<p>
</p>
<p>Here’s one way to look at it.</p>
<p>I know a person who judges colleges and their relative worth and quality (rightly or wrongly) by: where people at the highly competitive place where she works, went to school.</p>
<p>And, as it turns out, many of them through the years are graduates of UM. I highly doubt that any went to UA. You may take that for what its worth.</p>
<p>UM vs. UA is no contest.</p>
<p>YMMV.</p>
<p>I got my engineering degree from Wayne State and have worked along side others from U of M, MSU, Mich Tech, SVSU and many other universities. Once we got hired, no one cared where what school we attended.</p>
<p>I do think you will have a wider range of companies recruiting on campus at U of M, but there is no reason why someone couldn’t pursue employment in any region of the country that they are interested in.</p>
<p>Nobody is equating UA with U of M - the question is - is U of M worth an extra $50,000+? The answer is going to be different depending on your current financial situation and possibly your major and post-grad plans.</p>
<p>If your child wants to become a history professor, its important to minimize expenses as much as possible with graduate school on the horizon. I would recommend Alabama in this case.</p>
<p>By the way, most engineering companies hire from a wide variety of schools and geography plays more of a role than “university prestige”.</p>
<p>I would recommend Alabama over Duke in this case, since it is a private school and Michigan is your local instate option. Actually since Duke isn’t that great in engineering overall, I would also recommend Alabama for free in that area.</p>
<p>"By the way, most engineering companies hire from a wide variety of schools and geography plays more of a role than “university prestige”. </p>
<p>Nearly 300 engineering companies recruit at the Michigan Job Fair:</p>
<p>[Career</a> Fairs | Engineering Career Resource Center](<a href=“http://career.engin.umich.edu/employers/careerfairs.html]Career”>Career Fairs & Networking Events – Engineering Career Resource Center)</p>
<p>There is no way Alabama is going to match up with that.</p>
<p>I would say rjkofnovi is probably correct, in general more national companies recruit in the midwest because there are many very good engineering students. It is cost efficient to hit illinois, purdue, michigan, MSU, and more in one trip and the “fishing” is good in the midwest. Georgia Tech is heavily recruited by national companies in numbers that approximate the midwest simply because it has mass and is unquestionably an excellent engineering program and in my experience the recruiters can get to a few HBUs on a Georgia Tech trip to fill other positions, but in general Alabama by virtue of size will have opportunities if not by national recruiting staff by regional recruiting staff.</p>
<p>As an example, my former global Fortune 50 company US national recruiters are going to the following this year exclusively to recruit engineers: Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Purdue, Michigan State, Penn State, Georgia Tech, Texas A&M and University of Texas. They are catching Northwestern for any major. They hit the winter fairs - Jan through March. All the rest of the colleges they visit are general recruiting trips (to find MBAs, Supply Chain, Finance, etc. etc.) Different companies, however as a disclaimer, will have their own “personal favorites” where they have been previously successful.</p>
<p>
Actually, Duke is a top 25 engineering school while Alabama isn’t even top 100. If Duke offers great financial aid, then it would be a smart option if the OP had applied and gained admissions. All of the major engineering firms like Microsoft, Cisco, Google, Apple, etc. recruit on campus. It is also a more versatile degree that would allow the OP to go into Investment Banking and MC with relative ease.</p>
<p>This thread smells of faux-coy bragging. Prob just wanted to boast about her kid getting a merit scholy as a sophomore. I seriously doubt any parent that sent two kids in-state is just going to randomly send their third to Alabama. If he’s that smart, he’ll have full merit offers from all over by his senior year.</p>
<p>You missed the point goldenboy. Had the OP been enquiring about Duke (at $12k tuition) vs Alabama (tuition free), it is very likely that you would have recommended Duke by a very significant margin.</p>
<p>darkomi, you seem to think everyone has an ulterior motive and I say that affectionately. If I were the OP I’d be grappling with the same issue…cheap big university vs. not so cheap big university even if it’s the in-state. There are other kids in the OPs family and even if you are firmly in the comfortable place of true middle class it is a huge expense and future earnings are predicated on the kid…not the college. As a parent that can be a large conundrum. We can love our children to death, but the bottom line is those same children, wonderful as they are, could theoretically be sitting in that same starting job earning 2% raises a year if they are lucky and sitting right next to the kid that got a full ride somewhere else who gets promoted because of that person’s EQ (emotional quotient).</p>
<p>As a parent whose grandparents were educated in Europe probably for free and whose parents walked into the admissions office at UofM with their high school transcript slutched in their hand (serious that is what happened in the 40s) and enough cash to pay for their engineering classes and some room and board, and those same parents who paid full cost for my education without a ton of hardship, it is unfathomable to understand what it costs to educate your children and what has happened in the last 3 decades. You can be the greatest UofM champion of the world and still have the grace to understand that finances are a big part of choosing a college unless you have a bunch of trust funds sitting around.</p>
<p>The following is NOT directed to one particular post.</p>
