<p>So I'm about to apply to UMich, and I do know that it's a great school, but how is its reputation nationally? I'm looking at psychology and poli sci. just in general, how is it viewed as a school? what other schools is UMich similar to in reputation? Just curious. I know this isn't that important and it won't affect my decision, but it's just something i wanna know. Thanks a lot!</p>
<p>I've always known UMich to have a great medical program....reputationally, I've always knew of it as a great school.</p>
<p>great national reputation in just about everything</p>
<p>[/thread]</p>
<p>It is a solid, well regarded and well-rounded university. Its Political Science and Psychology departments are consistantly ranked among the top 5 in the nation. The campus is large but manageable, as is the student body. Rabid school spirit, great athletic tradition (particularly in Football and Hockey), proud and loyal alums, excellence accross most academic disciplines (almost every detpartment is ranked in or around the top 10 in the nation) and heavy on-campus recruitment activity are some of the school's main features. The town of Ann Arbor is fun, quaint, conveniently located and safe. And yes, the winters are cold!</p>
<p>What other schools are similar to Michigan? I would say the following:</p>
<p>Cornell University
Northwestern University
University of California-Berkeley
University of California-Los Angeles
University of Pennsylvania
University of Texas-Austin
University of Virginia
University of Wisconsin-Madison</p>
<ol>
<li>Great school with terrific faculty in almost every field.</li>
<li>Great college town.</li>
<li>Football-crazy; football is both Michigan's greatest pride and, recently, its greatest frustration. Great sports tradition, huge and colorful rivalries v. Ohio State, Notre Dame, and cross-state rival Michigan State (though half a dozen other Big Ten schools also think of Michigan as one of their biggest rivals).</li>
<li> One of the largest library collections in the world.</li>
<li> Big, with 25,000 undergrads but the way the campus is laid out it doesn't feel that big.</li>
<li> Expensive if you're OOS; not much financial aid.</li>
<li> Lots of OOS students come anyway, about 35% of undergrads, very high for a public university.</li>
<li> Psych and Poli Sci are two of Michigan's "crown jewels." Both departments are perennially ranked in the top 5 in the country. US News, for example, currently ranks Michigan's Poli Sci department #3 and its Psych department #2 in their respective fields. The only other schools with top 5 departments in both fields are Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, Princeton, and Yale (total of 6 in top 5 due to 5th-place ties in both fields). That's pretty heady company. </li>
<li> That said, however, Michigan's student/faculty ratio is higher than the elite private schools in this group (and the same as Berkeley's). Psych and Poli Sci are both extremely popular majors, consequently these are areas in which the high student/faculty ratio is most keenly felt. Expect large lecture classes at the intro level, and fairly large classes even in upper-level courses in these departments. This is something that varies widely by department (contrary to the anti-public propaganda that often appears on CC, which wrongly assumes that ALL classes in ALL fields at the top publics are large). The Psych and Poli Sci majors I've known at Michigan over the years have generally been pretty happy with their experience, feeling they've had the opportunity to learn from some of the top people in the field. But be forewarned--if you're looking for a small, intimate classroom experience as a Psych or Poli Sci major, you're probably better off at a small LAC, some of which have excellent Psych and Poli Sci programs. I'd also note that the popularity of Psych and Poli Sci majors, and the accompanying large class sizes, aren't unique to Michigan. My D & I visited Cornell this summer and our tour guide took us to the largest auditorium on campus which holds about 1300, where she told us the basic Intro to Psych class is held every year. The course is capped at 1300 students (or whatever is the exact number that fit in that auditorium) and it fill up to the cap every year. I don't think any class at Michigan approaches that scale.</li>
</ol>
<p>Excellent graduate programs (ranked top 10-15 in almost every category)</p>
<p>Leaving aside the reputations of specific departments and other detailed information, I would say that it is generally regarded as the number one midwestern flagship university, and as one of the top two public universities in the country, second only to Berkeley in general prestige. (Oh, and I'm from the Northeast.)</p>
<ol>
<li>One of the best graduate schools nationally, agreed upon by all of academia.</li>
<li>Overrated undergraduate experience on CC, but nevertheless very good.</li>
</ol>
<p>Top two public university</p>
<p>No downside, which is actually rather remarkable. Any school that pursues excellence at certain things would be expected to pursue it in lieu of other areas of excellence. I know of nothing at which UMich's reputation is less than excellent.</p>
<p>"I know of nothing at which UMich's reputation is less than excellent."</p>
<p>Basketball?</p>
<p>Great Undergrad Business program at Ross... probably the top bus program for a public univ</p>
<p>^^ good one, dilksy. lol.</p>
<p>didn't michael phelps graduate from there? lol</p>
<p>a very good top 25 school, comparable to schools like Berkeley, CMU, Notre Dame. I wouldn't say its reputation is as good as University of Pennsylvania though as someone asserted.</p>
<p>yes phelps was a wolverine.
