UMichigan announced cuts - impact to student experience and opportunities?

DS has decided to commit to UMichigan. Just came across this news that University announced cuts to all its campuses.

Some of the cuts mentioned are salary and hiring freeze, layoffs if situation worsens and suspending research projects not funded by federal government and reducing the medical center hours etc.

https://www.freep.com/story/news/education/2020/04/20/university-michigan-makes-cuts-stem-loss-schlissel/5166574002/

DS a full pay OOS student. He has been considering UMichigan for all the opportunities and career options it provides. Given this announcement, would the experience be same the same for the next four years?

I doubt if any college will offer the same experience next year that they have offered in the past. Every college, public and private, will be cutting back to some extent.

What are his other options?

I agree that the experience won’t be the same in any university but wondering if it still would be the right choice for us for the full pay.

DS has these options.

UC Berkeley (~40K COA). Concerned about super competitive env for academics as well for opportunities.

Georgia Tech BME ( ~55k COA)

UC Sandiego (~35K)

Baylor U, Case Western (~45 K)

UWisconsin (~56K)

Ohio State, UPitt (~30K)

Wow, lots of great choices.

What university won’t be affected by Coronavirus. At least, UMich has the 7th or 8th largest endowment in the country of about $12 Billion, which is more than the entire UC system.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-04-16/uc-reeling-under-staggering-coronavirus-costs-the-worst-impacts-all-at-once

https://www.kpbs.org/news/2020/apr/20/uc-san-diego-chancellor-devastating-impact-coronav/

And Harvard:
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2020/4/14/harvard-coronavirus-hiring-salary-freeze/

Agree with all comments. Funding could go either way for some areas. If funding increases for corona research then some schools will benefit. I would look at NIH/CDC funding for each school. I know Pitt is very high on the list. I think Michigan is also high on the list. After that maybe consider privates like Case or Baylor. I think Case has a large endowment and is affiliated with Cleveland Clinic.

That said, don’t look at the next 6 months as the deciding factor. Consider 2-3 years from now.

As stated every school is going to be affected to some level. The major organized research universities will weather the storm. They will be innovative to come up with new ideas and new ways. Research isn’t going to vanish. Michigan is Michigan for a reason. Your paying for a 4 year experience and the way they teach and their community experiences. Having a kid on campus as we speak in engineering his learning is not diminished. Still has group projects that they had to present in front of a professor. Still had intense classes with discussion. Still is getting his finals today. Still has his job at the school at academic innovation (they just meet online and not in person but work is still going on)

The only difference I see right now is he ordered groceries from Instacart instead of going to the grocery store for the very first time and his summer internship was canceled which had nothing to do with Michigan but the world we are in now. He has a meeting with a professor about doing research this summer and other prospects so research isn’t just halting at Michigan.

Is money a consideration? The difference in cost between Michigan OOS COA and the other choices can buy a lot of opportunities. I would seriously consider looking at the second choice schools. If you are at the edge of your affordability for colleges with Michigan, you aren’t going to be as easily able to monetarily compensate.

My one son was a performing arts major. Had he been full pay at a private school, we would not have been in the position to buy opportunities for him, subsidize his living expenses during those early lean years. That made a huge difference for him in quality of life.

My youngest really had to watch his spending as we were at the limits of what we could pay for his private school experience. That he went to a well endowed school that supplemented any issues that arose made a difference in his quality of life and opportunities.

As it stands, you and your son are give. Advance warning that there are going to be cuts. That means more coming out of your pockets if you want some of these things. Others are just going to be gone. If you have good fallback in finances, it may not be such an issue.

^^ I agree finances always come first. No taking out second mortgages for education. We elected to go OOS for Michigan instead of instate UIUC or Purdue. Both cheaper for us. We are very happy that we did. Not everyone is in the same situation. All his schools will give him learning experiences.

But the way the schools teach and culture is what your paying for. The opportunity at Berkeley and at Michigan for an example will most likely be similar.

Michigan is the most expensive of the choices. It is clearly the OP’s son’s first choice and OP seems to be fine in paying for the extra costs. But if that extra is edging towards the max affordable, and now we are being explicitly told as well being implicitly aware that there are going to cuts in services, opportunities, resources after this crisis, even more funds may be needed or desired to get to where our normal was. If OP is fine with that at OOS Michigan prices, then all’s fine.

I know several families here who have revamped college choices in wake of COVID19 . Their family resources and sources of income are threatened and paying $300k+ for college, no longer a wise option. Going with a state school or one with a nice merit award gives a lot more financial flexibility and now days that has become increasingly important.

So, it’s not a matter of whether Michigan is worth more $ than the other choices to OP. It’s a matter of whether additional costs to make up for cuts in programs; the additional uncertainties in the financial picture for the family, would make a lower net cost a better choice.

Wait.

You have UCB and UCSD for instate tuition… and you are going to pay OOS… for artic Michigan?

I’d tell my kid that they will be paying me back the difference between Michigan and UCB… 120k. Then see what choice they make.

The funny thing is Midwest kids have the opposite problem. They want to go west for the warmth…Hmmmm Artic…only on some days…but seeing the sun once in a while is nice…Fall is amazing and spring some years…LOL