My kid wants to do Biomedical Engineering and is on a premed track. At UMich BME is 50% a part of Med school. It’s a work hard and play hard kind of school, which is what my kid wanted. And the best part for us was $20k/year they gave in merit scholarship as an oos student.
USC is no doubt a great school and nothing can beat the weather of CA, so it was a tough choice for the kid.
GT is number 2 in BME but is not a fit for my kid.
It’s interesting but lots of families find the constant emails, calls, etc annoying when trying to commit. Also Michigan is Michigan. It really doesn’t have to try so hard to sell itself. Fit and feel is important. Lots of CA students at Michigan. There has to be a big reason for that. 45 majors in the top 10 might have something to do with it. Fun sports? Great Alumni all over the world? Constantly rated best Public college and best place to live in general? I hear you all think the rents are cheap compared to what you pay on CA… Not trying to sell you just pointing out things to consider…
Classrooms like 15:1
Good Luck.
In the Wolverine access is where he can give you access and there are like 10 places to check a box to also send you info like financial aid, newsletters, housing news etc. He just have me the info so I can add the parent info and I found it and did it for his father and me. I basically clicked every tab to find it. To set up a friend account first he added me also on his applicant portal.
I somehow missed that your son committed to UM. Congratulations! Having interacted with you on a few different boards, it’s hard to explain the rooting interest you develop toward ppl. As a UM alumna, I can confidently say your son made the best choice! Mazel!
One thing to add as a parent of a graduating senior. Once you add that friend account etc you get a lot of information. During the pandemic I felt I was well informed of what was going on, on campus. Just weekly things also gave me a sense of community. It’s really a family first atmosphere that people not on the inside don’t understand. They will do anything for an admitted student to make them successful. Seen it first hand but the kid has to want it also…
Michigan has a ton of stuff for admitted students even before they accept. I made a huge spreadsheet of it because my son was deciding between there and UVA and it was driving me crazy trying to keep track of it all. On the applicant portal in the middle section click resources or something like that. I know he had two he could click. One for general and one for engineering. From there they had tons of virtual meetings you could sign up for both live and on demand. Also if you scroll down on the whole applicant portal there was something else. It was a huge help to me because I watched some of the videos. Fortunately I never got around to the UVA because he made his decision much quicker than I expected after doing his own research.
As for USC v Michigan, you should make a pro/con list. If $ is a factor I would do that too. Add in if your kid wants Greek life as that is also expensive and then extra spending money, flights etc. There’s a Michigan 2025 parent page for accepted but not committed parents and one for committed that’s been helpful. My friend has a kid at USC who decided to graduate a year early. He loved it but with covid everything was cancelled, they weren’t allowed on campus and unless you’re a CA resident you can’t even go to the graduation.
Housing is the one real confusing thing with UM but we’ve figured it out after talking to current parents but it’s a common complaint in the fb group. Also complaints about whether classes will be in person or not but as of now half my sons show for sure in person and he doesn’t know what other 2 he’s taking yet to know if they will be in person or not. They’re also offering the vaccine to all students before they go home later this month.
The other thing parents are rushing to book plane tickets home for after finals, the return in January, Thanksgiving and hotel reservations for move in and parent weekend. This is one reason why it would kill me if my son decided to take a spot from a waitlist although I think he’s starting to go further away from that idea as he is starting to connect with kids in some UM group he’s in and was sort of excited about the free t-shirt they get. Lol. I have a feeling we will be attending a lot of Michigan football games.
Thank you - appreciate that! He’s excited. Really hoping they can get a grip on Covid in the state over the next few months but at least he is halfway through his vaccination and remote didn’t really affect him, but I think it’s different for college kids who are forced to be more isolated if things are like this year for freshmen.
But in any case, we will definitely have to get a Michigan flag for our mailbox as our neighbors a few doors down stick their OSU flag out on those game days! 
Oh yes, you are now obligated to represent the Block M!
I live about 45 minutes from Ann Arbor, and I have to say that as much as we are in a current wave, we are also vaccinating like crazy here. All the teacher who chose to do so are fully vaccinated in our district. Michigan is now vaccinating those 16 and up. We are full time F2F in most school districts in SE Mich (an area that includes Ann Arbor and Detroit). So if we can power through this wave, I am hopeful that fall will be mostly open around here.
Now, with President Schlissel being an infection disease doc, he may elect a more conservative route in terms of opening up UM, but the fact they are trying to make some form of a graduation happen gives me hope. And the UM freshman I know are having a much better experience second semester than the first. They are making all of those important connections to other students, and seem to be figuring out remote learning, college style.
