<p>2 or 3 miles and a bus ride off campus seems seperate to me. I think the poster was looking for an unbiased opinion. Michigan has a lot of "pros" to their engineering school but I think you could put the location of the school as a con....bus rides are not always ideal.</p>
<p>Yea that 2 or 3 miles sounds pretty rough. I think that U of I may have an equal or slightly better engineering programs but you should definetely take visits to both schools.</p>
<p>Campuses like MSU, PSU, Duke, Stanford, Cornell etc... have equally large distances to cover for many students. UIUC is more compact, but even there, you will have distances to cover.</p>
<p>
barrons assessment sounds accurate.</p>
<p>I think I know my campus better than Barrons or you UCB. Michigan's North campus is not "separate". It is located in one corner of a large campus. Dozens of large universities have equally large campuses and students at those campuses must contend with that. I object to the use of the word separate however. It has a negative connotation that is not representative of reality. the fact is, most students who live in North campus have no trouble getting around campus and do not feel isolated or cut out from the rest of the University.</p>
<p>Alex, come on...yes, I know you know your campus. </p>
<p>But you're saying the same thing. All barrons said was a bus ride and "really separate".
And it does sound like a drawback...having a really spreadout campus versus a compact campus. </p>
<p>Can the engineering students take a liberal arts class back-to-back? Or does the distance need to be accomodated in scheduling?</p>
<p>bottom line is you are not going to get an objective perspective on Michigan on the Michigan post. Take the posts on face value and you will have to visit the schools yourself to make your own assessment.</p>
<p>Yes, it would be possible for an Engineering student to take back-to-back classes at the College of LSA, but it would be tough and that student would probably miss the first 10 minutes of the class. But many students take classes on both Central and North Campus, they generally give themselves a break between classes to make it on time and comfortably. The same can be said of students on many large campuses. Some universities have 5,000+ acres. Getting around on such campuses always requires extra effort and sensitive scheduling of classes.</p>
<p>Looka school like MSU for example is all contiguous. That being said, it's campus is much more spread out than it is on Michigan with it's central and north campuses. Michigan's campus and Ann Arbor blow away UIUC. If you want to live in the middle of the cornfields in podunk Illinois, then by all means go there.</p>
<p>University of Michigan- Ann Arbor</p>
<p>thanks everyone.</p>
<p>alex: the dorms are on the main campus, right? are the engineers forced to stay on north campus?</p>
<p>Engineers need a special pass to leave north campus. They stick it on the outside of their pocket protectors. :-)</p>
<p>After visiting many Big Ten campuses...Michigan still feels much more compact than say MSU or OSU, even with North Campus being separate (and I'm an engineer.) At MSU...you need to take a bus to get almost anywhere. At Michigan, you have one central bus stop at CC Little that connects the two campuses...CC Little is easily within walking distance of anywhere on Central Campus (but you also have North/South Commuter buses.) Talking about disconnect is kinda ridiculous. Maybe just in the sense that I lived on South U and had all of my classes on North or at Lorch, so I didn't walk through the Diag all last semester.</p>
<p>Students can live in which ever dorm they like. Some Engineering students live in a dorm on Central Campus or the Hill (right next to Central Campus) whereas some LSA students live in a dorm on North Campus.</p>
<p>9 out of 10 doctors recommended that attending the University of Michigan is good for your well-being while attending Illinois could potentially put you at risk for diseases such as cancer and AIDS.</p>
<p>This is just how I feel but...</p>
<p>When I hear someone say "I went to Michigan", I feel like that person went to an elite school. When I hear "I went to Illinois", it's kind of similar to how I feel about Texas-Penn State- UC San Diego -ish. It's kind of like, Michigan transcends that negative public school status, and UIUC is not quite over that.</p>
<p>"Michigan transcends that negative public school status"</p>
<p>There is not a negative public school status, and UIUC is a great school. That's only something that Ivy League Kool Aid drinking College Confidential posters would have you believe. The flagship publics, the schools in the Big Ten especially, provide an excellent education and have a great reputation. While you should definitely go to Michigan over UIUC, you would get an excellent education at both.</p>