<p>You shouldn’t complain about the cost of a university until you receive some kind of financial aid estimate from that university. You don’t know how much you will have to pay before then.</p>
<p>Furthermore, I am very thankful for U-M’s generous financial aid.</p>
<p>Good gracious momof3 - are we suppose to comprehend that run on sentence? Too exhausting to read.</p>
<p>Ok - read it again; good point!</p>
<p>Michigan is a far better option. I know cost should play a factor, but you have to keep in mind that U of M was ranked in the US top 10 “return on your investment” school. Michigan has opportunities, classes, and faculty that Alabama simply cannot match. If your kid gets into Michigan and it’s a remotely affordable decision, I would encourage it.</p>
<p>
False, please cite your sources.</p>
<p>[Top</a> Ten Colleges With The Best Return On Your Investment - Forbes](<a href=“http://www.forbes.com/sites/troyonink/2013/02/19/top-ten-colleges-with-the-best-return-on-your-investment/]Top”>Top Ten Colleges With The Best Return On Your Investment)</p>
<p>
I would have, but that’s because the lack of a business school means that Duke students are uniformly well recruited for jobs regardless of major unlike U of M. This is important because deciding to purse a PhD in History is often a fickle endeavor which the OP will most likely change his/her mind about.</p>
<p>If the OP is dead bent on getting a doctorate in History, then Duke boasts smaller class sizes, easier access to faculty, stronger students (thus better classmates), and better graduate school advising than U of M or Alabama.</p>
<p>It also has a strong History department at the graduate level like U of M so there there is no doubt a lot of breadth and depth in the number of courses available to undergraduates majoring in this subject. Of course, this is true for Alabama and Michigan as well. All 3 of these schools are major research universities at the end of the day.</p>
<p>“I would have, but that’s because the lack of a business school means that Duke students are uniformly well recruited for jobs regardless of major unlike U of M.”</p>
<p>That is not factual goldenboy. I would say that Ross students are more heavily recruited than Duke students. Almost 100% of Ross grads looking for jobs are placed, and the average starting salary is $65k. Last year, 340 out of 370 Ross graduates accepted offers, and the remaining 30 went on to graduate school. I doubt Duke graduates seeking jobs come close to enjoying such placement success…and those that are placed will likely have average starting salaries will be well under $60k. According to a recent survey, 25% of recent Duke grads did not even respond. So out of a class of 1,600, 1,200 responded. And of those, over 15% unemployed and another 20% were taking a “gap year”, “volunteering”, “uncertain” etc…Only 38% were gainfully employed and 24% went straight to graduate school. Combined, that accounts for 62% of Duke grads. From LSA, anywhere from 85%-95% (depending on the year) are either employed or enrolled in graduate school within 9 months of graduation. I do not see how Duke does a better job than LSA. Michigan’s student body is simply more tangibly compartmentalized.</p>
<p>LSA students are about as well recruited as Duke students, with the exception of IBanks and MCs, which admittedly focus more (but by no means exclusively) on Ross, while at Duke, focus on the entire undergraduate student body. But even at Duke, most IBanks will recruit Econ or Math majors, and the competition for those 100 or so jobs will be very intense. I would rather face those odds at Ross than at Duke.</p>
<p>But nowhere has riverbirch expressed interest in IBanking or Consulting. At present, her son seems interested in a career in academe. If that is the case, attending an elite university like Michigan (or Duke) makes better sense than Alabama because academe is more “elitist” than most people realize.</p>
<p>Goldenboy, I’m sorry I didn’t site my sources. I’ve included a few sources for you below.</p>
<p>U of M was ranked #6 in Huffington Post’s 2013 list of the top 10 “new ivies.” <a href=“http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/1844804[/url]”>http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/1844804</a></p>
<p>It was also ranked #12 in the Times Higer Education World Reputation Ratings.
<a href=“http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2013/reputation-ranking[/url]”>http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2013/reputation-ranking</a></p>
<p>Ann Arbor was ranked the #8 happiest city in the US.
<a href=“Lincoln, Neb., Bests All Cities in Well-Being in 2012”>Lincoln, Neb., Bests All Cities in Well-Being in 2012;
<p>US News ranks Michigan #6 in undergraduate teaching.
<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/undergraduate-teaching[/url]”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/undergraduate-teaching</a></p>
<p>2 of every 3 Michigan undergrads receives financial aid.
<a href=“http://www.admissions.umich.edu/drupal/financial-aid[/url]”>http://www.admissions.umich.edu/drupal/financial-aid</a></p>
<p>And finally, #16 public college with the best lifetime return on your investment (seems I was mistaken about the top 10, but top 20 isn’t so bad).
<a href=“Egp88 : Daftar Situs Slot Gacor Pragmatic Play Resmi Aman Terpercaya 2023”>Egp88 : Daftar Situs Slot Gacor Pragmatic Play Resmi Aman Terpercaya 2023;
<p>"U of M was ranked #6 in Huffington Post’s 2013 list of the top 10 “new ivies.” <a href="http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/1844804">http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/1844804</a>"</p>
<p>LOL! While I do not disagree with the content in this instant, quoting huff(and puff) post as a legit source is like considering msnbc a real news channel…</p>
<p>^^^You think Forbes is any better?</p>
<p>^^ what are you talking about? Forbes is pretty unbiased and near the center</p>