UMich vs. Hopkins

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hey! So just to start off with a little background info- I'm a full-IB student from an inner city Baltimore public school. As of now, I'm most interested in pursuing Anthropology in college, but whether I deviate from that or not I'm pretty positive I'll stay in the realm of any and all "whys" to do with humans.</p>

<p>But anyways- I've narrowed my selection down to UMich and Hopkins. </p>

<p>Hopkins Homewood campus (the main campus) is literally five blocks from my house. Granted I've only lived in Baltimore for about six years, but I know the Hopkins scene pretty well (I have a few highschool friends that go there). I do love Hopkins as a school- for one, the Baltimore Scholars Program offers me free tuition, and in general the admissions people I have met there are nice. I don't, however, like the student body vibe from what I know of it. Mostly NYC private school kids, and in general the school is just so small. I've barely skimmed the party-scene surface and still whenever I'm anywhere on or by campus I see someone I've met. People are constantly stressed it seems- and when I ask my friends how they like it, there's just never enthusiastic answers. Also Anthro isn't that big, and I just feel like I'll be stuck if I go. But then there's the upside of money and possibly owning my house(my mom and her partner plan on moving to Canada) and of course having no debt.</p>

<p>UMich, on the other hand, seems to me to be the polar opposite. Everyone I've talked to says that it's a "happy campus" and when I saw a college adviser and told her about my parents moving and not having a home base, she said that I would find that home there. Anthro is number one in the country, and there are top-notch professors everywhere. Everything that I've heard about it has been awesome pretty much, but I'm really scared that I'm deluding myself. I'm visiting next weekend (super excited) and hoping that will reaffirm and/or challenge some things. Main con right now is that I haven't gotten my financial aid package- my mom (who has sole custody) has efc of 0, but UMich takes CSS noncustodial profile as well, and from what I heard are not that gracious in terms of OOS students. In general, though, I am simply more excited about UMich.</p>

<p>So those are the pros and cons of each. Any other thoughts that I should take into consideration? My heart is set on UMich but I haven't made that final decision yet and am just a huge fan of input haha. Sorry that this was so long, by the way.</p>

2

<p>“I do love Hopkins as a school- for one, the Baltimore Scholars Program offers me free tuition…”</p>

<p>Hopkins for free and no money from Michigan? You have to go to Hopkins, and I don’t care how excited you are about Michigan. Unless U-M comes up with a lot of money, just stay in the 'hood. ;-)</p>

3

<p>I totally understand wanting to go away to school. I grew up in Providence and turned down Brown for Hopkins (and never regretted it–I loved my time at Hopkins.)</p>

<p>But Brown never had anything like the Baltimore Scholars program. I know you said that you don’t know what if any FA Michigan will offer but, knowing both schools well, I can’t imagine paying anything to go to a huge state flagship like Michigan over a free ride at JHU. Michigan might be more fun, but you will get a better education at Hopkins for free.</p>

<p>BTW, you can have a lot of fun at Hopkins–you just have to work at it a little.</p>

4

<p>Oh, and if you grew up in Ann Arbor, you wouldn’t be too excited about Michigan. As the saying goes, familiarity breeds contempt.</p>

5

<p>"But Brown never had anything like the Baltimore Scholars program. I know you said that you don’t know what if any FA Michigan will offer but, knowing both schools well, I can’t imagine paying anything to go to a huge state flagship like Michigan over a free ride at JHU. Michigan might be more fun, but you will get a better education at Hopkins for free. "</p>

<p>If Michigan were free to the OP like Hopkins is, there would be nothing wrong with going to college in Ann Arbor. Even for a few thousand a year it would be worth it to attend U-M over Hopkins if the OP had his/her heart set on it. Once again The University of Michigan isn’t just any “huge state flagship” school. I realize that you grew up in the New England area where the public schools are mediocre at best, but please don’t just assume all state flagships are the same and that your school of choice is automatically better.</p>