The endowment is way higher now eyo777. The endowment at Michigan was over 9.7 billion last October. With the Victos of Michigan campaign in full swing, I would imagine it is easily over 10 billion now.
" Nice…that helps support the medical school ."
Of course the overall cost of living in the bay area is probably at least double or triple what it is in Ann Arbor. With all of those expensive nobel laureates on campus, Cal has to shell out a lot more money to keep its talent at home. It does help that Berkeley is right next door to a world class city (not Oakland). I’ve always maintained that location is a huge factor in obtaining very top faculty. Coastal cities and universities located in/near very large exciting urban areas are going to be more appealing to the vast majority of top academicians. 
eyo777, your figures are for 2013. Here are the 2014 figures:
http://www.nacubo.org/Documents/EndowmentFiles/2014_Endowment_Market_Values_Revised.pdf
UCB, Michigan’s medical school accounts for roughly $2 billion of Michigan’s endowment. The remaining $7.7 billion are for the rest of the University.
Alexandre, in that link you provided it says 7,384,410 for “University of California” and then 1,496,437 for “University of California, Berkeley Foundation.” Not sure where the 3bil number from U.S. News came from then, even including the 2013 column in that report…
I’m fascinated at how much money Texas has.
To stay closer to the topic of the thread though, Michigan clearly has more money, but USC’s endowment isn’t exactly shabby.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_California
University of California: $13.14 Billion and 238,700 students
$13,140,000,000 238,700.00 $55,048/capita
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Texas_System
University of Texas: $25.425 Billion and “over 216,000 students”
$25,425,000,000 216,000.00 $117,708/capita
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Michigan
University of Michigan $9.47 Billion and 43,625 students
$9,470,000,000 43,625.00 $217,077/capita
@Sidkane I was a Presidential Scholarship finalist for USC, so I got to stay there for two days for my interview and act as a pseudo student while exploring campus, and I just went to campus day at Michigan over spring break. In my opinion, having talked to students (and stayed with some of them in USC’s case):
STUDENTS : Michigan is more intellectual, USC is more fun. My host was in a frat, and many of his floor mates were in the same frat, so bear in mind what I say is only personal experience, however I was slightly turned off by some of the USC kids - they seemed to embody the stereotype of rich SoCal children; they even had a dry erase board on one of the kids’ doors where they “kept track of conquests”. Then again, I hear the frats at Michigan are the same; and for what it’s worth, my host was pretty nice and friendly. No doubt about it USC is more party/wellrounded depending on your interpretation. Michigan has a more diverse sense of fun, for better or worse. Also, I doubt your daughter should care too much, but USC has more attractive people
RESOURCES: USC is insanely beautiful. It literally looks like the pictures you see in magazines. It’s that pretty. Michigan is more of a “normal” college beautiful, most buildings are grand and majestic looking in contrast to USC’s “state of the art” look. However, the interiors of both buildings are roughly the same. I just got the vibe that USC is wealthier as a whole from the aesthetics and wandering around campus. Finally, you need a bus to go from North to Central to South Campus, so Michigan is much bigger. By contrast only took me a few hours to figure out where most of the things were at USC. Again, depends if your daughter wants to explore the more natural beauty of MU and Ann arbor, or the exciting Hollywood fresh looks of a compacted campus 3 min south of downtown LA. Finally, USC has more restaurants in the campus, and their chefs are incredible. Michigan’s food can’t compare, but Ann arbor has a TON of little restaurants if your daughter is willing to explore a bit.
ACADEMICS: If your daughter is interested in Cinema/media stop reading right now and have her enroll in USC. We saw some of their filming locations and setups and it was ridiculously advanced; they have a freaking theatre where they preview movies weeks BEFORE the general public sees them. Aside from that, I’d say go with Michigan. I just felt more intelligence emanating from the students there, and USC only had three small libraries to study in. Michigan’s programs are ranked more highly, and their liberal arts curriculum is more streamlined (their AP policies are more lenient while USC caps at 32 credits - i.e.; 8 AP courses worth of credits). I will say this in USC’s favor though. They have smaller classes. I attended a 100 level Science course and a 300 level literature course. the 100 level course was roughly 50-60 students - not nearly the nightmare I imagined. It literally felt like a slightly bigger classroom than I was used too, and I had no trouble hearing the professor and even asked a question during his lecture (he was very enthusiastic by the way). the 300 level course was about 15 kids. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to attend a specific class at Michigan because I had to go to the Ross School of Business Info session immediately after the LSA presentation, but I’ve been inside the lecture halls, and yes, they are pretty big. If you sit in the back, you might just be in trouble. I’m not going to comment on that any further because I just don’t know from personal experience.
