<p>The problem with this debate is it’s so student centered. People here failed to realise that (all) universities comprise of:</p>
<ol>
<li>students</li>
<li>faculty</li>
<li>facilities</li>
<li>resources</li>
</ol>
<p>when one of the four components is lacking, the academic quality suffers. The standard suffers. And in all these four given components, Michigan scores very, very highly, much higher than some of the Ivies, actually. Therefore, Michigan is an elite school. And, in totality, as a university that offers advance instructions, it is much more elite than some of the Ivies and other elite privates. The real peer schools of Michigan are: Chicago, Northwestern, JHU, Berkeley, Columbia, Penn, Cornell, UCLA, UVa and to a lesser extent, Rice and CMU. HYPSM are clearly superior. Dartmouth, Brown, WashingtonUSL, Emory, Vanderbilt, Notre Dame and the like are in a league below Michigan’s. Again, I’m talking about Michigan as a university and as a whole.</p>