Trouble Choosing: UMich or Harvard?

College Search & Selection
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<p>Sure, I’ll buy that. Except it doesn’t explain why 1/4 of Harvard’s class comes in with sub-700 SAT CR and 1/4 comes in with sub-700 SAT M, and 1/4 of those reporting ACTs come in with a score of 31 or less—all lower than the MINIMUM level for Michigan LS&A Honors.</p>

<p>Honestly, all this Harvard-worship is too much. I know a ton of Harvard grads. I work with many. Sure, they’re all smart, talented, hard-working, accomplished people. But they aren’t a breed apart. They’re pretty much indistinguishable from the Yale grads and Williams grads and Haverford grads and UNC-Chapel Hill grads and UC-Berkeley grads and Michigan grads on my faculty. When I attended top grad schools (after Michigan LS&A Honors as an undergrad) some of my classmates were Harvard grads. They were smart, worked hard and did well, but they didn’t stand out; there were others from other schools who were just as smart and hard-working, in some cases more so.</p>

<p>Look, I’m not knocking Harvard. There’s no question it’s a great school, populated by a very capable student body. There’s no question Harvard grads do well in life. But so do a lot of other top students from a lot of other top schools, including Michigan LS&A Honors. Harvard has no monopoly on top talent.</p>

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<p>I always love when lesdiablesbleus shows up –– you’re bound to get some pretty astonishing generalizations that, combined with confidence, sound like fact. I especially liked the part about the worldly upbringing and innate drive of Harvard students –– quantify someone’s innate drive to succeed, and then we’ll talk, pal. I think you’re missing the largest factor, lesdiablesbleus: MONEY. There is a reason Choate, Andover, Exeter, and the likes are considered feeders to the Ivies, and it sure isn’t because these are naturally better schools. The primary difference between Harvard v. UMich is that students at UMich won’t have a house in the Hamptons. </p>

<p>As for your ability to succeed at one school v. the other –– if you work hard and do well at either school, you can make your own way. But the implication that having anything “Harvard” on a transcript translates into success is very, very silly. I know the former head of Yale’s Political Union…she is now the manager at a Pancheros (and I’m not kidding).</p>

<p>To the OP: Go to Harvard if you like it, if it has what you want, and if you will fit in. Period. </p>

<p>To the rest of you clowns who throw out generalizations about “the caliber of students,” “personal attention,” and “an innate drive to succeed” (lookin’ at you, ya Duke blowhard), maybe hold your tongue until you’ve taken a class at any of the Unis. you’re talking about.</p>

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<p>Just because you can quantify something, it doesn’t mean differences are significant. Is a car that has a top speed of 170 mph necessarily better than one that can only go 165 mph? That’s what we’re talking about here. Do the profs at Harvard know anything the profs at Michigan don’t know? Kinda doubt it, especially when it comes to the portion of their knowledge that they are going to impart to undergrads.</p>

<p>The urge to find significance in minor statistical variations is as preposterous when dealing with colleges as it is with sex appeal. If Jessica Alba’s bust is an inch bigger than that of Carrie Underwood’s, does that make her more attractive? If the difference between Tommy Lee and Brett Favre is a couple…oh, never mind.</p>

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<p>“Your choice is an easy one…Harvard! Harvard is amazing.”</p>

<p>That’s your answer.</p>

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<p>Too bad I am dumb or something and I see differently lol. For some reason, I don’t think saying “I went to Harvard” is quite like saying “I went to Michigan…but I could’ve gone to Harvard if I wanted to.”</p>

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No, it isn’t. But I guess I shouldn’t have assumed that by “pride” you meant “a feeling of self-respect and personal worth”. Even though that’s the dictionary definition. Sounds like you really mean the ability to drop the H-bomb in conversation and revel in the jealousy of other high school seniors. Which is fine, but let’s not kid ourselves and claim that it represents self-respect.</p>

