UMich vs UPenn

College Search & Selection
21

<p>Reeze, first of all, even if your numbers were accurate, Michigan is $4,000 less annually, which adds up to $16,000 over 4 years (not $8,000). But I am not sure about your numbers. According to the Michigan and Penn websites, the cost of attendance are as follows:</p>

<p>Michigan tuition: $28,000
Penn Tuition: $31,000</p>

<p>Michigan Room and Board: $7,000
Penn Room and Board: $9,000</p>

<p>I'd say the cost of books, medical insurance, transportation and entertainment are roughly the same at both schools. </p>

<p>So it would seem I was a off by a little. Michigan costs probably around $37,000-$38,000 compared to Penn's $42,000-$43,000. I'd say on average, Michigan would be about 15% cheaper and would probably save a student $20,000 over 4 years. It is not a huge amount, but it is still something when you consider the two schools are equally good. And Reeze, Michigan is not a typical state school, so it stands to reason that it costs more than a typical state university.</p>

<p>I do agree that at $30,000, UNC is a bargain. I love UNC, both the university and the town. One interesting fact about me. I applied to 18 universities around the world, including 11 universities in the US, 5 in the UK and 2 in Canada. I was admitted into 16 of those 18 universities, including Brown, Cal, Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Duke, Georgetown, London School of Economics, McGill, Michigan, Northwestern, Penn, Toronto and the University College of London. The only two rejections I got were from the University of Cambridge and the UNC! And to add insult to injury, my first year in College, UNC beats Michigan in the NCAA finals!!!</p>

22

<p>Michigan and Penn are about equal in academic repuation in the academic world. I think that's a pretty clear point. While I think that Michigan is a great university, I think Penn has two advantages, without regarding the price. One is the size of the school. Despite the fact that Penn's huge for the Ivy league, Michigan is twice as big. Second is that Penn is a better feeder for graduate programs. The latter is the main advantage of the Ivy league.</p>

23

<p>Absolutely true Flavian. Penn, although relatively large, is smaller than Michigan and as such, will probably have slightly more resources availlable to its students. Furthermore, Penn's overall student body is slightly better than Michigan's, and that explains why overall placement into top graduate programs is slightly better at Penn than at Michigan. But it is important to remember that in both cases, the advantage is negligible. Whether you have 10,000 undergrads or 25,000 undergrads, you are at a large university. And whether 3% (in the case of Michigan) or 5% (in the case of Penn) of your students end up enrolling at top 5 graduate schools doesn't really matter. A person, given her/his abilities and effort, will do as well going to Michigan as going to Penn. Between those two schools, I would always recommend the student visit the schools and decide based on fit.</p>

24

<p>For communications, the Annenberg School at Penn is pretty amazing and this is one area in which Penn would clearly be superior to UMich...</p>

25

<p>in my mind, going Michigan over Upenn would be a big mistake. everybody knows Upenn is ivy league, Michigan is "public ivy", i goto michigan, very few people transfer from upenn to michigan, but many many people have tried to transfer to upenn. i think your upenn diploma will say a lot more than a michigan diploma. but, i think if u get deferred from upenn, chances of getting in through regular decision is slim. upenn fills a BIG portion of the class with ED acceptees.</p>

26

<p>so yea i was deferred today. pretty upset about it actually. any advice on how to get accepted in the spring?</p>

27

<p>I had the same problem with Michigan, an issue I have in other threads briefly discussed with Alexandre. While the Michigan honors vs Penn discussion requires much study, and is a tough choice (one I never had the chance to make), I agree with Reeze's point in the thread. Just as It is pointed out that Michigan is 30K less than Penn (not sure if that is true, but assume it is for my point), I had the same choice with Wisconsin vs Michigan. Ended up @ UW, in part because the 50K I am saving pays for an half of law school. With a small scholarship, I pay about 25K for UW, while Michigan would end up at 38K.</p>

<p>Michigan is <em>incredibly</em> expensive for a public school. There are in my opinion (and I know UM people here disagree) better values out there. I personally, would in this case go with the ivy, especially if business is the intended major.</p>

28

<p>Oh also I want to add, Alexandre does make a very good point. Look, it's going to be WHAT YOU DID @ _______. Yes, Penn is ivy, but in all fairness, if you did the research, got the grades, Letters of rec that will matter for future work/grad school. At some point you're splitting hairs. I think this website is way too black and white on school comparisons. As if a school that might rank higher (say 10 spots) instantly gives all of these students instant credibility over the "lower" school.</p>

29

<p>FWIW, Penn is the ivy with which U-M has the most applications overlap, so a lot of students are fretting over the same kinds of choices. Actually, I don't even need to qualify that as "ivy." When it comes to out-of-state applications, no school has more cross-apps (although Cornell and Northwestern come close)</p>

30

<p>Yeah but they aren't public ^</p>

31

<p>i think u shouldn't look at Michigan as a regular public state school. For one, we have one of the largest out of state populations. Your typical state school doesn't have internationally famous faculty, nor does it make people compare Upenn against it. Your regular state school doesn't get 8% funding from the state. I think the out of state tuition at Michigan is worth it over privates such as NYU, Boston College. But i think in the OP's case, Upenn is a smarter choice. Bare in mind tho, that Michigan's tuition will increase over the next 4 years, as state funding gets cut down even further. I think a lot of people will look at Michigan differently if it turned private.</p>

32

<p>lhoffman, why don't you give Michigan a try? I don't think you are going to want to transfer after giving Mich a shot.</p>

33

<p>Jeffl:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>how many percent of students at michigan are out of state students?</p></li>
<li><p>"Your regular state school doesn't get 8% funding from the state"</p></li>
</ol>

<p>where is your source?</p>

34

<p>Just over 30% of UM undergrads are from OOS. The 2005-2006 UM budget, excluding hospital operations, shows 13.5 percent state funds. If you include the hospitals, which really are a self-funding operation, the overall percentage drops to 7.16% from the state.</p>

35

<p>for you people who attended (attended) Umich, how are the girls there? Not the major factor, but it still is very important to me obviously.</p>

36

<p>You don't wanna know. They got in more for brains than looks.</p>

37

<p>Girls are fine, i think it is sort of a stupid question, there are good girls/bad girls at every school. In terms of looks, there are plenty of pretty girls at umich. A lot of entering freshman like to ask this kind of question, but just because there are hot girls doesn't mean u will get anywhere with them.</p>

38

<p>But it is a fact that some schools (ASU, Vandy, Texas) have an abundance while others--not so much.</p>

39

<p><a href="http://www.umich.edu/%7Ewgc/images/gallery/AlumniTailgate.jpg%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.umich.edu/~wgc/images/gallery/AlumniTailgate.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p><a href="http://www.maxwaugh.com/mich02/girls.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.maxwaugh.com/mich02/girls.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

40

<p>Ok, I live in an honors dorm and I went to a public high school in the suburbs. And let me tell you, the girls here are hotties. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the girls on my floor. They really are gorgeous, and I'm glad I didn't listen to the Michigan stereotypes for girls.</p>