<p>Hey everyone!
So im in a little bit of a predicament. i was accepted to both Michigan and Alabama for this upcoming fall, but i really cant decide which school to attend. Any opinions on what i should do would be greatly appreciated! I would like to attend Michigan because it is a much better school academically, and even though this may not be true, i do believe that it would allow me more opportunites when i graduate. i am in their honors program and have a $10,000 a year scholarship (& i am a MI resident). The only FA is loans, which my parents refuse to take out. On the other hand, there is Alabama, a school that i am pretty much gaurenteed to have fun at. i went to visit and absolutely loved the campus! I am also in two of their honors programs and am receiving a full-ride scholarship. I HATE the weather here in MI, but at the same time i feel as if i may be lowering my standards if i go to UA. I already had to turn down Duke for money reasons and i just dont know if im willing to turn down another top school for the same thing. At this point i feel like it has become money vs. prestige. Please help me! Thanks :)</p>
<p>I see why this is a hard decision for you…I would probably go to Alabama, though. A full ride is hard to pass up. What do you want to do after undergrad? If you want to go to med school or law school, I’d pick the option that lets you save the most amount of money now, because you will definitely need it then.</p>
<p>Do you have confirmation that both offers are still available? What is your intended major?</p>
<p>Don’t ever feel that you are settling for less by taking something that you would like better rather than something that others may like, but you don’t.</p>
<p>You’re obviously a bright person who will do well wherever you go to school. It’s quite possible that Alabama will give you opportunities that you couldn’t get at Michigan and that these opportunities would more than overcome any perceived differences in prestige. </p>
<p>It was long assumed that I would attend the University of Washington (I’m a WA resident). For many things, it probably ranks ahead of UA. However, it didn’t give me a scholarship and only gave me loans, so it would have been more expensive to commute there than to attend UA. I ended up attending UA for many of the reasons you mentioned. At UA, I feel valued an respected as a unique individual with my own specific talents, needs, and dreams. UA has bent over backwards to accommodate my educational needs like no other school of its size would ever dream of doing. I may be just a working-class guy from WA who happened to get a good ACT score and a high GPA, but at UA I’m treated like a VIP top-tier elite. Not many schools with 30,000 students can boast that any student can easily schedule a meeting with the president of the university and have little to no difficulty designing ones their major combinations, including one that include getting a master’s degree at the same time as ones bachelor’s degree.</p>
<p>Prestige is overrated. Go wherever you will have the most fun and do well at the same time. I never thought that I would go to college in Alabama, yet I did. Alabama has become my second home and I cannot imagine being anywhere else for my undergraduate career. I’ll proudly shout Roll Tide Roll! throughout “Sweet Home Alabama” wherever I may be.</p>
<p>Lowering your standards???</p>
<p>I better refrain from further comment because you won’t like where I tell you to go.</p>
<p>What do you want to study?</p>
<p>Now now NJBama - you behave! 
We know that’s a loaded comment but try to remember that given that the OP is coming from the Midwest that’s the perception he grew up with. Tons of stories on here with OOS students having to buck regional bias and make the leap of faith to go to Alabama. I don’t even try to convince anyone that DS is getting a premium/comparable education compared to local kids at Notre Dame, U. Mich, U Illinois etc., they don’t get it and just plain can’t let themselves believe it, while we are laughing all the way to the bank as DS loves his choice and can’t see himself anywhere else.
BuB2011, keep talking to those who made the leap, many many in your position and I have not heard of one who regretted it! Roll Tide from Chicagoland!</p>
<p>Prestige is for people who order caviar on the menu, but secretly hate the taste. Don’t fall into the trap of letting your friends or some US News guidebook pick your school. The list is long of UA kids that have turned down the so called elite schools and don’t regret their decision for a second. I personally think your graduate school options will be better coming out of UA. In your head and heart you know the right decision.</p>
<p>P.S. Another major difference between the two is about 50 degrees in February.</p>
<p>
Your local pride aside, I don’t understand this comment. By criteria used across different rankings, the OP is correct that Michigan is considered a significantly better school than Alabama. Not that rankings are the end all be all or that Alabama is anything but a really good school and maybe the best school for the OP, but Michigan was ranked 29th and Alabama ranked 79th in national universities. Michigan was ranked 15th in the world in the QS ranking and Alabama was ranked 337th. </p>
<p>I just don’t think it’s fair to dismiss the OP’s concern by blaming it on the naivete of regional barriers. That simply doesn’t withstand scrutiny.</p>
<p>Depending on what your major is, remember that this is just undergrad. If you plan on grad school, then it mitigates the decision on undergrad, and frankly getting the UA package could make your eventual grad school choices broader. My D turned down Rice, William & Mary and Tulane to attend UA and she couldn’t be happier for her choice and we’re from Chicagoland too. There are over 3000 colleges and universities in the US, so going to ANY top 100 school cannot be a bad decision. Good luck to you! Roll Tide!</p>
<p>BuB2011,
A little more info would be great;
-Intended Major and career plan’s?
-FA - are you eligible for any?
-Are you a commuter student to UM?
-Can you afford UM?