Yep there will be some sort of wanted graduation but still virtual in the Big House. My son got his first vaccine at Ford Field on Friday. Ends class on the 20th and just wanted to come home. But his second vaccine is the 30th unless we can find something in Chicago… Fun. Otherwise back to the to Ford Field for 2nd then he would go to the Big House for virtual Graduation… All of our family is in Suburbs of Detroit anyway…
But they let the seniors take their graduation pics in the Big House and should really do this every year. Their awesome. Plus subset have things planned so their trying.
Thank you! I don’t mind the selling points whatsoever.
Well then… What else you need? After affordability to me it’s a slam dunk. Michigan is not just a national brand it’s an international brand. People now know of USC due to the scandal. Sorry but true but it’s a great school. @sushiritto… Have anything to add being from California and having your daughter here?
California has about 1500 undergraduates yearly. Why are they coming here. Sick of the beaches? 
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https://admissions.umich.edu/apply/first-year-applicants/student-profile
Anyone know where one would find a roommate 
I’m sure everyone here is tired and bored of me shilling for Michigan all the time. D21 is staying in CA and heading to San Luis Obispo, so I have one staying at our CA beaches for college. 
USC and Michigan are both big sports schools with 40,000 students. USC does have many more graduate students than Michigan. We have good friends with a kid who graduated USC and now attends USC medical school. She loved it. It’s also more expensive than the OOS cost of Michigan, unless you have merit.
Why would I send my D18 to Michigan, in terms of USC and NOT the UC’s, which is a different discussion?
Sports (Yes, I listed this first 
) - Aside from this one year blip of Pac-12 b-ball teams doing very well in the NCAA tournament, Pac-12 sports aren’t very good. D18 went to Michigan to experience B1G sports. You can walk to the football stadium at Michigan. You cannot do that at USC. USC averages 66,000 fans at football games, which is fantastic. Michigan is #1 in football attendance averaging 111,000 fans.
And who has the #1 ranked recruiting class in b-ball for next year? Michigan. Hockey you say? Michigan had a top ranked team, which was eliminated from the NCAA tournament because of Covid.
Safety - My D has walked back from Blake Transit Terminal (we take the Flyer from DTW to A2) to her apartments over the years at 11 PM-Midnight without any issues. Ann Arbor is a relatively safe town with plenty of amenities surrounding it. I can’t say the same about USC.
Academics - USC has a great academic reputation, but besides top notch business, nursing, kinesiology and engineering programs, Michigan’s LSA offer 45 majors that are Top 10 in the US. So, if you change a major or school at Michigan, you’ll likely find a prestigious major/department.
Housing & Cost of Living - Cheaper and more plentiful in Ann Arbor than Los Angeles.
International Brand - I live in the SF Bay Area and see a lot more Michigan paraphernalia than USC by a wide margin. But Internationally, Michigan is a bigger brand.
QS World Rankings:
Michigan #21
USC #121
Maybe Michigan should send us some gear to send out to people still on the fence… Lol
https://housing.umich.edu/first-year-application-instructions/#roommate-request
There are Facebook groups for Michigan. My kid roomed blind for 3 years and everything was OK also.
Call or email housing for other suggestions.
I’ll point out a negative also, which I discovered during Open House at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo this weekend.
So, Cal Poly, which has an endowment of $200+ Million has free use of the washers and dryers for everyone on campus. Michigan charges freshman for use of their washers and dryers and they have one of the largest endowments in the US at $12.5 Billion. 
Also, parents can eat for free in the dining hall at Cal Poly, so I can live in SLO and not have to pay for food EVER! 
Michigan does “nickel and dime” you, when and where it can and that’s probably why it’s endowment is so large. 
With blind, would there be a survey that goes out? Like I’ve heard that we would be paired based on our likes and dislikes, but I’ve also heard that is completely random.
Also I dont know where to find this “roommate finder” it seems to only be for off campus housing.
Call housing but yes there is a form about likes /dislikes etc. Don’t lie. If your messy let them know etc. Also with roommate finder again call. Maybe it is just off campus housing. Email housing and they should be able to help you.
There’s a roommate finder thing. Someone posted it in the parent group on fb. I sent it to my son but as of now I don’t think he’s even begun to look for a roommate. After talking to some parents last night I’ve come to realize that there are a lot of things that will make kids compatible or not and it’s not just common interests. Every kid thinks differently about covid and mask wearing etc and that is a much bigger deal than I had ever thought of so definitely something that I know I will have to remind my son about when he does begin his search. What he expects and what someone else expects may not align at all.