U Michigan vs. Pitt? and the Winner is ....!

@Alexandre although I agree Michigan is a top tier university, I was accepted in December, I do not think the price is justified if you compare it to other renowned state schools. Georgia Tech, #7 in public universities from US News, has an OOS price of about 50k, UW Madison also about 50k, U Texas 50k, UNC 50k and the list goes on. Yes, Michigan is a great university, but their price just cannot be justified IMO when theres plenty of other great public schools that will give you the same education at a much better price

“Yes, Michigan is a great university, but their price just cannot be justified IMO when theres plenty of other great public schools that will give you the same education at a much better price.”

Supply and demand. If those other schools could charge more, they would do it.

@gradclass2022 Why don’t you include UVA, UC Berkeley and UCLA for comparison. Most of the schools you listed are still not quite at the level of Michigan. Berkeley also makes it clear on their web site their Financial Aids are not negotiated.
At the same time, UMich offers a lot more financial aid to OOS students than most schools too particularly from this year on.

It’s not the price it’s what you end up paying that counts. We are out of state and Michigan is cheaper then our instate schools due to what they gave us. The other schools mentions don’t give a lot or any aid to out of state students. Michigan is definitely much better then that. So even if Georgia Tech might be cheaper… We would if paid more money since they don’t historically give a lot of money to out of state kids. It’s all perspective. Plus my kid was on their wait list so was not an option but would of cost us $20,000 more then we are paying at Michigan. So it’s what you pay not what they charge

@Knowsstuff i don’t disagree, but actually UNC offered me 10k more than what Michigan offered so I really think it has to do with the personal situation and figuring out what school is the best price, best fit, etc. For my intended major, biology each of these schools offer the same base education that is needed to be premed. So for me, it was really just a matter of the best and most cost efficient choice, but I can see how some schools excel in one area and how it might just be worth the extra $$$

@gradclass2022 Not surprising as UNC is the only OOS fully need met public school. UMich only meet the need of OOS with less than $90k family income. However, UNC has only half the percentage of OOS students of UM.

Look at the Almanac for cost comparison with peers. Michigan offers the second highest average institutional aids to students among public colleges, just behind UVA but a touch more than UNC.

@CRVKids I’m always in shock with the amount that out of state students pay here at UM but I was in more shock when I found out what my intl friends were paying… they’re paying an arm and a limb to go here too.

@billybobby54 @Alexandre @CRVKids I’m just an observer from Ohio, not pushing Pitt, nothing against Michigan. Sometimes you need to look at the facts. I was curious, did some quick apple-to-apple fact research in the Common Data Set. Student to Faculty Ratio (I2): Pitt 14.6, Michigan 14.7. Percent of all enrolled first-year with High School GPA 3.75 and higher (C11): Pitt 81%, Michigan 76.9%. Not saying Pitt is better, just saying that Michigan may be considered in the Top 50.

@SoJanLucky You may rank any University the way you want. Obviously, UMich has a higher rank by most if not all agencies than Pitt for a reason. It was even rank the top public University in the US by one source last year.

@billcsho

Is this new this year? If so, would existing families be swept into this new policy? Or do they continue under the FA policy they started under in their first year?

@brantly It was announced last year and effective this year. It does apply to current students too.

Interesting. Thanks. So existing students are swept in under the new policy. That’s very generous. I have some people who’d be interested in knowing this.

“I was accepted in December, I do not think the price is justified if you compare it to other renowned state schools.”

And yet, Michigan enrolls 13,000 OOS undergrads who gladly pay full tuition. The ACT/SAT ranges for those students is roughly 30-34/1350-1530, so you know a large chunk of those had appealing options, including schools like CMU, Cornell, Northwestern etc…

The fact is, GT, Texas-Austin and Wisconsin Madison, while all very good in their own way, are a notch below Michigan.

I am pro Michigan but I would take Georgia Tech out of your argument…

^^^^^GT is great for engineering and pretty much a one trick pony. Michigan is great at just about everything it offers.

I don’t think GT is trying really hard to be good at everything. I think they know who they are. Both great schools for different reasons… Is all I am saying.