My son applied to MechE at UofM, as a slight reach. He is in-state at a highly ranked high school with a very strong AP and Tech/Engineering curriculum. Two students from his robotics team were accepted by UofM’s engineering school last year.
Even if he is accepted, I do not know if he would go there. He is not excited about the separate engineering campus and large class sizes. On paper, UofM is a great choice - #6 undergrad engineering school, only 1.5 hours from home, great outcomes, great alumni network, in-state tuition… did I mention, in-state tuition? - but it might not be a good fit.
Have him do more research. The classes aren’t that large. My son graduated last year. Some classes had 25 kids in it…
If he’s accepted it’s one of the best values in the country for instate. All my son’s friend’s got impressive job’s. Separate campuses just isn’t that big of a deal… He can also live on central all 4 years if he wants to. My son lived on North 3/4 years and enjoyed it.
It’s just really hard to give up some of the best research facilities in the world. Every company wants to work with a Michigan kid and school. I have greater insight but think I made my point. It’s super easy to make a large school feel small especially at Michigan…
while the separate campuses are certainly kinda annoying, a lot of peeps here just choose to live on central campus and commute up to north. from what I’ve heard, it’s not too bad, especially if you live next to one of the transit stations.
I completely understand about cost. D21 attends Cal Poly SLO in-state and for my money, it’s a fantastic value!
While Michigan has one of the lower student-teacher ratios in terms of public schools, it’s definitely not a LAC. And it’s definitely not a fit for everyone. It’s been a wonderful fit for D18 though, notwithstanding the OOS cost.
Knowstuff, I realize that UofM is a great bargain and terrific school. We have spoken with recent engineering grads, and while they had relatively small classes as upper classmen, they also had core classes with as many as 400 students, and classes with 100-200 were common freshman and sophomore years. In contrast, he has been accepted by RHIT which has classes capped at 30 students, and their outcomes - salary by major, and grad school admissions - are on par with UofM. And while UofM has amazing research facilities, the professors are more focused on research, rather than teaching undergrads. At RHIT the professors are focused on teaching undergraduates. My son will likely pursue a graduate degree, and he can select a university based on research then.
I agree that a large school can feel small. Purdue has almost all of its engineering and physical science buildings in one quadrangle, so once you are on campus all of your classes are close together. Pitt has its engineering and science buildings just a block from their main dorm.
Just for everyone’s edification, according to the CDS, 10% of the class sections are between 50-99 students and 7% of the class sections are 100+. So that means 83% of the class sections are 49 students or less.
While Michigan has the 2nd largest R&D budget in the country for a university, JHU is #1, my D never got the impression that her professors were focused on their research more than their teaching.
My D just finished the final class for one of her minors and was offered a research position, though she may not be very interested in his research. (that’s a bummer, because it’s an awesome new field. I’m working her about it). But she just read me his email(s) and the professor was REALLY friendly and wanted to help her and the rest of her project team with their final paper.
I realize it’s just an anecdote and a sample of a few LSA classes, not CoE, that I’ve heard about from my D, but I’ve not gotten the impression that their focused more on their research than their teaching.
D22 had her HAIL interview. Her interviewer graduated last spring and was very enthusiastic. It was very casual and most certainly doesn’t count for anything admissions related, but it was nice for her to speak with a young COE grad.
But now she’s just more excited and will be more upset if she gets rejected …
Yes, Ross is a separate review. So, you can be accepted to LSA and then rejected or even waitlisted at Ross.
How often does it happen? That’s difficult to say, since we can only see “data” on this site, but there are typically a couple or few of those results here on CC. But CC is a very small sample and then Ross applicants are even fewer than LSA of CoE (and other schools). And not everyone reports back.
My daughter’s HAIL interview was short and not very informative. She felt that she did not do a good job answering interviewer’s questions. Hopefully it won’t have an impact on her admission.
Sounded like she was asked quite a few questions but did not get much response from the interviewer which made her feel bad. I guess it wasn’t an enjoyable experience for her.
Ugh sorry to hear that. The entire point of an informational interview is gaining information. Awkward silence is the fault of the interviewer. Hope she understands it’s no reflection on her admissions portfolio!
And it’s definitely not a fit for everyone. It’s been a wonderful fit for D18 though, notwithstanding the OOS cost. 