-ACT/GPA etc?</p>
<p>The only FA is loans, which my parents refuse to take out. On the other hand, there is Alabama, a school that i am pretty much gaurenteed to have fun at. i went to visit and absolutely loved the campus! I am also in two of their honors programs and am receiving a full-ride scholarship.</p>
<p>Since your parents refuse to take out the loans, I don’t see how UMich is even still on the table. You can’t pay your costs with your good looks. </p>
<p>You will not be lowering your standards by going to Bama. Many of the parents here who post and the students here who post have stats similar or higher than yours. They don’t feel like they’ve lowered their standards…and many of them are from regions of the country with higher ranked schools. </p>
<p>Rankings don’t tell you a lot. Only 40% of the ranking deals with academics. The other 60% is based on other things. So, rankings aren’t telling you much.</p>
<p>Again, how would you pay for UMich if you went there? YOU can’t borrow more than the Stafford amounts without your parents’ co-signing - which it sounds like they won’t do. And, you SHOULDN’T borrow more than the Stafford amounts ANYWAY.</p>
<p>What is your major?</p>
<p>BTW…I see that you posted a similar post in the UMich forum. Well, obviously the kids on that thread are going to say for you to go to UMich…but then, of course, they won’t be paying for your tuition…or pay back any big debt that you’d rack up.</p>
<p>Prestige really only matters if you want to work on Wall Street. Even then Michigan isn’t in the most elite inner circle. </p>
<p>I am a chemical engineer and several of my coworkers went to Michigan. We’re doing the same thing. </p>
<p>Also, scholarships are a huge deal. I turned down partial scholarship to GT which is probably the best engineering school in the South. But having a full time great paying job with no student loans to pay back is wonderful. </p>
<p>At the end of the day, if you perform extremely well and are diligent in your career search then your school won’t be a hindrance. I know someone who graduates this year and is interning at a private equity firm in Boston (with Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc students). They don’t recruit at UA but through his other internships and his superb grades and networking he was able to meet the right people.</p>
<p>UAProphet is right…in the end, he’s got a great job and no debt.</p>
<p>My older son just graduated from Bama. He’s starting his PhD in August at a Top 20 school on a full Assistantship that pays for his tuition and provides are large stipend. </p>
<p>He had the NMF scholarship at Bama and a private NMF scholarship, so his BS through is PhD will probably cost us a total of $10k for all 7-8 years. Amazing.</p>
<p>A nice Camry and a Lexus will both get you safely and comfortably from Point A to Point B. After you get there, you begin your vacation/business/visit if you took the Camry. If you drove the Lexus, you do all of that AND continue to pay for the Lexus.</p>
<p>I see that you are a Michigan resident. Is being closer to home important to you? Also, what about living on campus all four years, if you don’t commute to Michigan? If you take the full ride to Bama, will your parents be willing to pay for you to come home at breaks, or just for plain old homesick visits?</p>
<p>These kind of intangibles, aside from academics, need to be considered when choosing a college. They may not seem to be important now, but they are things to be considered when deciding where to spend the next four years of your life.</p>
<p>Good luck on your decision!</p>
<p>What are your parents saying?</p>
<p>If they won’t take out the loans for you to go to UMich, that sounds like they want you to go to Bama.</p>
<p>He posted the same question on UM’s forum, difference in responses is pretty telling IMHO
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/michigan-2015/1171164-university-michigan-vs-university-alabama.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/michigan-2015/1171164-university-michigan-vs-university-alabama.html</a></p>
<p>LOL. When I saw this thread I thought it would be a discussion about the first game of the 2012 football season.</p>
<p>Applejack,</p>
<p>There’s a difference in saying one University is more prestigious or higher ranked versus saying you don’t want to “lower your standards”. The later implies that a UA student is beneath a Michigan student and that the OP isn’t sure he wants to lower himself to attend class amongst the unwashed. By any criteria the comment is offensive and ignorant.</p>
<p>The rankings you cite are subjective and based on a select few criteria. There was a ranking that was listed on here a few months ago that had UA amongst the top 10 Universities in the country when other criteria like cost, debt after graduation, etc etc were considered. </p>
<p>IMHO the kid can’t go wrong with either decision. Unless he chooses UA and comes in with the attitude that he’s somehow above his fellow students because he was accepted to Michigan.</p>
<p>*Unless he chooses UA and comes in with the attitude that he’s somehow above his fellow students because he was accepted to Michigan. *</p>
<p>And, that would not be a good attitude to have since many Bama students have been accepted to schools of equal or greater ranking to UMich. :)</p>
<p>I don’t know what this student’s major is, but unless he’s going to major in some “easy major”, he’s going to find many students with stats that are equal or better than his are.</p>
<p>Bama has about 1800 Presidential scholars and over 550 National scholars on campus. Plus a high number of students who are UA Scholars. Those kids all have strong/high stat and they’re going to be your classmates at Bama. :)</p>
<p>But, again, this discussion may all be moot if he only has a $10k scholarship to UMich and his parents won’t pay/borrow for the rest of his costs there. </p>
<p>UMich is $24k per year for tuition, room, board and books (that doesn’t include personal expenses, travel, etc - which would be another $3k or so). If his parents won’t help him cover the rest of the costs, UMich is a “no-go.”</p>