sign that you couldn’t get into the other Ivy schools because it’s automatically assumed that you applied to a bunch of Ivies and got into ‘just’ Cornell. If someone went to Vanderbilt, Northwestern, UMich, etc. it’s harder to make that snap judgement because the regionality is different and some of these do offer a different type of environment that certain students might be a better fit for.</p>
<p>On the other hand, it is still an Ivy and that branding is very strong in the US and throughout the world.</p>
<p>Is one stronger than the other? I have no clue but I would expect it to be more even than not.</p>
<p>All the Ivies are better than Michigan for general undergraduate education. The gap between Harvard and Michigan is greater than the gap between Cornell and UMich for example though. But in Engineering, only Cornell is a peer of Michigan so it makes no sense for people to rip on the Big Red on this forum.</p>
<p>“All the Ivies are better than Michigan for general undergraduate education.”</p>
<p>See what happens when you make ridiculous comments about Cornell not being a peer of Michigan? Interesting a bluedevilsfan would make this comment and then have another Blue Devil refute it.</p>
<p>Cornell v. Michigan is an interesting comparison. I think on the whole they’re pretty evenly matched. Entering class test scores are slightly higher at Cornell than at Michigan (middle 50% ACT 29-33 Cornell, 28-32 Michigan; SAT CR 630-730 Cornell, 600-700 Michigan; SAT M 670-770 Cornell, 650-750 Michigan), but that’s easily explained by the fact that Cornell has roughly half as many seats to fill. Faculties are pretty comparable: about even in engineering; edge to Michigan in undergrad business, poli sci, sociology, psychology, philosophy; slight edge to Cornell in bio, chem; about even in many other fields (history, English, math, physics, etc).</p>
<p>One surprising difference: Cornell actually has more large (50+) classes than Michigan, though it’s close. At Cornell, 18% of all undergrad classes are 50+; at Michigan, the figure is 17%.</p>
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<p>I have slightly over a 3.5 and no one’s ever been impressed by that. I don’t know many people with lower than me. I know it’s above average and all, but in my peer group that’s pretty low.</p>
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<p>Honestly, pretty douchy to judge someone for majoring in IOE. Although I know the comment was just in jest.</p>
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</ol>
<p>Not a whole lot of people live on-campus (like in a dorm) Sophomore year… Almost no one beyond that.</p>
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</p>
<p>Dude… Rich JC is right around the corner. </p>
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<p>Many make a hell of a lot more than that. 80k is right around average for CS.</p>
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<p>Dude, there’s BTB. Don’t go to Pancheros.</p>
<p>which dorms didnt have communal showers? plus which ones were nicest… (ranking would be appreciated) ^ for first year freshman</p>
<p>I chose UMich over Cornell. Hopefully you’re right.</p>
<p>You are my man, bluedevilsfan. I threw away business degrees to go into IOE for consulting specifically. Even threw away Cornell for the very social and academic reasons you’ve mentioned. We’d be good friends lol.</p>