<p>Hi I posted this in the general forum but I wanted a school-specific perspective on my dilemma..</p>
<p>I will be applying for college in the upcoming fall/winter and the top two schools on my list are UNC-CH and Michigan (I live in MD so I'm OOS for both schools). Assuming (fingers crossed) I'm admitted to both I'm going to have a really hard time choosing which one to go to. I've visited both campuses and I absolutely adore both schools. I've had discussions with my friends/relatives and I'm under the impression that academically/prestige-wise UNC-CH is superior to Michigan, however I feel that Michigan will offer me a better social life. UNC has a 30% acceptance rate while Michigan tends to hover around 50-60% so it seems to me that UNC is much more exclusive. USNews has Michigan at 29 and UNC at 30, but Michigan has been trending downward recently so I wouldn't be surprised if UNC comes out higher in the near future. Will I be shooting myself in the foot by picking Michigan over UNC? By the way I plan on double majoring in engineering(electrical, chemical, or nuclear) and math, and have been told that both schools excel in these subjects. Right now I'm leaning toward UNC... please help!</p>
<p>UNC doesn’t have engineering so if your sure thats what you want to do I’m not sure it should be on your list. If you were undecided I’d lean UNC because of cost, weather and strength of programs at the undergrad level (Michigan has elite grad programs and well regarded research faculty). Are you considering other majors? For instance there’s more apples Math/Stat there’s also more business leaning majors like mathematic decision science. There’s also biostatistics in the #2 school of public health. Let me know if you have some questions!</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply, I’m more interested in hardcore/theoretical math but I also want to have a decent paying job out of school which is why I want to double major in engineering, I’m a little confused now because when I visited the people showing me around told me about all the great engineering opportunities. My friends also said UNC has a better engineering program.</p>
<p>Hi OP. They must have been referring to the applied sciences program which includes engineering majors: computer science, biomedical, environmental…etc. They are few but quality wise they are all in either top 10/20 nationwide. You really don’t have to care about a high paying job either because for that engineering isn’t necessary. You can be a statistician and math major (for your pref) and that would be ample to get you into a field that has max pay of $140,000 per year (w/experience). Engineers have to do 2years of masters to get a job (except electric and mechanical majors). If you do masters in the statistics part, you can get a pretty good job at NC from the connections you make through the program offered at UNC. I know some people who got a job without masters just because they grad from a top program here. I would not undermine a school that has few engineering options…it always has something better to make up for that.</p>
<p>Hi OP,
I’m an undergraduate at Carolina but I applied and was accepted to both schools. The two were my top choices as well. One thing you should take into consideration, that effectively made my decision for me, is the financial aid policy of each school. UNC will meet demonstrated financial need while Michigan will not (for out-of-state students). After aid, UNC costs between $10-15K a year, about half of which I get through loans, so I’ll be coming out of undergrad around $30K in debt. Michigan, however, would have cost me between $40-45K a year, meaning I would have come out at least $100K in the hole. Obviously, money isn’t everything, but it is something to consider strongly, especially should you desire to go to grad school.</p>
<p>I’m sort of in the same position as you right now in that I want to go to UNC or Michigan but I’m a transfer. I’ve become much more familiar with UNC now that I’m seriously looking at going there for business but still my most familiar school by far is Michigan. You have some of your information wrong about Michigan. The acceptance rate is about 40% and will dip to somewhere around 30-35% this year because of Michigan’s switch to the common app. Michigan is becoming more “exclusive”. Also it is not too relevant to look at the USNWR rankings as it is a very subjective measure of a school, I tend to use it more as a guide for tiers of schools because the rankings are very fluid outside of the top 3 or 4. Michigan may very well rise to 25 in one year so I would hardly say that Michigan is really trending downward. I think you are focusing too much on these general numbers. The most important thing to look at is the specific program you want to go into. I really don’t know very much about UNC’s engineering and math departments since I’m only looking at Econ and Kenan-Flager so it would best to ask the people who are actually familiar with that part of UNC. I’ll give you a perspective of the other side instead. At Michigan, you would probably apply to CoE and if you are admitted, you can dual major in both LSA and CoE so you can get your engineering major and your math major. CoE is one of the best engineering schools in the country and the math department is excellent as well. Michigan engineering