I am a student at UCSD studying neurobiology and just received an acceptance letter from UMich LSA to transfer there in the Winter. My friends at UCSD tell me that UCSD has a better biology program which is ranked considerably higher than UMich’s but my family from back home thinks that UMich is a more prestigious/better school and that I should transfer over. Cost isn’t a factor since I am an international student. I’m very conflicted.
This seems plausible.
Why do you want to transfer? (Beyond prestige).
Michigan is likely better known to a person that has some knowledge about US colleges in your country. UCSD likely is viewed better by someone that knows a little bit about Biology graduate programs. However, none of this matters to you. The people on the graduate admissions committee at the PhD programs that you apply will view them as equals. If I was an incoming freshman, I would pick Michigan. That would not be because of major strength. However, I would not transfer. It doesn’t sound like you have any major problems with UCSD. Transferring is not worth the disruption.
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@Eeyore123, did you mean to say “not worth” ?
OP, as @Eeyore123 said, UMi may better known outside the US, but it is not ‘better’ academically, and won’t be any better for getting into a PhD program. What will matter are:
Grades
Research experience
Letters of Reference
Fit between your research interests and the university
If you are settled and happy at UCSD, stay.
If you have good relationships with any of your profs, stay.
If you are already involved in research- especially if the research is interesting to you, stay.
If you have not settled and are genuinely unhappy where you are, go (just be aware that sometimes changing location doesn’t fix the problem)
If you know of specific profs/research/classes at UMi which are significantly better aligned to your interests than those at UCSD AND you have good evidence that you will be able to be involved with those profs/research/classes, go.
Tie-breaker: if you particularly don’t like / are strongly drawn to other things about the university experience (weather, local community, specific hobby)
Anecdotally, the recent UCSD neurobio student I know had genuinely amazing research experiences there, and is now at his first choice PhD program.
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Wow - you want to go to grad school and you applied to transfer - not because you hate your experience at a top flight school but because my family thinks UM is more prestigious.
Will you apply to Harvard or Stanford next year because they are more prestigious than Michigan?
Are you involved in clubs, social life, research, etc?
There are people who hate their school, can’t afford their school, don’t like the weather, whatever - can’t get classes they want.
There are reasons to transfer.
But your email provides zero.
Personally I don’t understand why you applied to transfer.
You are going for a Phd - neither is going to give you an edge over the other.
But even if one did, why would you go to start again after you already established yourself - at a top flight school.
Scratching my head a bit on this one.
I don’t see any reason to leave UCSD for Michigan. However, why stop at Michigan? Why not go higher - because I feel that is next year (coming again).
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Like others have said, I don’t understand why you want to transfer. Unless you are unhappy at UCSD, you should stay put.
UCSD’s neuroscience programs are absolutely stellar (some would argue they’re #1) and any PhD admissions committee will know that. Even then, prestige matters less than you think. Biology PhD programs accept students who went to all sorts of undergraduate institutions. It’s similar to med school admissions in that way.
Getting into biology PhD programs is not very hard. UCSD vs Michigan will make no difference. What WILL make a difference is your performance at whatever school you attend. You have to get involved in research if you’re not already. You can do that at any school. A student at Podunk Directional State U with wonderful recommendations, a few years of work on a research project, and excellent grades will be preferred over a student from UCSD with poor grades, no research experience, and lackluster letters.
Get good grades and good reference letters and plug away at research. Then you have to start researching which professors and topics you may want to work with during your PhD and start to read about that work. That can happen later.
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Thank you for the responses! I initially applied to transfer cuz I didn’t really like UCSD (kinda socially dead) and my parents thought I should try for “better” schools. They also said that UMich will offer more flexibility in regards to changing majors or finding other interests. I do like it here and I am involved in research for a couple of months already. My parents just think that if I don’t go I’m just throwing my chances away and I didn’t know how to convince them otherwise. Thank you guys for the responses it was really helpful
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I’m a Californian, my D18 just graduated from Michigan last April/May. We picked Michigan over several UC’s and SLO. Great school, no doubt about it. I also have a relative who graduated from UCSD, but didn’t like their 4 years there.
If you were entering as a freshman, then I’d say Michigan, but as mentioned above, not sure it’s worth the disruption of your college years for it at this point.
BTW, Niche has Michigan Biology Dept. ranked higher than UCSD, so rankings are fickle.
https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/university-of-michigan-ann-arbor-170976/overall-rankings
And rankings by research expenditures, Michigan is the #2 research university with UCSD at #6:
https://ncsesdata.nsf.gov/profiles/site?method=rankingbysource&ds=herd
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Glad you’re seeking out other opinions. Your parents are misinformed and are probably just going by whichever schools they’ve heard of, which is not correlated with program quality in this case.
I am a neuroscience professor at a medical school. UMich is certainly excellent, and while it’s silly to differentiate between such quality schools as UCSD and UMich, UCSD has the edge on prestige in neuroscience. Maybe telling that to your parents will help them feel better (even though that prestige does not matter).
I encourage you to stay at UCSD and continue your research – you are on the right path! Try to get involved in some clubs or activities to liven up your social life and I’m sure you’ll hit your stride. UCSD has so many options I don’t see how you would be limited in your interests. Don’t give another though to transferring and tune out your parents if they won’t drop it.
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This line confused me…
They also said that UMich will offer more flexibility in regards to changing majors
You didn’t mention - or did I miss - that you’d look to change majors?
Um so my parents think that I’m not suitable for neuroscience cuz according to them my personality isn’t very “STEM,” whatever that is supposed to mean. I do love neuroscience so I am still trying my best to do well in these classes and hopefully it will mean that I am suitable enough.
Thank you so much for your reply! I will definitely discuss this with my parents. I think they just really hoped that I should attend either a “prestigious” undergrad or a prestigious grad school. But thank you so much for helping me out!
Hmmm. Who is going to school. You or your parents ?
I don’t love my daughter’s major but that’s who she is and interests her.
Check out career outcomes for bio btw. Your parents won’t love that.
Every family is different but you, not your family, is in class each day, studying, taking tests, doing research.
You have a long life ahead of you.
There’s a lot of give and take in life, lots of choices one makes that aren’t their preference.
But a college major, in my eyes, shouldn’t be one.
They agreed to send you a year ago so they should have spoken up then.
I’d suggest you look at what YOU want to study and go all in.
UCSD is wonderful and I’ve not read anything that says ‘transfer.’
You think UCSD is dead but you’ve been there just two months - correct ??
It’s your life…so you do as you please. At least that’s what I believe.
You go to Michigan and you’ll complain about cold or size or something else.
UCSD can be wonderful if you choose to make it so.
Good luck.
Edit - just read your last note
YOU DO GO TO A PRESTIGIOUS UNIVERSITY. All caps.
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Thank you so much for your thoughtful reply! I’ll definitely keep that in mind and discuss the option of staying with my parents.
This might be the most important five words in the entire thread.
You are comparing two very good universities. If you excel at either, that will help your chances of getting into very good graduate programs (including PhD programs). However, your references and your research experience is going to matter quite a bit more than any perceived difference between U.Michigan or UCSD.
Also, it is very common and entirely normal in the US to get your bachelor’s at one university and your master’s and/or PhD at a different university.
This sounds exactly right to me.
By the way, I got my master’s degree at a university that I am pretty sure that your parents would consider “prestigious” (Stanford). The other students in the same program had come from a very, very wide range of other universities. What was important was what they had done as an undergraduate student, and in many cases (perhaps half or a bit more?) what they had done after getting their bachelor’s and before applying to graduate school.
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