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<p>Believe me, it actually feels quite good to say, “Harvard made me an offer, but I turned them down.” Not that I’m such a jerk as to bring the H-bomb into a conversation, but when some Harvard a-hole, or worse some Harvard sycophant who never went there brings it up, it’s a useful rejoinder. Shuts them right up.</p>

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<p>I appreciate that the OP wants to explore a new part of the country or that he may prefer the Michigan/Ann Arbor combo to the Harvard/Cambridge combo. But unless those preferences are extreme, I do not think they can justify choosing Michigan over Harvard. I obviously have nothing against Michigan, but Harvard is in a different league and offers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that is, in my opinion, very hard to pass up. </p>

<p>If the OP were considering Cornell or Penn vs Michigan, choosing the latter would certainly be reasonable since the academic offerings and reputation as well as student resources and professional and graduate school placement opportunities are comparable, so giving up a stronger student body for a more well-rounded college experience is perfectly understandable. If the OP were considering Harvard and stanford, again, choosing the latter would certainly be plausible. </p>

<p>But choosing a school like Michigan (or any non YPSM school for that matter) over Harvard is hard to justify if the finances are not an inssue unless there is a major issue with fit.</p>

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<p>“major issue with fit”</p>

<p>Maybe the OP is a Meg Cabot fan, and remembers her novel in which the male protagonist was the well-balanced U Mich graduate from a family of disfunctional Ivy grads. Or possibly, having seen “The Social Network” one time too many, just can’t stand the thought of coping with the Harvard types for four more years. Fit can matter.</p>

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<p>Just saw this. I chose Michigan over some of the ivies/top schools- but am instate, so not sure how much that counts. I didn’t get like any scholarship and didn’t even get into honors if that makes a difference.
But,</p>

<p>I did my research extensively and looked stuff up- mainly students review . com and found that a LOT of kids dissed like allllll these ivies and such like crazy! I didn’t want to GO to school which had SOOO many rich people everywhere! (many of reviews I read complained so much about that!) And I was reading that at Stanford for instance, less than 20% of the professor’s time is devoted to undergrad! (or they are paid for only taking care of undergrads for 20% time- but that’s what one review said, not sure if it’s true). And I read on all these ivies pages that a lot of students really didn’t like their experiences, stayed at the school b/c transferring’s a pain in the butt, but they really regretted losing so much money, moving away from their homes, and worst getting the same education they said, that they could have gotten at a public university or a private LAC.</p>

<p>Just the reviews I were reading were so dismal, and the idea of staying with tons of rich people everywhere (not to be discriminatory, but I read the wealth of these students is CRAZY), of having egotistical driven people around you, people always striving for grades and working hard, hard, hard for just grad school mainly.</p>

<p>I chose Michigan because I knew that I, as a person, would be a LOT more comfortable there (so many people to meet!- and yes, there is TONS of diversity, almost on par with Harvard). I knew my opportunities would be FAR better (I wouldn’t be competing with crazy sycophants, and professors wouldn’t blow me off so much b/c I felt as if I went to HYPMS, such professors would be used to seeing kids like me around all the time, and just blow me off). Michigan also had programs in like everything- literally- for me and I actually have opportunities to be able to get INTO those programs (whereas I’d believe there’d be TOO much comp. @ other schools).</p>

<p>Getting into Michigan grad from undergrad is actually a lot easier than I think most people say it is too. For you though, if you didn’t live in MA or New England, I’d say go to Michigan- but really, I don’t think you should leave home for Michigan though, great as it is.</p>

<p>BTW- I do think Michigan’s reputation is far better than Harvard’s, not academically, but globally in some ways. When I think of Harvard, I think of it producing a bunch of horrible people who’ve really, really hurt the world. It’s produced good people too, but some of the presidents and world leaders that have come out of Harvard, the huge ego it gives students; I just don’t like it. Not saying that stopped from me applying, but the only school I could see myself turning down Michigan for is Stanford (and that’s not because of the education; it’s because of the beach).</p>

<p>hope that helps!</p>