$.UMICH.$ vs. UW-Madison

<p>I live in Wisconsin and was accepted to both schools for Engineering. After loans and grants, UMich is $44,000 while Madison is $15,000.</p>

<p>UMich apparently doesn't have my 2008 Tax Return, how much would that affect the Financial Aid they are offering me?</p>

<p>If you are accepted to UMich, are you automatically considered for a scholarship? How can I apply for scholarships such as Full-Ride or $20K?</p>

<p>I'm pretty sure the only way I would attend is if I got a $20,000 scholarship or they drop the OOS fee.</p>

<p>If you were going to receive a full ride OOS you would know by now.</p>

<p>umich can do an estimate award amount when u completed ur CSS profile and FAFSA; when you sent it the actual tax return, it’ll be official.
did u turn in ur profile and fafsa?</p>

<p>Just head to Madison. I’m co-oping right now at an oil company, my roommate goes to Madison. Sharp kid, has been impressive at work. Quality of the schools and companies that recruit are very similar. Everything I’ve heard about Madison has been great. We’re headed up in two weeks and I’m pretty pumped. Not worth the money to attend U-M.</p>

<p>It’s not worth the money for a Michigan resident to go to Madison either. Definitely go to Wisconsin. The differences in costs are too great.</p>

<p>I understand the logic. It’s just a psychological thing about having to go to the school that I initially had as a safety. UMich has pretty much better everything, and I’m not set on Engineering, so I don’t like the argument “They are both good Engineering schools.”</p>

<p>Also, a lot of people I know are going to UW-Madison, and I can’t shake the idea that I deserve better…</p>

<p>Yes, in general, you are automatically considered for scholarships; no separate application required. But as Tyler pointed out above, you would have known by now.</p>

<p>Both great choices, but don’t underestimate UW. Some programs are better at UM, some are better at UW. It is tougher to get into UM as an undergraduate (though not much), but faculty quality is the same.</p>

<p>PA scores at USNWR are not the same.</p>

<p>PA scores are very broad brush. If you look at individual department rankings it’s close to a wash with UW winning some and UM winning some. UW is stronger in languages many subareas of bio as well as life sciences and most areas of education. UM is stronger in most engineering areas, business, arts and some liberal arts areas. By most actual numerical facutly comparisons they are very very close (NAS members, research funding, major faculty awards.</p>

<p>^^^^In other words, Michigan does indeed have a higher PA score.</p>

<p>Or in other words the following schools are FAR superior to Michigan (50.3):</p>

<p>Lehigh: 31.9
U of Florida: 42.1
Fordham: 42.1
U of Miami: 37.8</p>

<p>Penn State about the same quality as Michigan: 51</p>

<p>Wow, just throw 'em on the junk heap:</p>

<p>UIUC: 71</p>

<p>Stooge. Not sure what you’re referring to with those numbers. Those are NOT PA scores from USNWR.</p>

<p>The areas in which UW beats UMich are areas I’m not interested in. I sent UMich our 2008 tax returns, so I’ll just see what happens there.</p>

<p>Does anyone know if they consider CSS Profile AND FAFSA? When I log in it only shows CSS Profile under Financial Aid Documents, and I’m positive they have received my FAFSA, unless I turned it in too late or something.</p>

<p>Well, I emailed them about receiving my FAFSA. In response, they sent me a “Final Financial Aid Report” in which they had taken back all of the grants (~$2,000) they had initially given me!</p>

<p>I missed the deadline for scholarship eligibility, but believe I would have gotten some kind of scholarship. I’ll email again tonight.</p>

<p>Maybe you should read the thread here on whether should UM go private. All is not so rosy in Maize and Blue land. You seem to have a way out of proportion sense of UM vs UW. UM is located in the nation’s first failed state. That’s not a good thing.</p>

<p>Wait, they took a grant away from you?</p>

<p>Barron’s Michigan is not a failed state. It has far more potential than you realize. It is a state in transition. When it comes out of this transition, and it will be a long and hard process, it will be in better shape than most other states. The reason why some are debating whether Michigan should privatize or not has nothing to do with the state, but rather, with the lofty expectations of its alums and students. Most of us expect Michigan to maintain its status in the academic world and in this day and age, doing so as a private entity may be easier. It is all speculative at this stage. You should not use that thread as evidence that somehow, Michigan is a failed state or that the university is in trouble. The state…and the university are both there to stay.</p>

<p>This said, I don’t see the point of your statement. If one wishes to live in Wisconsin after college, attending the University of Wisconsin makes better sense. If one wishes to live in Michigan after college, attending the University of Michigan makes better sense. In most other parts of the country, Michigan probably carries more weight than Wisconsin, albeit only marginally in the long term.</p>

<p>Back when I was choosing where I’d wanna go for college, Wisconsin wasn’t even in the picture. Michigan is just a stronger school than Wisconsin.</p>

<p>Yes, do read the thread on Michigan going private. It’s like a rankings FREAKOUT over there! </p>

<p>If Michigan has been declining since the early 1980’s it seems this is a long, slow decline… 25 years? Maybe it’s inevitable.</p>