“The area around it seems to be getting better as well, including these newer buildings. Heading to AA tomorrow.”
The area around Michigan has never gotten worse. It’s always been great.
^ Only the roads around Michigan got worse. 
D and I just had dinner in AA. Lots of energy with kids out and about. It doesn’t hurt that it is 70 degrees here. Think it might come down to whether she wants college town or big city vibe. Campus Day tomorrow.
Believe it or not Sidkane, energy levels right about now will be relatively low considering the fact that students are studying for their finals.
Have fun tomorrow.
Thanks for keeping us updated Sidkane!
Thank all of you for your thoughts so far. Not final, but I think D wants to be at UM. Please don’t jump on me, but I would say that USC definitely put more effort into the day. No profs at UM vs USC who had 2 per table for parent dinner. Huge meetings and tours where you had to fend for yourself at UM vs smaller groups and panel discussions. We did seek out a guide from Bay Area who was very nice. I think that is the biggest diff b/n the schools. Lots of attention so one doesn’t fall through cracks vs great resources, but have to be uber-proactive at UM. Luckily D can handle it (I hope).
Sidkane, interesting observation. I can’t say that I am surprised. Michigan does not try hard to woo parents, and works hard not to waste resources. As you said, Michigan has formidable resources, but students are expected to act as adults and actually seek them out. What many parents forget, perhaps because they are so protective of their children and unwilling to accept that they are grown up by the time they are in college, is that the knowledge acquired at university is too complex and copious to be spoon fed to them by faculty. Students must learn on their own, and the faculty is there merely to support them with supplementary information and added explanations when needed. From that point of view, Michigan does a great job. But there will be handholding, and that is a good thing considering that college students are supposed to learn the value of self-reliance between hitting the workplace.
What were your observations of the campus itself, of the facilities, and of the surrounding areas?
Alex, I agree with you. I think overall she’ll be more ready for the real world, which is what she liked about it too. We both loved the campus, AA and the facilities.
My older one graduated in May from SC and my younger one just committed to UM for Ross.
Plus we live in LA, so very familiar.
It is absolutely true that SC’s admitted days/events are way “woo-ier” than UM’s (at least until we got to Ross - that was “woo-y” and had a bit more sparkle to it, which could’ve just been in part the amazing facility). It may also be a public vs. private thing?
But something astonishing happened after my son got back to LA from AA. He was invited out to dinner with the Ross head of undergraduate programming (not the Ross Admissions folk we met at Campus day who were also very nice). He was in town for the big admitted students event near LAX the following night. It was a very private dinner with one other pre-admit and parents. Talk about wooing. It was truly an amazing dinner and conversation.
Anyway, know that once enrolled, SC is probably far more like UM in that regard. (Older son and I noticed the “change” at USC orientation and even joked about how now that they had our money, the food wasn’t quite as good.) Once students, kids must fend for themselves as they should.
Thanks Jazz. That’s funny. Not surprising I guess. USC seemed very deliberate about what they did. Ironically, that over the top stuff (eg marching band at lunch) is what my D didn’t like. Congrats on both your sons! You should be proud.
Thanks, Sidkane. Funny, my older son actually got a teeny bit of trombone spit in his face - an accident form sitting too close to the band. But it was fun.
Although we are brand spanking new to UM, if there is anything I can fill you in on with regard to USC, please feel free to PM me!
Thanks Jazz! Will do.
We have had the same experience with Michigan and USC. Michigan has been unresponsive to emails and calls - both the Engineering department and the regional rep. Whereas, USC’s responses are within the day - both emails and calls! Perhaps it will all change but at least it is a better start.
Huh. What “same experience” do you mean? I was referring to the “wooing” vibes of admitted students events, not returning of calls (haven’t emailed). Son and I have had no issues getting personal responses from UM so far in this process. About orientation, Campus Day, scholarships, Ross, all good.
Just my experience. First I applied EA Michigan and was accepted but not until January (rather than December, their published response date) such that I needed to complete more college apps as I did not know about Michigan. Then, I emailed an update to Michigan and my regional rep never responded. A month later, another regional rep responded. Then I emailed Michigan Eng with regards to scholarships, and no response. So, my take was that there were too many kids to deal with and I did not want to get into that sort of a situation for the next four years.
csce, regional reps are volunteers, not employees of the University. You should have called (not emailed) the university directly, and followed up with an email to the concerned party. The average admissions officer is dealing with 2,000 applicants at once. That’s two thousand! But Michigan is effective at responding to phone calls.
At any rate, all the best to you. I am sure there are universities out there with a more efficient admissions administration.
By regional rep, I mean the admission counselor assigned to my region not a volunteer.
Then in that case, it is not standard procedure not to respond. It obviously happens, but it is not usually the case, at least not with the many students I have seen correspond with the admissions office. Naturally, there are many ways to evaluate a university, and one of them by the effectiveness and charm of its office of admissions.
Clearly, they are overwhelmed. My daughter, too, applied EA, was deferred in December, and accepted in January. We were told that they did not have time to look at all the applications and make decisions by their stated deadline. In her high school, the only EA applicants (out of about 80 who applied, OOS) who were admitted were legacies and Asians (a lot of Asian students in her school). Everyone else was deferred. So it appears that they only evaluated certain “buckets” of students and left the rest for a later date. Her eyes were wide open to the differences between a large, impersonal school like Michigan and the medium- and small-sized schools she applied to, but she still chose Michigan.
Alexandre, any suggestions for my D on how to best take advantage of the opportunities and be successful at UM? I would like to set expectations with her.