majors are very highly regarded. Something else you should obviously consider is what the above poster said, about money. OOS, Michigan is pretty much only for the wealthy. The school is pretty stingy in regards to financial aid and OOS is very expensive. The reason UNC is so high on my list is because of the fact the tuition is much lower and they will meet demonstrated financial need. Unless money is not much of an issue, UNC is by far a better choice there. One more thing is about the environment. Did you visit Ann Arbor in the summer? Trust me, it’s a lot nicer than the winter. Winters there basically last from November until March and you wear longsleeves from October until late April. If you don’t mind the cold weather, Ann Arbor will be great but if you would prefer a warmer climate, Chapel Hill is probably a better place for you.</p>
<p>michigan is vastly superior for mathematics. still, these are both tough schools to get into from out of state. if I were you, I wouldn’t worry about it unless/until actually admitted.</p>
<p>thanks for the helpful messages, I think I am pretty set on UNC now. Overwhelmingly my friends and relatives are saying that UNC’s engineering school is vastly superior to Michigan’s and that UNC’s math department is one of the best in the world while Michigan’s is considered sub-par because the USNews ranking is not superior.</p>
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<p>what are you smoking?</p>
<p>Collegebound156- Using your favored USNWR ranking, Michigan’s Engineering school is ranked 6th, UNC’s is 70th. And in Math Michigan is 8th and UNC is 30th. Even to me, the rankings have a wide enough gap to signify something. I strongly suggest you not ask your friends because if they are the same age as you, they probably know even less than you about Michigan and UNC so they aren’t really helpful. I don’t know your relatives so I won’t even comment on that but I suggest that you actually do some deeper research into each department. For example, maybe look at their undergraduate research and see what the math department of Michigan is working on compared to what UNC is working on. You should also find what the curriculum is at each school and then talk to students currently at each school, in the math department and engineering school. This way you get a better feel for what you will really get when you go there. Trust me you do not want to make a premature and uninformed decision about your school and then have to go through the hassle of transferring. Getting it right the first time is very important.</p>
<p>Agreed^. Rankings tell you something about the programs, but since you do not know the basis for the ranking, you don’t know if they are considering the things you are looking for in a program. You should see what research is being done in the departments and look at the curriculum to see which program is more tailored to what you want.</p>
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<p>ORLY?!?!?? I wasn’t aware UNC had an engineering school. This is news to me.</p>
<p>everyone knows michigan is a safety school, UNC is probably even harder to get into than Harvard for OOS students, and the student base at UNC is really really smart. But the UNC engineering school is world-class, their top engineering students routinely beat MIT students at engineering competitions.</p>
<p>oh I see you weren’t actually interested in a reasoned conversation, but in rah rah boosterism. or maybe you’re actually a really rather clever parody.</p>
<p>fact: from a research point of view, michigan has one of the world’s great mathematics departments. it simply outclasses UNC.</p>
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<p>laughable.</p>
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<p>debateable. I think even the most pro-UNC person would admit there are a lot of less-than-stellar students there.</p>
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<p>what the… I don’t even know…</p>
<p>lol dude its a ■■■■■. hes not being serious… just trying to elicit an emotional response. hes made absurd claims in a number of other threads trying to rile people up. its actually sad.</p>
<p>/ignore</p>
<p><a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_(Internet)[/url]”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_(Internet)</a></p>
<p>^ yes I considered that possibility, hence “or maybe you’re actually a really rather clever parody.”</p>
<p>if she is a ■■■■■, I think she’s one of the better ones.</p>
<p>and I’m not a dude, buddy.</p>
<p>well you didn’t believe in that assessment strongly enough to not respond…so I was giving you more of a heads up.</p>
<p>when in doubt just read their other posts</p>
<p>thanks for the advice, buddy. i’ll bear you in mind next time I encounter someone on the internet.</p>
<p>I don’t understand why people think I am a “■■■■■”. I’m simply stating that there are some that think UNC has a better engineering school and those that think Michigan has a better one. Like so many of you have said, these rankings are subjective so they need to be taken with a grain of salt. I think we should just agree to disagree and move on.</p>
<p>people think you’re a ■■■■■ because you act like you’re not really interested in discussion. you have your opinion and that’s that, and you seem not to read the things people write to you.</p>