as you can see, the bottom line is that Michigan is a solid school. I'm definitely applying.</p>
<p>Phelps isn't a Wolverine, he is a fish! But he did attend the University of Michigan (as did many other fish posing as humans, including Tom Dolan). </p>
<p>Tom Brady, now there's a Wolverine.</p>
<p>Michigan's political science is always ranked in the top three in the nation. It's American Politics sub-department and use of quantitative analysis in the social science are the top in the world, hands down, and this is coming from several professors, not all of whom teach at Michigan.</p>
<p>The thing I love about Michigan is that every department is ranked in the top 15--you can whatever you want.
Don't worry about class size, most of my classes have had around 15 people in them, and the large intro classes aren't any bigger than many top research universities.</p>
<p>Most graduate programs are ranked 1-10 and undergrad is taught by the same professors. For polisci, I'm pretty sure Gerald Ford (Michigan grad) is the only president in modern times not to go to an ivy and to become president. It has the largest alumni base in the world, so you will get a ton of people who will think very, very highly of it in addition to normal people who say it's a great school.</p>
<p>
[quote-Titan124]
I'm pretty sure Gerald Ford (Michigan grad) is the only president in modern times not to go to an ivy and to become president.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Wrong on two counts.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Gerald Ford got his BA from Michigan (political science & economics) where he was also a star football player, but he got his law degree from Yale; so he did go to an Ivy. (If you don't want to count graduate/professional degrees, then you need go back no further than Bill Clinton: Georgetown undergrad, Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship, Yale Law School).</p></li>
<li><p>I'm not sure exactly what you means by "modern times," but just since WWII the list of presidents without Ivy degrees includes:</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Harry S Truman (no college degree, a graduate of the Pendergast Machine in Kansas City; he did attend law school for two years at Kansas City Law School but did not earn a degree)</p>
<p>Dwight D. Eisenhower (West Point grad, but he did serve as President of Columbia for a time after WWII and before being elected President of the US)</p>
<p>Lyndon Johnson (BA, Southwest Texas State Teacher's College; attended Georgetown Law School briefly but did not graduate).</p>
<p>Richard Nixon (BA, Whittier College, law degree Duke Law School. Nixon reportedly turned down scholarships offered by both Harvard and Yale to attend Whittier)</p>
<p>Jimmy Carter (US Naval Acedemy)</p>
<p>Ronald Reagan (BA Eureka College, economics and sociology)</p>
<p>It's only since George H.W. Bush (BA Yale) that Yale in particular has seemed to hold a franchise on the presidency, with Bill Clinton (BA Georgetown, JD Yale) and George W. Bush (BA Yale, MBA Harvard) continuing the Yale tradition. The perception of Ivy dominance is perhaps exaggerated by the fact that several losing major-party candidates also have had Ivy pedigrees including 1988 Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis (BA Swarthmore, LL.B. Harvard Law School); 2000 Democratic nominee Al Gore (BA Harvard; attended Vanderbilt Law School but left to run for Congress); and 2004 Democratic nominee John Kerry (BA Yale, JD Boston College).</p>
<p>But really, you don't need an Ivy degree to become President. Since WWII, we've had more non-Ivy Presidents (Truman, Eisenhower, Johnson, Nixon, Carter, Reagan) than Ivies (Kennedy, Ford, Georee H.W. Bush, Clinton, George W. Bush)</p>
<p>Of course, there's a good chance that Barack Obama (BA Columbia, JD Harvard) will extend the current Ivy string and tie the post-WWII score at 6-6. But there's still a substantial chance that John McCain (US Naval Academy) will break the Ivy streak and extend the non-Ivy lead to 7-5. In either case, though, we won't have a Yalie as President for the first time in 20 years.</p>