<p>I've been accepted to both engineering schools, though I might transfer to be a pure math/physics major, no clue yet. Out of state for both and money is equal. What are your thoughts on how they compare.</p>
<p>Michigan
-bigger endowment/less broke
-marginally better school for what I plan on studying
-math honors program looks very interesting/hard (math 295 track)
-didn't feel very bureaucratic, even in such a huge place I didnt feel like just a number
-less cut throat
-even though Im a massive nerd, felt like I could fit in fairly easily
-NO FOREIGN LANGUAGE REQUIREMENT! (a big thing for me, I bloody hated those classes at my school. I spent more effort passing remedial Spanish then AP calc. If I wind up a math/physics major in L&A, I will need to take them anyway.</p>
<p>UCLA
-weather
-girls
-food is suppose to be much better then Michigan
-a lot of family went, all loved it
-the jobs are in cali, though I'm prob going to grad school anyway
-LA beats Detroit hands down
-havent visited yet, so ill know more about the feel in a few weeks</p>
<p>Don’t know much about UCLA, but Math here is f****** awesome. A bunch of the professors may not be great, but if you’re actually considering the 295 track (and assuming you understand what you’re getting into) you are smart enough to learn on your own. I would say the professors are 50/50 good/bad, with most of the bad proportion teaching the introductory classes. You will be challenged and learn a tremendous amount.</p>
<p>“LA beats Detroit hands down”
Ann Arbor is almost an hour away from detroit, and i’m guessing most students wouldn’t go there that often if it was nice. Ann Arbor is a very nice town, great college town. i wouldnt use the LA/detroit comparison as something to help in you decision since detroit wont be big in your experience rly. if i was u i would decide if you want to be in a big city or college town</p>
<p>Hmmm…UCLA has professors who teach from their own books, so you get a firsthand experience from very knowledgeable professors. There’s also the prospect of great internships there as well. Food is great, people are extremely friendly, racism is at a minimum these days, quality of life is 95%. It’s ranked #2 in U.S. public universities. I would go for UCLA. There’s just too much opportunity there to resist.</p>
<p>Michigan is probably going to have just as good of professors, who may have also written the book used in class. UCLA is ranked higher overall, but UMich is ranked higher in engineering</p>
<p>Having visited both schools, there’s one big difference I’ve seen besides the obvious ones: you’ll probably make many more friends at Michigan (this comes from somebody who’s still trying to decide where to go BTW). At UCLA, beautiful as it was, we saw almost no student interaction - at the Wooden Center gym for example, there were 8 baskets and 8 guys playing by themselves at each basket, nobody playing with each other. Across town at USC, people just seemed way happier, hanging out in groups of 2-5, talking, walking, joking around. Same at Michigan - even in the rain a couple weeks ago. Everybody I’ve talked to who’s been to UCLA (only a couple to be honest) talk about how hard it is to make friends there. Everybody I’ve talked to about Michigan loves it and talks about how many friends they’ve made. Same thing at USC. So - if making friends is important to you, keep this in mind. And good luck!</p>
<p>Both are great schools to attend and each have their uniqueness to sway you over the other such as UCLA weather and location and UMich reputation in your field and campus environment. You have until May 1st, so you definately have a lot more time to make such decision. I would ask if the cost of each school are really equal, if not it seems much better to go with the less expensive school. Also ChuckP, knowing little about each schools social life since I’m not a student, the students who attend UMich from my school comes back and give of a good review of the school but nearly all express unfriendlyness of the students compared to other state schools such as MSU. They also express that there is a large division of interaction by ones social standings ( also heard this a few times from subs). I guess UCLA may be even less more friendly but would assume the social interaction is not highly divided.</p>
<p>Yeah, I’m not quite sure if i know what I’m getting into with math 295, but i like math, and i did self-teach calc bc in under a month(switched into the class from precalc in feb), so I figure its worth a shot, I can always jump down a level if I’m not up to par.</p>
<p>I’m thinking the overall academic rigor and prestige is close enough to be a wash. No one will look less of me in 4 years for attending either school, plus I’m most likely going to grad afterwords and both will place into grad school well. If I’m choosing based on academic factors its going to be course offerings, requirements, research ops etc. I’m really more concerned with quality of life and such at this point.</p>
<p>edit:does anyone know who is teaching math295 next year, and if they are any good.</p>
<p>Instructor is not posted (may not be determined yet). You can try contacting the math department and inquiring, then hitting up ratemyprofessor.com</p>
<p>If you taught yourself BC Calc in a month you should succeed in 295. Good luck man</p>
<p>Michigan College of Engineering has the best programs in the country. If it was UCLA vs Michigan LSA that might have been something else, but because you’re going in for engineering, Michigan is definitely the school for you.</p>
<p>The USNWR ranking is not accurate. Michigan is slightly stronger than UCLA is most respects. Of course, Michigan’s academic and financial edge is not enough to make this a no-brainer, but blindly believing the USNWR is foolish.</p>
<p>I would look into how the budget cut will affect the campus environment at UCLA. For example, I was surprised to find there is no more 24-hr library at UC-Berkeley.</p>