<p>I am deciding between the honors college at the University of Michigan and Brown University. I live in Ann Arbor and have taken both undergraduate and graduate level courses at umich over the past two years so I have an idea of what to expect from the umich classroom experience. I visited Brown and sat in on a few classes, but I know I didn't get the full picture. I am interested in microbiology and music theory, but that is definitely subject to change, so I'm not too concerned with the individual departments as much as I am with the undergraduate academic experience as a whole.
This decision is still really up in the air because, while I like the fact that umich will instill 'survival skills,' I have a hard time giving up the air of collaboration and innovation that Brown seems to have for the cutthroat competition of umich's hard science and engineering classes.
I can provide additional information if requested, and any advice or input is appreciated.
Thanks for your time!</p>
<p>Brown purely because Emma Watson goes there. she is so ****ing hot its ■■■■■■■■. I watched harry potter 7 twice yesterday haha</p>
<p>Ridiculous reason, especially since she has withdrawn from Brown, as announced on March 8, 2011:</p>
<p>[Emma</a> Watson Leaves School To Focus On ‘Harry Potter’ And These Other Developing Films MTV Movies Blog](<a href=“http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2011/03/08/emma-watson-leaves-brown-harry-potter/]Emma”>http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2011/03/08/emma-watson-leaves-brown-harry-potter/)</p>
<p>Michigan and cutthroat can never be used in a sentences. The environment is not competitive, not even in Ross, which some people describe as “competitive”. This has always been my biggest complain.</p>
<p>Emma Watson dropped out of brown a few weeks ago though. Besides, her new lesbo haircut made her go from an 8 to 4.</p>
<p>^^^^10char</p>
<p>“Emma Watson dropped out of brown a few weeks ago though. Besides, her new lesbo haircut made her go from an 8 to 4.”</p>
<p>Normally I understand people have their own opinions and I respect that.</p>
<p>But I would love to know your grading scale to justify the 4.</p>
<p>LOL wait really, she was so pretty, why would she do that to herself?</p>
<p>aw the poor OP is going to be ****ed when he sees all of this… insight…</p>
<p>Is there a difference in cost of attendance? Academically, they are equally good, albeit in significantly different ways. As such, if one school costs less than the other, go for the cheaper option. If cost is not an issue, go for fit.</p>
<p>Hey, you’re all just jealous muggles 
But seriously guys, I need some help deciding!
@Alexandre: It’s about $8k/yr difference. I’ll be alright taking out loans to pay for Brown if it’s the right fit.
Any non-Emma Watson related advice?</p>
<p>$8k per year is negligible, assuming it will not translate into $30k of debt. You do not want $30k of debt coming out of college if you could attend a school like Michigan and graduate debt-free. Sure Brown is not worse than Michigan, but it is not better either.</p>
<p>Only you can decide on fit. If you aren’t too excited about Michigan and really like Brown, perhaps Brown would be a good change for you.</p>
<p>When I saw my own Brown acceptance, I was excited for like an hour…and then asked to be someone’s U of M roommate within 2 hours of recieving my Brown decision.</p>
<p>Brown’s an amazing school, supposed to be a very happy environment,</p>
<p>but Michigan’s academics are supposed to be kind of superior to Brown in like everything…Brown’s smaller and kind of segregated too. At Michigan, you literally have people from everywhere. It’s like one of the best place to spend 4 years for college in my opinion- for the city alone. I don’t like the idea of living in Providence for 4 years, but I think areas like San Francisco, Seattle, Miami, etc- I would love!
Detroit’s an up and coming city, so I wouldn’t ditch it so fast.</p>
<p>Also, when I was debating between colleges, I looked up graduate school stuff. I read somethings like schools like HYPSM don’t always take kids from such schools into their grad programs. For some reason, grad schools like HYPSM like liberal art schools, small Christian schools, etc a lot for their graduate student placement.</p>
<p>Hope that helps^</p>
<p>^ “Detroit’s an up and coming city, so I wouldn’t ditch it so fast.”</p>
<p>Wait…what?</p>
<p>As funny as that may sound americanslang, it is true. That’s not saying much of course, since Detroit has no place to go but up! Seriously though, Detroit is considered a city on the move and will improve markedly over the next 10-15 years. As it stands, Detroit’s suburbs are perfectly fine, but the downtown area needs major work, and that is going to happen. Of course, that does not mean that Detroit will ever join the ranks of Chicago or San Francisco, but like Pittsburgh, it has potential to become a very liveable city.</p>
<p>Michigan is in Ann Arbor. Brown is in Providence. Detroit has really very little to do with where you’ll be spending your next four years.</p>
<p>Yeah, I know. I live in Ann Arbor. My logic is that I’ll probably go to Umich if they invite me to apply to the honors college, and Brown if they don’t.
Is that reasonable?</p>
<p>Detroit’s amazing- have to put that in (:
It has people from all different parts of the world because of the automotive industry especially, and a LOT more happens here than Providence!</p>
<p>But anyways, don’t base your decision on the Honors college. Honors college applications were due for freshmen over a month ago. Most of the Honors college was full back by February.
I can honestly tell you that I was an incredibly strong candidate for Honors and was rejected- not because of my application, but because I believe my app wasn’t read on time or never read at all because Honors was full by the time they got to me. </p>
<p>Honors doesn’t mean much at Michigan as a freshman besides housing and a literature class. You can always apply for honors 2nd semester as a freshman, and you can always do an “Honors concentration.” You can also opt to do a thesis junior year and then you’ll automatically be in Honors I believe (because it opens up to everyone then- honors is really only good for the housing I heard freshman year). You can ask for special assignments in some classes and then those classes will become honors classes.</p>
<p>Hope that helps!</p>
<p>If you’re in the honors program at Michigan, then I would say there’s a decision to be made between Michigan or Brown. Otherwise, go for Brown! (if you’re not concerned about financial matters). I’m in the honors program here, and I can honestly say the group of people you’ll meet are amazing. But then again, I’m sure the same thing will happen at Brown as well. So it really depends: if you’re not concerned about money and if the whole “ivy league” thing matters to you, go Brown. But otherwise, honors Michigan is definitely the way to go!</p>