MISC: USC on West Coast is much, much, more highly touted than Mich on West Coast - I talked to a lot of students and the other Pres. Finalists from Cal. However Michigan has a substantially better national rep (USC’s is still good). As an institution, they’ve dropped the “party school only” tag that’s plagued them by aggressively investing in academic resources, but the student body hasn’t seemed to quite catch up yet with this mentality just yet. USC feels like Cali kids with a healthy seeing of international kids sprinkled in. Michigan feels like a bunch of Midwest kids with the occasional west coast person. Make of that what you will. Lastly for alumni network’s go with Michigan. They have a bigger network with more people in higher places. Yes, USC is better in the west coast, but the sheer numbers of Michigan alums in high places everywhere makes it pretty easy to find connections ANYWHERE.
In the end, I personally chose Michigan because I wanted the more intellectual student body without sacrificing the fun. In my case I was also pre-admitted to Ross, and I calculated it would take me less than a year to pay off the money I’d save going to Marshall @ USC based on employment salary differences.
^ Great summary.
USC’s campus kind of has a Disney Fantasyland feel to it… Appropriate for being centered in car-centric LA La Land.
Thanks for all of the input. Great write up Howie. Very insightful. We are in our way to the admitted students day at both schools over the next couple days.
I don’t find the area around USC desirable at all. South central LA is not Hollywood, not that Hollywood is that great either. You can have downtown LA too. I am not a fan of LA period, as you can see.
Oh yeah to clarify in my post bc I was PMed: USC is the school that had the “party school” label. Also, when I talk about student diversity, please keep in mind I’m a Midwesterner, and thus, used to East coast kids more than West Coast kids. As such I may have not noticed the East coast students in contrast to the few west coast students walking around. Regardless, USC definitely felt more diverse (although again, they unequivocally have more int’l kids).
eyo777, the link I provided was pretty clear. Cal’s endowment is $3.9 billion. I am not sure about UT-Austin, but it is pretty wealthy (definitely in the $9.5 billion range). Texas is very well off financially.
“To stay closer to the topic of the thread though, Michigan clearly has more money, but USC’s endowment isn’t exactly shabby.”
Not shabby, but nowhere close to Michigan either. Not only is Michigan’s endowment more than twice that of USC, but the $275 million Michigan receives from the state annually is equivalent to an additional $6 billion in endowment. So if you wish to make an apple to apple comparison, Michigan’s endowment is equivalent to $15.5 billion, compared to USC’s $4.6 billion. Both universities have 43,000 students, and both universities have large Engineering and Medical complexes. USC is well off, but Michigan much richer. And this manifests itself through the multitude of campus upgrades since 2005. In 10 years, Michigan has invested $5 billion in facilities construction and upgrades.
^ But USC has “The Villages”…
https://village.usc.edu/
That looks pretty sterile UCB. You’re right, it does remind me of Disneyland.
^ Yep, Disneyfication of an academic institution.
Is that a bad thing?
It’s not bad, but to me it just looks like an urban renewal project. USC can only do so much to tidy up the sourrouding neighborhood. That’s what I love about Ann Arbor. The city and the university seemlessly intermingle and you can walk virtually anywhere around town and be relatively safe.
I take it to be a bad thing. And it’s not a new planning style for campuses, either; USC is not the sole offender. I distinctly remember reading a book of NYT reviews to explore different colleges when I was 16 or so – way back in the pre-internet era – and a few of the reviews explicitly mentioned the campus was like going to Disneyland. I crossed those right off the list. And even on a few visits of other schools after my admissions, I found some developments to be too bland or sanitized for my taste. I agree with rjk above, and I chose my undergrad campus partially based on a similar integration and architectural diversity.
To each her/his own, but I’m not a Disney-campus fan, nor a corporatized campus advocate.
Walked around the USC campus today. Lots of building happening. It is very pretty and pleasant. Did not feel like Disney to me or my D. Actually more tasteful than many new buildings I have seen at other uni campuses. The area around it seems to be getting better as well, including these newer buildings. Heading to AA tomorrow.
Walked around the USC campus today. Lots of building happening. It is very pretty and pleasant. Did not feel like Disney to me or my D. Actually more tasteful than many new buildings I have seen at other uni campuses. The area around it seems to be getting better as well, including these newer buildings. Heading to AA tomorrow.